Advocacy and artistry combine in this unique collection of mixed media artwork depicting Iloilo’s built heritage.

Iglesia features the work of Ilonggo artist Cristhom Selibio Setubal who uses found and disposed objects to recreate the likeness of Iloilo heritage churches. Through waste materials like aluminum sheets, espresso pods, computer parts, beads, chicken wire, and copper wire, he creatively highlights details of these well-loved structures.

Setubal’s process of transforming waste into art is called upcycling, in which newly-created objects become more economically and socially valuable than their original form.

The influence of Spanish colonial architecture remains evident in churches and cemeteries that demonstrate traditional construction methods, with intricate details on the façade, walls, floor, ceilings, and windows of churches reflecting Filipino artistry during the Spanish colonial period. 

Cristhom “Dodoy” Selibio Setubal is a retired seafarer, a teacher, an artist, and a family man. In 2016, he started sketching Iloilo’s built heritage in pen and ink, which the Museum of Philippine Economic History exhibited in 2019.

He experimented with scrap materials to recreate Iloilo’s most iconic Spanish structures, enabling him to advocate for heritage appreciation and sustainable art. 

The San Joaquin Camposanto, the first of his 14 works in this mixed media series, is a tribute to his late father, with whom he shared a passion and love for antiques.

Setubal’s art journey is a product of his love for antiques, then later expanded to arts, photography, history, and art sustainability. Now a part-time maritime school teacher, he is an artist-advocate for history, culture, and heritage. He influenced his daughter to paint and showed his community how to turn scraps and waste materials into art.

View the exhibition at the atrium of National Museum Western Visayas.