Kiri Dalena and I share a struggle: navigating the art world as a mother. The disruptions of a child jumping on the bed and sounds of tinkling laughter came from both ends of our Zoom interview. This was perhaps an apt background for our discussion, given Dalena’s art-making practice and activism are centered on human rights and labor conditions, as well as the challenges and plausible panacea to the ongoing pandemic.
Dalena was born in Manila in 1975, during the Marcos dictatorship. With a family of artists, she purposely chose a non-art major, and graduated from the University of the Philippines Los Baños in 1993 with a degree in human ecology. Yet her keen awareness of Filipino struggles brought her back to the arts and into the frontlines. It started with her taking on the role of a
