Chloe Caday’s, Moon’s Gift, Takay Flower, is part of her latest series, Diwata’s Song. Tracing back to pre-colonial Philippines, Chloe Caday retells stories of her motherland through Diwata’s Song, honouring her culture that is deeply rooted in folklore and mythology. Within this exhibition, Caday focuses particularly on the diwatas—spiritual beings that guard and nurture forests, caves, land or bodies of water. As a result, the paintings are a culmination of stories about these goddesses of the moon, stars, waters and sunrise, stories of forbidden loves, midnight mystique and the peculiar allure of flowers in bloom.

In Bicolano folklore, people believed that the Takay flower was a gift for them from the lunar gods. Bulan (the moon god) and Haliya (goddess of the moonlight) had frequent swims in the waters of Ibalong. One night, Bulan came across a fair maiden named Takay, who had drowned in the flood caused by the god Onos. He grieved her death and decided to transform her body into a flower that would symbolise her. Now abundant in the waters of Lake Bato, the Takay flower (now known today as the Bicolano water hyacinth) is a divine providence reminding the people of Ibalong to be good and kind-hearted to one another.