“My monuments stand in all Southeast Asian countries, the Mariana Islands, the United States and the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe. I see myself not just a Filipino artist. But this issue boils down to the true significance of an artist (of any country) of national stature cannot but help that his achievements be respected in the international milieu. Of course, it takes a longer time to be known for artists from a country noted to be underdeveloped and poor. On the other hand, it is easy for an artist to be reknown internationally if his country is powerful in global communication.

- Eduardo Castrillo

The public sculpture of Castrillo has to be seen as an obsession, a crusade and a public service; a compulsion to create these huge metal beings possible only by cajoling, persuading, and exciting various types of benefactors and bureaucrats, visionaries and ego maniacs to work together and spend grand sums in order to erect some imposing symbol for the community.

The desire to make metal figures balance away from their center of gravity is ever present in Castrillo’s monuments. If it were only possible, Castrillo would hypnotize his sculptures like a magician on stage and make them levitate in mid-air to get them to float like clouds.

…A strong aesthetical consideration in his sculptural scheme is that public art be educational in character. It is not art for art’s sake…Obviously Castrillo fulfils the strong urge among communities all over the country for public symbols to speak for their cherished values; how else to explain the staggering number of Castrillo brass behemoths nationwide…

Castrillo’s big and brassy is a response to a felt cultural need for someone to give expression to the national psyche. In this public sculptures, Castrillo has injected the notion of the sculptor with a mission which is to create graphic slices of a nation’s rich cultural heritage which stirs community consciousness and educate the populace in patriotism. To bolster pride in a nation’s history. To bolster pride in the nation’s identity… and he has taken his public sculpture to Guam, Singapore, Hongkong, the United States and Europe, making him one of the few Filipino sculptors to gain an international market.

From Breaking Out: An Eduardo Castrillo Sculptural Tour,

by Alfredo Roces, Inyan Publishing 1995