Patchwork Meditations on Hardship and Hope
Melvin Guirhem uses cut-up fabric and thread to transform pain into patchwork art.
Words Khyne Palumar
Photography Eskinita Art Farm and Rio Morfe
May 14, 2025
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This is an excerpt from Art+ Magazine March-April 2025 issue
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To put together his Art Fair Philippines 2022 debut Entablado (a special exhibit housed by the famed Karen H. Montinola selection), Melvin Guirhem worked nearly 20-hour shifts—tracing, cutting, embroidering, and stitching pieces of fabric into striking tapestries that depict his turbulent inner world. Starting at 4am and ending at midnight, Guirhem paused only to eat, dreamt of work in his sleep, and repeated the rigorous cycle for several weeks. This relentless pace left his hands painfully stiff and swollen, but he pushed through until the six-piece project was finished, only then taking the doctor’s advice to rest.
Artist Melvin Guirhem during his art residency at Eskinita Art Farm in 2022
Guirhem laughs sheepishly as he recounts the ordeal to Art+, speaking from his home studio one evening in Oton, Iloilo. During our conversation, he’s busy finishing pieces for a solo show slated for April 12 at Makati’s Art Cube Gallery. Behind him stands an 8 x 14-foot art work—his largest yet and the centerpiece of the exhibit. True to form, it’s titled “Eternal Pain.”
Artist Melvin Guirhem during his art residency at Eskinita Art Farm in 2022
“My art has always been a reflection of the struggles and beauty of human existence. Lumaki ako sa hirap and I come from a broken home,” Guirhem says, adding that he suffers from depression and is buoyed by the love and support of his wife and child. “I’m very grateful for what I have now. When I look back at the things I’ve experienced, di ko alam kung paano ko siya nalampasan. Malungkot at masakit pero at the same time, isa yun sa pinasasalamatan ko sa higher powers kasi naging foundation siya ng art ko. I can’t move forward without looking back to where I came from,” he says.
Artist Melvin Guirhem during his art residency at Eskinita Art Farm in 2022
Born the second of six children (five brothers and a sister who passed away), he was raised by a construction worker father and a stay-at-home mother. Guirhem recalls how his aunt and grandmother would scour the local ukay-ukay and fabric shops, regularly sewing not out of profession but necessity. In elementary school, he would mend his own clothes and bags, a practice that would later be elevated into an art form.
Artwork from Melvin Guirhem's show Kumunoy
Guirhem would go on to study architecture and spend a decade in design and construction before leaving what he describes as a stable but “monotonous” job to pursue art full-time. But working with fabric wasn’t the obvious choice. From 1999, he experimented with painting, sculpture, and mixed-media, participating in numerous national art competitions and earning awards. Despite his success, Guirhem said his practice felt “stagnant.” Then in 2013, when he shifted to textiles, fabric, and thread, something clicked—he found a deeper connection between his artistic narrative and chosen medium. He’s stuck with it since.
