Aquarium emerged from an enduring impulse to interrogate the intersections of self, symbolism, and society through a visual language rooted in illustrated analogy and suggestive representation. Conceived as an allegorical body of work, it draws from the complexities of the human condition—a simultaneously isolating and collective experience—rendered through images that echo the critical function of editorial cartoons. Yet, while similarly responsive to the political climate, extreme events, and contemporary discourse, Aquarium resists the ephemerality of satire. Instead, it embodies a meditative, iterative process akin to daily journaling or the intuitive act of mark-making. Fundamentally, the work acknowledges that language—whether verbal or visual—is constructed from systems of signs, symbols, and semantic structures. These elements serve not only as communicative devices but also as cultural artifacts that carry accumulated meaning. In this way, the aquarium becomes a layered metaphor: a vessel representing both the macrocosm of the world and the microcosm of the self. It frames time, particularly the temporality of Enhanced Community Quarantine, as both a personal narrative and a collective moment suspended in observation.

This duality, or what may be termed binary opposition, became central to the development of the work. The motifs of isolation and community (through the ecology of its subjects), inside and outside (as explored through the gaze between artist and viewer), and truth versus tale (in the slippage between generalization and abstraction) are continually at play. Through drawing untethered from linear syntax, meaning arises organically—suggesting that meaning itself is not imposed, but rather, cultivated through the relationality of signs. In this sense, Aquarium posits a quiet hypothesis: that a work of art, much like a work of nature, is an evolving ecosystem of perception, interpretation, and context. It invites the viewer to navigate its symbolic terrain not for resolution, but for resonance.

WRITTEN By Katarina Ortiz