Marigold Santos is a storyteller. Informed by her own personal narrative of diaspora, Santos explores her hybrid Filipinx-Canadian identity, and the landscapes of her memories through paint and tattoos. A central theme in Santos\u2019s work is the story of the asuang<\/em>, a mythological creature from Philippine folklore. Once a powerful medicine woman, and matriarchal figure in Indigenous tribal societies, the asuang<\/em> was demonized by Spanish colonizers. She became a wild sorceress who could self-fragment and disappear into the night. With a nod to the hardening experience of immigration and the subsequent feeling of existing in two places at once, the asuang has become Santos\u2019s main protagonist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fluid shroud (rosal in strata)<\/em>, a painting from 2020, is a hauntingly beautiful tale of fear, hope, survival, and recovery. Suspended and unhinged, the dismembered hand of the asuang<\/em> is empty and aged, blackened with time, and wilting for lack of bone and muscle. White gardenias sprout from the inky mass like elegant fingers, tendrils of hope, leaving the trace of a sweet scent. The flowers offer a sensorial memory of a place that once was, filled with stories of a partially forgotten past. The asuang<\/em>\u2019s hand appears again in Santos\u2019s tattoo works, such as Ink Gathering (1)<\/em> (2020), its melting and monstrous form transformed into a delicately disturbing portrayal of insects as fingers. Tattooing allows Santos to extend imagery from past narratives to strangers, who provide a skin on which these ideas continue to evolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The asuang<\/em> also embodies landscape, as in clarity of slow awakening, unveiling<\/em> (2020), ever-present in the striations of eroded rock, in the liminal spaces of a porous and hardened surface, defiant and resilient despite its fragmented form. In the end, Santos has rewritten the asuang<\/em>\u2019s nightmarish story and pays homage to its roots, subverting the pain and loss suffered due to the forced transformation of identity. There is power in these stories and imagined landscapes, and strength that lies beneath the layered surfaces. There is truth and courage, and the possibility of being overcome by the intoxicating fragrance of a flower that may begin to grow from deep within the least expected place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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