Confluence
2024

These series of artworks, marked from Stage 1 to Stage 4, are part of my work for Confluence, a curatorial project designed to foster a dynamic and mutally enriching collaboration between artists and art critics. Confluence seeks to explore the interplay and synergy between the creative process and critical discourse, ultimately deepening the understanding of contemporary art. The curatorial project aspires to be a platform where artists and critics converge, creating a space where the creative and analytical worlds collide and merge.

Stage 01
[House of Preserved Moments / Study 01]

In this artwork I wanted to explore themes on sentimentality, nostalgia, and being frozen in a certain moment of time.

Thinking of those, I chose pressed flowers as my main element for this study. I think they represent those said themes, being left and pressed to be frozen in time. With that in mind, I depicted these flowers in the simple and rigid form of a house, a form associated with home -- the simplest form that houses the smallest unit of the society.



House of Preserved Memories 01
Pencil and charcoal on paper
11” x 15”
2024




Scanned pressed flowers as part of conceptual development


Stage 02
[House of Preserved Memories / Study 2]

House of Preserved Memories is a visual representation of time slowed down to a halt to take a moment to appreciate the beauty in time’s passing.

Dried flowers, the primary material for this work, symbolize moments and memories, seemingly frozen in their state. Their being dried implies that at some point, these flowers were also at the peak of their beauty, lush and brimming with life. Yet now, even if time has worked its charm on these flowers, they still have beauty to be appreciated. Its simple gable roof is the most straightforward shape associated with a house -- a fundamental form of architecture where people dwell, rest, and store their belongings. The form symbolizes two things: the house as a starting point where most core memories of people are made and as an actual structure to house those memories.

House of Preserved Memories draws attention to the beauty and appreciation of the passing of things and the gentle characteristic of the sadness that that fact evokes.





House of Preserved Memories II
Dried flowers on wood panel base
20 x 20 x 17.5cm / 45 x 28.5cm (base)
2024



Stage 03
[Untitled / Study 03]

Study 03 mainly explores defining what specific personal context I want to show with my final work. After considering the works from the previous stages, I realized that both works lacked specific personal context. What memories was I trying to preserve in the last artwork, and was there actual preservation?

With the way the curatorial project was structured, I figured Study 03, which was to be presented for the 3rd delibeerations, was a chance to revisit and develop the concept of the previous works, albeit being visually different in translation.

Artwork 03 serves as a timeline identifying spaces and places with a personal connection to myself, which will also serve as a guiding element for the final stage’s work. These spaces mainly represent different points in my life, each panel symbolizing two years of my lifetime. These illustrations were hand drawn from memory, as an inquiry to how much detail I remember about these places; as such, some panels were left out for the years where I connot quickly remember anything of significance.



[Untitled / Study 03]
Colored pencils and charcoal on paper
21” x 30”
2024

Stage 04
[Remembering Houses - 01]

[Remembering Houses - 01] dials in a specific time in my life -- back when we had a house in Tokyo. I think there is some merit to remembering theses moments in life; This house no longer belongs to us, and my parents have moved back to the Philippines a few years ago. 

Personally, this remembering feels like tryign to recall a dream right after waking up from it. Inspired by nostalgia, it felt like this sculpture, or object, was an attempt at remembering these spaces I used to dwell in and simultaneously accepting that some of its details will inevitably be forgotten.




[Remembering Houses - 01]
Dried flowers on plywood base
18” x 18” x 14”
2024



Hello, I’m an architect, designer, illustrator, and visual artist based in Parañaque City, Philippines.

I run my own design practice as Studio Regular Days.

I also currently serve as an instructor at the University of Santo Tomas, teaching architectural design and visual techniques at the College of Architecture.

Drawing inspiration from my experiences, influences, and background in architecture, I create varied works that tend to center on capturing the ambiance and subtleties in a moment and in a space, often translated through imagemaking, storytelling, and archiving.

RD Daniel


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Please contact me for inquries, architecture and design projects, illustration commissions, print sales, collaborations, or if you just want to say hello. 

Send me an email or connect with me through Instagram.

Email: ar.rddaniel (@) gmail (dot) com
Such is life