Artist Talk with Bella Kiser
Opening August 15 in Project Space, “BALIKBAYAN Box” by Bella Kiser is an intimate installation about family and the things we carry with us across distance.
A balikbayan box is a care package sent home to the Philippines by Filipinos living abroad. For Kiser, these boxes held everything from work clothes and yellowing books to art supplies, rice, bibles, and whatever her family might want or need. In this exhibition, the box becomes a way of thinking about what we inherit from our loved ones and what we carry forward.
The installation centers on four photographs documenting the last physical skill Kiser learned from her Lola passed away: how to gut, descale, and cook a whole fish. Alongside fiber, sound, and interactive sculpture, “Balikbayan Box” creates a space where family histories, cultural connection, loss, and care come together.
Visitors are invited to take their shoes off, lie on the large balikbayan box, listen to soundscape, and interact with smaller boxes throughout the installation.
Join us on Saturday, August 15, from 12 – 1 PM for an artist talk at Krasl with Bella Kiser.
