Tapok-tapok
In Tapok-tapok, the artist assembles an installation of everyday household objects drawn from personal experience and from materials widely recognizable within shared domestic life. The arrangement recalls the sorting areas found in modest homes—informal spaces where belongings accumulate in quiet suspension, neither fully kept nor immediately discarded. By translating this familiar domestic scene into the gallery, the artist invites viewers to reconsider how value is assigned to the ordinary.
TAPOK-TAPOK by Roy Ingente
Gold leaf and acrylic paint on found objects
2024 - 2026
The gathered objects—worn, outdated, or functionally obsolete—are not presented as debris but as carriers of lived history. Their significance lies in their prior use, the labor they supported, the cost once invested in them, and the memories they continue to hold. Removed from their original context and re-situated within an exhibition space, these materials challenge conventional distinctions between the disposable and the meaningful. The work suggests that worth is not fixed by market value or utility alone, but shaped by attachment, memory, and survival.
At its core, Tapok-tapok reflects on the fragility of home. The installation foregrounds the quiet dignity embedded in humble domestic objects—items that often endure long after their intended function has faded. Through accumulation, the work evokes both presence and absence: the persistence of memory alongside the reality of loss.
The installation also stands as a subtle yet pointed homage to displaced informal homeowners whose dwellings and livelihoods have been compromised by rapid urban development, socio-economic inequities, and environmental or human-made disasters. In gathering what might otherwise be cast aside, the artist gestures toward resilience—the act of holding on, even when circumstances demand letting go.
Importantly, Tapok-tapok is not a fixed composition but an evolving framework. Each iteration responds to its site and context, allowing the installation to shift in material and form. It was first presented at the 2024 Cebu Tops Art Fest, later reconfigured for the 2025 Tubo Cebu Art Fair at Atua MidTown Cebu, and is currently installed at Joya Gallery as part of the UP-Cebu FASO Alumni Homecoming Exhibition. With each reconfiguration, the work continues to examine how material remnants of daily life bear witness to continuity, displacement, and the enduring search for home.