Oh see dobol used 1994

Alwin Reamillo resisted the conformity of formal art education and did not complete his bachelor of fine arts, choosing instead to work in graphic design, theatre production and experimental film throughout the 1980s. Having participated in the Artist Regional Exchange (ARX) project in Perth in 1992, Reamillo migrated to Australia in 1995. His diverse cultural experiences feed into his artistic work, which is marked by a collision of images and found objects from popular culture.

These four works (Oh see dobol used, Cora Cora, P.I. and Victory) satirise the history of Spanish, American and Japanese colonisation in the Philippines. The ubiquitous Mickey Mouse representing United States imperialism; banknotes from the Philippines and Japan; scraps of text in English and a Filipino dialect; an engraving of a Spanish galleon; a diagram of a heart; and Catholic deities, jockey for space in these large collage drawings. Using his skills as a graphic designer, Reamillo has organised these hybridised entities into intricately poised, witty and instructive images of colonial experience.