Michelle Angelica Cabildo
Fellow
Mica Cabildo (*1986; based in Metro Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino visual artist and graphic designer. She studied advertising, trained in printmaking, played bass guitar in a shoegaze band, and worked as an art director in a visual communications agency for 8 years. Since 2014, she has been exploring themes of disaster, tropicality and adaptation with scientists and indigenous communities through artist residencies, field excursions, and ethnographic immersion. Her works span site-specific installations, alternative photographic processes, graphic printmaking, audio productions, and creative technologies like AR, VR, and web-based digital storytelling.
Mica Cabildo’s recent projects tackle urgent Philippine ecological concerns with planetary impacts: the evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) Philippine “monkey-eating” eagle; impacts of maritime cooperation and disputes on marine ecosystems; indigenous forest guards and urban encroachment on tropical rainforests; and the 1991 Pinatubo eruption and its global cooling effects.
- 2027 – Artistic Research Fellowship. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC/USA (remote, upcoming). Project: “Unidentified Tropical Event: Weather Magic, Nature Control, and Climate Forcing in the Little Ice Age”.
- 2026 – Planetary Transitions Fellowship. DAAD / RIFS at GFZ / City of Potsdam. Project: “We Shall Meet at the Mouth of the Volcano”.
- 2025 – Gwaertler Grant. Gwaertler Stiftung, Basel/CH (remote). Project: “Solar Geoengineering Archive 1991/2025/2059” with Ivar Veermäe.
- 2025 – CULTURHUB Extra Live! Online Residency. Virtual Art House, Turku/FI (remote). Work developed and exhibited: “Guardians of Cloud and Moss” (3d objects) with Curtis Cresswell.
- 2024 – ESC Projects Grant. 98B COLLABoratory, Manila/PH. Works developed and exhibited: “Field notes from a mossy forest” (installation, video and augmented reality) with Curtis Cresswell.
- 2024 – UK-East Asia Connections Through Culture Grant. British Council Philippines, Wales/UK and Davao-Manila/PH. Project: “The Possibility of Forests” (artist residency, rainforest fieldwork and community immersion) with Curtis Cresswell.
- 2024 – Re-PAIR: Ocean, Pier-2 Artist-in-Residence. Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung/TW. Work developed and exhibited: “1XN°, 11XE°” (prints and installation) and “Coral Island” (children’s workshop).
- 2023 – Leaky Archive Digital Fellowship, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum and Academy of Media Arts Cologne (remote). Project: “Decoy Pigeon” (provenace research on Philippine material culture) with Curtis Cresswell.
- 2022–2023 – Web Residencies No 13: Magical Hackerism or the Elasticity of Resilience. Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart and SAVVY Contemporary Berlin (remote). Project: “Cloudrunner: The Pinatubo Field Guide to Solar Geoengineering” with JM Quiblat.
- 2021–2022 – Cultural and Artistic Responses to Environmental Change. Prince Claus Fund and Goethe-Institut (remote). Work developed and presented: “Whitehead’s Ark” (web-based VR experience) with Artblox Asia, Tof Zapanta and Peavey Nicolas.
- 2020 – International Residency for Philippine Artist. Gasworks, London/UK. Project: “Whitehead’s Ark”.
- 2019 – trans_2018-2019 Residence Support Program. Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Yamaguchi/JP. Works developed and exhibited: “Rafts”, "Water Clock" and “Bat Dreams” (installations, video, audio).
- 2018/2019 – Fellowship for Visual Arts. Otte 1 Künstlerhaus Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein/DE. Works developed and exhibited: “Doublegoer/Floodradio” (audio), “Room Filling up With Water” (installation) and “Tropical Gothic” (prints).
- 2018 – Artist-in-School, Winter Program. Sapporo Tenjinyama Art Studio and Sumikawa-Minami Primary School, Hokkaido/JP. Work developed and exhibited: “Fountain Studies” (gallery and community installations).
- 2014/2015 – Fellowship for Design. Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart/DE. Work developed and exhibited: “house|cards” (prints, installation) with Stephanie Choi.
- Cultures of disaster and co-volcanic societies
- Extreme weather events, disaster risk reduction and civil defense
- Indigenous forest guards and culture-based conservation
- Impacts of maritime conflict and cooperation on marine ecosystems
- Island evolution, biodiversity and endemism