The primary objective of this study was to touch base with artists outside Manila, through interviews, documentation and analysis of their works. Originally titled "Locality and Sexuality," this study attempted to explore how visual artists negotiate the theme of sexuality and reproductive health in their works. However, what emerged from my actual encounter with artists and their works in the field is not the direct connection between sexuality and locality, per se but the connection between the spaces of masculinity and femininity, on the one hand, and the specific positions and experiences that emerge out of the artists' sexuality as women and men, on the other.
While the artists of this study may not be consciously working from their gendered positions as men and women, their works encode within themselves the spaces of masculinity and femininity, which are both the condition and effect of their representations. Such spaces regulate not only their lives and works, but also their contexts as women and men of different classes, social standing and status.
Drawing from the theoretical resources of semiotics and feminist materialism, this study goes beyond the objective of documenting artistic practices in the periphery (vis-à-vis the Manila art world). Its more important project is to articulate possible theoretical models for interpreting works and re-telling histories, not only in the paternal disciplines like art history, but also in feminist theory and practice.