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Josephine Turalba

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:958px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783066625517Josephine Turalba at Art Basel Hong Kong.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner"><em>Filipino artist Josephine Turalba at Art Basel Hong Kong</em></span></span></span>For Filipino artist <a href="https://www.instagram.com/josephineturalba/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Josephine Turalba</a>, the sea is more than a backdrop for geopolitical debate. It is a living ecosystem, home to creatures whose stories are rarely considered when conversations focus solely on territory, ownership, and power.<br/><br/>After presenting her latest works at Art Basel Hong Kong, Turalba spoke exclusively with ABS-CBN Lifestyle about the ideas behind her practice and the role art can play in helping audiences see familiar issues through a different lens.<br/><br/><strong>Reimagining the West Philippine Sea</strong><br/><br/>Turalba’s recent work explores power, borders, ownership, and control through marine life and imagined underwater worlds. Rather than approaching the West Philippine Sea through politics alone, she wanted to create space for another perspective.<br/><br/>“I have been following the long-standing tensions in the West Philippine Sea for more than a decade, and at some point it becomes emotionally and intellectually exhausting to keep decoding what these tensions mean for us as a nation. The issue is so often framed through ownership, legality, territory, and power, which are of course important, but that language can also become very fatiguing. It can turn the sea into an argument, when it is also a living world.”<br/><br/>Instead of centering governments and borders, Turalba turned her attention to the creatures that inhabit these waters.</div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783068896379Josephine Turalba 4.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:685px"/>“In my work, I wanted to shift the perspective. By focusing on marine life and hybrid sea creatures, I am able to decentralize geopolitics and move away from the question of who is right, who owns what, or who controls the waters. Instead, I ask: what about the creatures that actually inhabit these spaces? How might they interpret the structures, tensions, and movements passing through their environment?”<br/><br/>She adds, “That shift opens up something more playful, imaginative, and layered. The hybrid creatures allow me to approach a subject that has almost become a sore spot in a different light. They create space for wonder, humor, adaptation, and reflection. Through them, the West Philippine Sea becomes not only a contested space, but a living, changing environment filled with other forms of intelligence and response.”</div><p><a class="fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/people-culture-events/2026/7/3/a-filipina-takes-on-norina-karlene-moreno-hayworth-steps-into-one-of-opera-s-most-iconic-roles-1214" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: A Filipina takes on Norina: Karlene Moreno-Hayworth steps into one of opera&#x27;s most iconic roles</a><br/><br/><strong>The role of art in a complex world<br/></strong><br/>While Turalba’s work addresses themes including authority, territory, ownership, environmental concerns, and geopolitical power, it also invites viewers in through beauty and fragility.<br/><br/>When asked if she believes that art has the power to to shift how people think or feel about the systems shaping our world today, she says: “Yes, I do. I believe art can shift perception by creating a space where people can feel complexity in a more human and intimate way. Art does not always need to give answers. Oftentimes its power is in opening up another way of seeing.”</p><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783068962620Josephine Turalba 2.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:740px"/>“The systems that shape our world can feel very large: territory, power, ownership, environment, technology, governments. Through art, these ideas can become material, emotional, and accessible. They can be encountered through color, texture, movement, image, and atmosphere.”<br/><br/>She elaborates, “Beauty is important in my work because it invites people to enter an otherwise complex arena. Fragility is also important because it reminds us to look more carefully. I want the work to hold wonder and reflection at the same time. For me, art can make us more attentive to what we value, what we protect, and how we imagine living together with other forms of life.”<br id="isPasted"/><strong><br/>A practice without boundaries</strong><br/><br/>Turalba’s career spans art, photography, diving, design, and academia. Rather than separating these disciplines, she embraces the ways they continually inform one another.<br/><br/>“Moving across art, photography, diving, design, and academia has given me a kind of expanded toolkit. I don’t feel confined to one medium or one way of thinking. The studio becomes almost like a sandbox where different materials, images, memories, research, and processes can be tested against each other.”<br/><br/>“This flexibility is very important to my work. Sometimes an idea begins as an underwater encounter, sometimes as a photograph, a myth, a political condition, a material experiment, or a line of research. I don’t always know immediately what form it will take. It might become a painting, a stitched object, a tapestry, a video, a performance, or an installation. Moving across disciplines and various mediums allows the concept to find the form it needs.”</div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783068925381Josephine Turalba 1.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:806px"/>That openness extends to the way she approaches storytelling itself.<br/><br/>“I think this freedom has opened up many ways of seeing how an idea can come to life. It allows me to approach a subject from different directions: visually, materially, intellectually, and bodily. The work is not limited by medium. Instead, the medium becomes part of the thinking.”<br/><br/>Ultimately, for Turalba, storytelling is as much about discovery as it is about communication.<br/><br/>“For me, storytelling happens through that movement. It is not only about representing an idea, but about discovering how materials, processes, and forms can carry meaning. That is where the work becomes alive.”</div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/people-culture-events/2026/6/17/beyond-translation-why-filipino-stories-are-finding-global-readers-1504" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Beyond translation: Why Filipino stories are finding global readers</a></div><div><strong>A meaningful recognition</strong></div><p>Turalba was also shortlisted for The Sovereign Asian Art Prize as the only Filipina female artist nominated this year. We asked what that recognition meant to her personally, especially after years of steadily building your practice across international exhibitions and biennales.</p><p>She shares that it was particularly meaningful, especially because she has built her practice over many years, often across different roles and different countries. She explains, &quot;I have worked as an artist, educator, researcher, and collaborator, and the work has moved through many forms: performance, installation, video, tapestry, photography, and painting. So this recognition felt like an affirmation of a long and steady practice. Being the only Filipina female artist shortlisted this year also made me think about visibility.&quot;</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:716.992px;display:block" width="716.992"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783069054800Josephine Turalba 3.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="716.992" style="width:716.992px"/><span class="fr-inner">Image Caption</span></span></span></div><p>Turalba reflects on being grateful for the recognition, but she also sees it as part of a larger conversation about Filipino and Southeast Asian artists being<br/>seen with more depth. </p><p>She concludes, &quot;Our stories are not peripheral. They come from places of complexity, pressure, imagination, and strength. Personally, it felt like a moment to pause and acknowledge the journey. Many of the concerns in my work, especially around the sea, vulnerability, power, and survival, come from very specific experiences of being from the Philippines. To have those concerns resonate in a wider Asian context is very affirming. It reminds me that the work can travel, but it still carries where it comes from.&quot;</p>

<p>After Art Basel Hong Kong, Josephine Turalba sits down for an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN Lifestyle to discuss the ideas behind her latest body of work, why beauty matters in political conversations, and how art, diving, photography, design, and academia continue to shape her creative practice</p>

After Art Basel Hong Kong, Josephine Turalba sits down for an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN Lifestyle to discuss the ideas behind her latest body of work, why beauty matters in political conversations, and how art, diving, photography, design, and academia continue to shape her creative practice

Josephine Turalba on the West Philippine Sea and the power of art as storytelling

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Josephine Turalba on the West Philippine Sea and the power of art as storytelling

Mawi Fojas De Ocampo

Published July 03, 2026 05:02 PM PHT

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Updated July 03, 2026 05:09 PM PHT

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Josephine Turalba

Art Basel Hong Kong

Filipino Artist

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