In Parable of the Twins, Daniel dela Cruz places maternal love at the center of a meditation on creation, nurture, and the passages that define human existence. The exhibition takes its cue from a simple yet resonant parable: one child resides within the mother’s womb while another has already entered the world. Both are sustained by the same source, but each knows the mother differently. For the unborn child, she is an unseen and all-encompassing presence, providing every necessity without ever being encountered directly. For the child already born, she assumes a visible form—loving and devoted, yet unmistakably human, with all the imperfections that such humanity entails.

The artist gives form to this duality by depicting a pregnant mother carrying a young child in her arms. She occupies the threshold between two states of being, nurturing one life within her body while guiding another through the world beyond it. The two children become mirrors of one another, each inhabiting a different stage of dependence, while the mother emerges as the enduring point of continuity between them. Her body is both origin and passage, holding together what is hidden and what has already come into view.

Across twelve sculptures, dela Cruz explores the many dimensions of this relationship. Cast in metal yet imbued with remarkable tenderness, the figures present motherhood with quiet dignity. The mothers appear with their hair tied into a bun or falling over their shoulders, their unclothed bodies affirming pregnancy as a condition of vitality and abundance. In several works, mother and child are enclosed within glass vitrines, preserving a shared space that recalls the protective enclosure of the womb.

Other sculptures focus on the mother alone, heavily pregnant as she carries the unseen twin, while others present the two children together, held delicately in her hands. Together, these variations return to the central premise of the exhibition: that motherhood is not only an act of giving life but also of preparing another for transition. Every stage of growth requires leaving one form of shelter for another, exchanging one kind of dependence for a new encounter with the unknown.

At its core, Parable of the Twins reflects on the mystery of creation as it is embodied in the figure of the mother. Yet its implications extend beyond motherhood itself. Every person has occupied these two states—first enclosed within the amniotic world of the womb, then born into a reality defined by light, atmosphere, and separation from the body that first sustained them. The exhibition invites us to recognize this shared experience as a larger pattern of existence. We emerge from what we cannot remember, live through the guidance and care of others, and eventually face another
passage into what remains unknown. If birth marks our first transition, it also becomes a metaphor for the many crossings that shape a life, each requiring an act of trust sustained by love and faith.

-Carlomar Arcangel Daoana