Artist-in-Residence
Norberto Roldan
Charleston, SC | Spring 2025
Norberto Roldan (b. 1953) is widely considered to be among the foremost artists currently working in the Philippines. Throughout his career, he has fashioned artworks through a process of collage and assemblage, creating new and evocative meanings through layering and juxtaposing texts, images, and objects. In 2014 Roldan began producing a series of sculptural assemblages that resemble altars. The early works comprised various objects purposefully arranged within long open-sided wooden boxes. The boxes were stacked in a stepped pyramidal shape intended to recall the sacred ziggurat monuments of ancient Mesopotamia.
The forms of Roldan’s altars have since become quite varied—employing found furniture for their structure, for instance. Yet the artist continues to ground them within a philosophy of spiritual aspiration, a reaching toward the divine that was once exemplified in the towering monuments of the world’s earliest civilizations. Against such aspirations, Roldan presents the complex realities of contemporary lived existence. The disparate objects on his altars, many of them found or discarded, have included architectural debris, furnishings, textiles, photographs, postcards, religious icons, ritual vessels, decorative items, and utilitarian wares. Through their careful selection and placement, these objects become queries: What do we hold as sacred and what do we consider profane? What constitutes identity, family, community, nation? What beliefs do we carry with us? How do we remember?
During his FSA residency, Roldan produced six altars which he collectively refers to as The Charleston Shrines. They are the first of Roldan’s altars to be produced outside Southeast Asia and the first to include object offerings. They have their genesis in Roldan’s pre-residency research during which he learned of Charleston’s ‘Holy City’ moniker. Expecting to find a city overwhelmingly defined by Christian churches, he intended to focus one altar on his ‘pilgrimage’ to Charleston while working out plans for two others during his stay. During his residency, Roldan met with some sixty individuals representing a wide range of artistic, cultural, and faith communities. He also came to know many local Philippine immigrants who invited him to speak about his art at their community center. The Charleston Shrines include objects from more than thirty of these new acquaintances and friends. The installation thus became sweeping in scope and cartographies, mapping Roldan’s journey to the Lowcountry and his immersion in a community whose collective history continues to be shaped by past and present migrations.
About the Artist
Norberto Roldan graduated with a BA in Philosophy from St. Pius X Seminary, Roxas City, and received his BFA in Visual Communication from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila.
Select Images
FSA Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios, 2025.
FSA Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios, 2025.
Norberto Roldan, "Holy Chair," 2025. Installation with found furniture and objects.
Norberto Roldan, left: "Holy Buddha," center: "Holy People," right: "Holy Anito," 2025.
Norberto Roldan, "Holy Blanket," 2025. Installation with airline blanket, objects, and old furniture.
Norberto Roldan, "Holy Buddha," 2025. Installation with found furniture and objects.
Norberto Roldan, "Holy People," 2025. Installation with cabinet, dried palm leaves, and various objects.
Norberto Roldan, "Holy Anito" (detail), 2025. Installation with found furniture and objects.
Norberto Roldan, "Holy Blanket" (detail), 2025. Installation with airline blanket, objects, and old furniture.
Norberto Roldan, "Holy Chair" (detail), 2025. Installation with found furniture and objects.
Norberto Roldan, "Holy People" (detail), 2025. Installation with cabinet, dried palm leaves, and various objects.
Norberto Roldan, “The Ceremony,” 2021. Installation with found objects and constructed components.
Norberto Roldan, “Lost in Hollywood on My Way to the Revolution (9): ELIZABETH TAYLOR,” 2021. Installation with found objects, Hollywood star clipping, vintage wallpaper, mirror, and old vanity dresser.
Norberto Roldan, “Lost in Hollywood on My Way to the Revolution (10): DORIS LLOYD,” 2021. Installation with found objects, Hollywood star clipping, vintage wallpaper, mirror, and old vanity dresser.
Norberto Noldan, "100 Altars for Roberto Chabet / NO. 26," 2014-2020. Assemblage with architectural debris from demolished old houses, found objects, second-hand fabrics, old photographs, T5 lighting system.
Roberto Roldan, "100 Altars for Roberto Chabet," 2014-2023. Installation View from "Flow States," El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY (2024-25).
