Jaclyn Reyes
ARTIST, RESEARCHER,
& CULTURAL ORGANIZER
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Worn Worlds
The exhibition will open on August 23, 2025, at the Meranaw Cultural Center in Marawi, Philippines.
Worn Worlds explores the cultural, material, and emotional lives of secondhand clothing and cast-off goods through the lens of ukay-ukay—the vibrant informal market in the Philippines where imported used clothing is resold, reimagined, and refashioned. Featuring works from the UKAI (Unearthing Knowledge, Arts and Interdependence) Initiative, the exhibition highlights how everyday materials discarded by the Global North take on new significance in the hands of artists, communities, and cultural workers.
Through installations, textiles, and community-rooted practices, the exhibition surfaces questions of global consumption, environmental injustice, and diasporic memory. It invites viewers to consider how repair, reuse, and reinvention become acts of cultural resilience and resistance in the face of waste colonialism.
The exhibition includes the works of artists Marion Aguas, Rennel Lavilla, Cecilia Lim, Abby Manwiller, Maricela Islas-Hall, Ryan Phillips, Gisella Zuniga, Glenn Philip Martinez Aquino, and Eyecan Creatives, as well as the efforts of cultural workers Marika Constantino, Kris Viel Cañete, Christina Cañete, Princess Casas, Tsering Llama, Ashlee Barker, Alice Dugan, and more.
This show is curated by Ezra Undag and Jaclyn Reyes, in collaboration with Sorhaila "Sor" Latip-Yusoph, PhD.
This project is made possible through the support of the Radical Imagination for Racial Justice (RIRJ) initiative, formerly administered by Hester Street, with funding from the Surdna Foundation, and Belkin and Weiss-Rubenfeld Foundation.