Zeelah Faye “Z” Aquilizan graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. Aquilizan is a Filipino cisgender queer woman who studied in an exclusive school for girls from elementary to high school, where she was taught to act like a proper “Filipino woman". She dreaded being a woman, trapped in the stereotypical image of being stuck doing home economics as she was taught how to sew, embroider, and crochet during her formative years. Ironically, she now uses these skills in her artworks. She first encountered using ceramics as an art medium during her Materials class in freshman year. While exposed to the medium quite early, it was only during an elective class in her third year that she fell in love with using ceramics after having the chance to explore more of its possibilities. Her experience with the material provides the insight that the mere process of creating ceramic pieces is very much in line with the concept of her works. Symbolizing the human body and the process it goes through to strengthen itself, Aquilizan utilizes the different elements - earth, water, air, fire - to give birth to ceramic forms that may very well be reflections of humanity.

Eskinita Works