Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
A FEW days ago, I attended “Disc.cussion,” an exhibition organized by Filipino artist Elmer Borlongan and featuring the works of several contemporary artists who use discarded compact discs as matrices for drypoint printmaking. As someone who belongs to the generation that grew up with CDs, I could not help but feel a sense of nostalgia. There was a time when compact discs represented the future. They stored our music, photographs, documents and memories. Today, many of them sit forgotten in drawers and storage boxes, rendered obsolete by newer technologies.
Yet walking through the exhibition, I realized that obsolescence is not necessarily the end of a thing’s story. Sometimes it is the beginning of another. The exhibition invites viewers to see compact discs differently. Instead of treating them as technological relics, the artists transform them into instruments of artistic expression. Objects once associated with digital storage become vehicles of creativity and imagination. As I reflected on the exhibition, I found myself returning to a question that has occupied linguists for generations: What exactly is language?
Most people think of language as words. This is understandable. We speak, write, read and listen through language. Yet linguists have long recognized that human communication extends far beyond words themselves. The field of semiotics, the study of signs and meanings, reminds us that people communicate in many ways. A smile communicates happiness. A national flag communicates identity. Smoke communicates the presence of fire. Human beings are constantly creating and interpreting signs. In this sense, language is only one among many systems through which people make meaning.
Art is another. This perhaps explains why some paintings continue to speak to us long after we have left the gallery. We do not simply see them. We interpret them. We assign meanings to them. We carry them with us.
Among contemporary Filipino artists, few possess this communicative power as strongly as Elmer Borlongan. Throughout his career, he has painted the lives of ordinary people with extraordinary sensitivity. His canvases are populated by workers, families, migrants, street dwellers and members of urban communities whose stories are often overlooked. Yet Elmer Borlongan does not merely depict people; he invites viewers to reflect on the conditions that shape their lives. His paintings frequently explore themes of labor, poverty, mobility, belonging, resilience and aspiration. In doing so, they become not only works of art but also reflections on the social realities of contemporary Philippine life.
Many would identify “Pag-Ahon” as one of Elmer Borlongan’s most iconic works. The painting depicts a group of figures pulling a vessel forward. At one level, it is a simple scene of labor. Yet few viewers stop there. Some see perseverance. Others see solidarity. Still others see the Filipino capacity to endure hardship while moving toward a better future. The painting communicates without uttering a single word. It demonstrates that meaning does not belong exclusively to language.
What makes Elmer Borlongan’s work remarkable is precisely this ability to transform ordinary scenes into reflections on larger human realities. His paintings are populated not by heroes and celebrities but by ordinary people whose lives, struggles and aspirations become worthy of attention. Perhaps for this reason, the Borlongan works that speak most deeply to me are not necessarily his most famous ones. As a scholar whose work has focused on migration, mobility, language and belonging, I have always been drawn to his “Refugee” and “Domestic Helper.” The first presents a crowded vessel filled with faces. The image immediately evokes movement, uncertainty and displacement. One does not need an accompanying explanation to understand that the painting speaks about people searching for safety, security and belonging. In a world where millions continue to be displaced by conflict, poverty, environmental crises and political instability, the work feels painfully relevant. “Domestic Helper” speaks to another reality familiar to many Filipinos. The painting depicts two women seated together in silence. Yet beneath that silence lies an entire story. Many viewers will immediately think of overseas Filipino workers and the sacrifices that migration often demands. Behind remittances, economic opportunities and success stories are experiences of separation, loneliness, resilience and longing.
What fascinates me about both paintings is that they communicate ideas that are central to migration studies without relying on the language of scholarship. As academics, we often speak of transnationalism, mobility, integration, displacement and belonging. Borlongan speaks of the same themes through images. The medium is different. The message is not. This, perhaps, is why art and language are not as different as we often imagine. Both are ultimately concerned with meaning. Both seek to make sense of human experience. Both enable us to communicate things that might otherwise remain difficult to express.
The artists of “Disc.cussion” understand this well. By transforming discarded compact discs into works of art, they remind us that meaning is never fixed. Objects acquire new meanings. Symbols acquire new meanings. Even words acquire new meanings. Human beings continually reinterpret the world around them. A compact disc that once stored information becomes a canvas. A forgotten object becomes a work of art.
In much the same way, language itself is constantly being reinvented. New words emerge. Old words acquire new meanings. Expressions travel across generations and cultures. Like art, language survives because human beings continue to find new ways of using it. Perhaps this is the lesson I took away from the exhibition. Meaning does not reside in objects themselves. Meaning resides in what human beings do with them. Whether through language or through art, we are constantly engaged in the same activity: transforming experience into meaning and sharing that meaning with others.
“Disc.cussion,” featuring works by 17 contemporary Filipino artists, including Elmer Borlongan, runs until July 18, 2026. For those interested in art, communication, memory and creativity, it is well worth a visit. More importantly, it is a reminder that even the most ordinary objects — and perhaps even the most ordinary lives — can become sources of meaning when viewed through a different lens.
Ariane Macalinga Borlongan is a public intellectual, language scholar and migrant advocate. He is one of the leading researchers on English in the Philippines and one of the pioneers of migration linguistics. He is the youngest to earn a doctorate in linguistics, at age 23, from De La Salle University, and has had several teaching and research positions in Germany, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland and Singapore. He is currently associate professor of sociolinguistics at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.