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Derek Tumala
할로할로 (뒤섞임) Halo-Halo (Blending) | 2023 | 3’44”
Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila
Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila
Synopsis
Circular movement becomes a structure through which formation and dissolution unfold. The work gestures toward cycles that shape both nature and culture: typhoons spiralling across oceans, mechanical rotation, and the hydrological processes through which water evaporates, condenses, and falls again as rain. Within the atmosphere, particles gather and drift until clouds release their accumulated weight. It also draws on the Filipino concept of halo-halo, literally “mix-mix,” the beloved dessert composed of layered ingredients stirred into a single whole. This idea of mixture becomes a metaphor for how images, memories, and emotions circulate within visual culture. Fragments converge, disperse, and recombine like droplets within a cloud. Through this process of condensation and release, histories and sensations move through the air before settling once more.
About the artist
Derek Tumala (Manila; lives and works in Manila, Philippines) is an artist working with emerging technologies, moving image, and interdisciplinary media to explore ecological world-making. His practice investigates the relationship between art and science, focusing on systems of interconnectedness, environmental perception, and convivial relations between human and non-human worlds. Tumala graduated from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Advertising Arts. His work has been presented internationally, including at the 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts (2025), Biennale Jogja 17, the World Weather Network, the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila. He has undertaken residencies and fellowships at the Delfina Foundation, London, the Manila Observatory Artist-in-Residence program, the Apexart Fellowship in New York, and the 10x10 Korea Research Fellowship. Tumala is a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Award (2025) and was named one of ArtReview’s Future Greats (2024).