It began before I had the words to describe myself. My earliest memories are of sunlight. Of wind, moss, mangoes, bare feet on smooth stone, lustre of capiz, cracks in the mortar, the song of birds. These pure experiences span Rizal and California, but I am not sure exactly which were where. 

As I lost my mother tongue and learned words like immigrant, taciturn, and queer, I understood that I exist in between. In the distance between social, cultural, religious, and interpersonal structures and the primal longing of my inner self. The distance grew as I favored plants over playmates, was drawn to the trinity of clavicles and larynxes, and chose invisibility and silence over being recognized as Other. I began building my shell.

Ma understood my isolation. She told me stories of our home, of swimming in waterfalls and orchids dripping off trees. We spent a lot of time by the water. The coast felt familiar, a place between two worlds. And it was the closest I could stand to our home somewhere beyond the horizon, at the edge of my memory. A home as far as the sun and stars of our flag.

I grew into my Otherness, found strength in it. I continued to find belonging in the flora, fauna, forces, and phenomena of nature. I practiced landscape architecture to connect people with their environment. But I also continued building my shield; I created versions of myself in the image of the expected, emissaries to the everyday world.

Now I create to bring myself to the surface, to return to that early place in the sun.

~

Lawrence Cuevas (b. Rizal, Philippines) is a sculptor based in San Francisco, California.

His work embodies his experiences with Otherness across place and time. He is interested in the way natural, constructed, and social environments inspire selfhood and build belonging within real, imagined, and ever-changing worlds.

Observation, animism, craft, mystery, and corporeal joy are central to his practice. Lawrence positions introspection, desire, attunement, and awe side by side in the tactile present; he seeks to meet viewers in the moment, with an invitation to take a step outside of themselves and explore the roots and possibilities of their own longing.

Contact me.

lpcuevas@gmail.com