Balikbayan /Returning Home
19 March 2025 – 5 April 2025
Curatorial+Co, Sydney, Australia
Balikbayan / Returning Home is Chloe Caday’s second solo exhibition with Curatorial+Co. Drawing from her own personal experiences of migration and motherhood, Caday’s exhibition is centered around the Tagalog word, balikbayan, a common term that signifies connection, culture and identity in Filipino communities all over the globe. As a first-generation immigrant, Caday examines the conceptual notion of ‘returning home’, both in the sense of returning to her roots and her country of birth, and as well as returning to her own body and mind following the recent birth of her second child. In this exhibition, Caday uses the term to surrender to the cycles of evolution and examine the recurring concepts of heritage, environment, and motherhood in the journey of returning.
The word balikbayan has become an enduring symbol of the Filipino diaspora. It acknowledges the journeys of migration and the shared feeling of being in between two places. For Caday, this floating sense of home is more alienating than not, particularly in her early years where integration and assimilation was a way of being accepted in her community. Of this Caday says:
“Growing up in a Western country, I would often question the world around me and how my perceptions and opinions often differed from others. From a young age, I moved around a lot, both in the Philippines and in Australia, so I never had this fixed sense of home. Home was always where I felt (emotionally) grounded – and nature had this alluring way of doing that. Spending time in nature and connecting with the landscape was my antedote which would alleviate the ‘alien’ feeling inside.”
In this exhibition, Caday explores the creation of her identity and perceptions when the two cultures unite and how her displacement of Filipino heritage has affected her identity, particularly as a mother raising her children in the Victorian bushland. Caday’s experience of motherhood has opened conversations and insights into the offerings and teachings passed down from her lineage, connecting her experiences of migration to her more recent experiences of motherhood. Balikbayan / Returning Home journeys through these experiences of transformation, from migrant to mother, and the importance of staying connected to the land during these periods of evolution.
In each of the works, Caday tells stories of her deep connection to home – exploring the different landscapes that have shaped and defined her maternal identity. The works are a physical manifestation of Caday’s deep desire to remain connected to her homeland and the myriad experiences of hardship and persistence that she endures.
In Filipino folklore, the takay flower signifies the incredible daily cycle of life, death, and spiritual rebirth. It has been a recurring motif throughout my works as it’s a visual representation of the journey of returning to my roots, to motherhood and my body.
Since birth, I’ve been teaching my children about their Filipino culture so they stay connected to their heritage. When my three-year-old son sees my paintings, he will excitedly point out elements that he remembers from our trips back to the Philippines. He sees things like local fruits or the bahay kubo (nipa hut) and remembers his empirical experiences. This is also true of the ‘Australian’ elements in my work, like the eucalyptus or wattle trees that surround our house. I’ll catch him staring at the paintings, mapping out where our home is amongst the painted bushlands.
