DORF presents "Infernal Rebirth into Hell: Illusions and Realities," a solo exhibition by inaugural DORF Fellowship in Professional Practice artist Intel Lastierre that reimagines Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as a lens into the complex, often painful journey of Filipino immigrants pursuing the American Dream.
Through large-scale paintings, sculptures, and immersive installations, Lastierre explores this paradoxical descent, revealing how dreams of opportunity are often met with persistent structures of poverty, labor exploitation, racial discrimination, and inequality.
At the heart of the exhibition is "Balikbayan: Boxes of Longing," a monumental installation of sixteen stacked balikbayan boxes - containers traditionally used by overseas Filipino workers to send goods home to their families.
Inspired by Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa, the work becomes a powerful collective portrait of diaspora, survival, and the entrapment of immigrant lives within global systems of capitalism, migration, and displacement.
"Infernal Rebirth into Hell" also examines the dual role of resilience in Filipino culture. While resilience has sustained survival, it can also suppress resistance and uphold the very systems that cause suffering. Rather than offering easy answers, the exhibition raises urgent questions: What illusions have we mistaken for truth? Whose dreams are celebrated, and whose pain is overlooked? What kind of future are we creating together?
Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display until January 31, 2026.
DORF presents "Infernal Rebirth into Hell: Illusions and Realities," a solo exhibition by inaugural DORF Fellowship in Professional Practice artist Intel Lastierre that reimagines Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as a lens into the complex, often painful journey of Filipino immigrants pursuing the American Dream.
Through large-scale paintings, sculptures, and immersive installations, Lastierre explores this paradoxical descent, revealing how dreams of opportunity are often met with persistent structures of poverty, labor exploitation, racial discrimination, and inequality.
At the heart of the exhibition is "Balikbayan: Boxes of Longing," a monumental installation of sixteen stacked balikbayan boxes - containers traditionally used by overseas Filipino workers to send goods home to their families.
Inspired by Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa, the work becomes a powerful collective portrait of diaspora, survival, and the entrapment of immigrant lives within global systems of capitalism, migration, and displacement.
"Infernal Rebirth into Hell" also examines the dual role of resilience in Filipino culture. While resilience has sustained survival, it can also suppress resistance and uphold the very systems that cause suffering. Rather than offering easy answers, the exhibition raises urgent questions: What illusions have we mistaken for truth? Whose dreams are celebrated, and whose pain is overlooked? What kind of future are we creating together?
Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display until January 31, 2026.
WHEN
WHERE
TICKET INFO
Admission is free.
