In A Bird, A Cage, A God Of Flowers, artist Pepe Delfin explores the nebulousness of trauma, communicating the seemingly incommunicable through the visual language of abstraction.
To describe trauma, by textbook definition, is easy. The American Psychological Association refers to it as “an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, crime, or natural disaster.” But when it comes to illustrating its complexities? Not as much. Yet people continue to try, including artist Pepe Delfin, who gives the emotional response a tangible form in her newest exhibition with contemporary art gallery MONO8, A Bird, A Cage, A God of Flowers.
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A Bird, A Cage, A God of Flowers
The artist confronts the often incomprehensible and nebulous facets of trauma through her mastery of geometric forms. The exhibition’s title borrows the lush imagery from celebrated American poet Mary Oliver’s piece, “The Kookaburras,” combining metaphors to encapsulate the tension between containment and liberation—the maddening in-between for those struggling to free themselves from the limitations of their emotional responses.
Here, Delfin embraces a symbolic framework to explore how trauma alters one’s capacity to communicate, using abstraction as a tool for emotional navigation. Drawing on the principles of trauma-informed care, her visual language relies on circumlocution—an inherently evasive act—in expressing such ordeals. By deconstructing line, color, and form, she makes psychological and physical distress tangible without resorting to literal representation.
Each piece offers a new approach to articulating the inarticulable, creating space for reflection, empathy, and healing. Thus, the exhibition becomes more than a showcase of form: it functions as an intimate offering, where structure speaks in place of language and abstraction becomes a conduit for release.
Delfin’s signature use of color, inspired by the theories and studies of artists Josef and Anni Albers, is also evident in her latest collection of works. Rather than possessing a fixed, singular property, colors shift depending on context—including their placement next to other hues—creating a system of continuous flux that emphasizes subjectivity. Her compositions function as narratives, encoding emotional content into structured visual elements. In doing so, she manages to transform mathematical precision into emotional resonance, inviting viewers to engage with trauma not as spectacle, but as a lived experience shaped by nuance and resistance.
“A Bird, A Cage, A God of Flowers” runs until September 27, 2025 at MONO8 Gallery. The gallery is located at BLK 113, 53 Connecticut, San Juan City. The public program for the exhibition is co-presented with Lunas Collective, a care space dedicated to supporting women and individuals of diverse sexualities who face challenges defining their safety, and are seeking justice and taking action.
Photos courtesy of MONO8 Gallery.
