It's Up To You

A timely reminder from Terry Richardson.

He posted that photo on his diary yesterday, May 11th 2011--The Day I officially announced a brave new venture. Say hello to The New Gallery. It took awhile, but here I am ignoring the naysayers of the world and the naysayers in my head. As Heather Havrilesky says, "many of the things I love most were created by people who embraced their delusions of grandeur as fervently as they did their contradictory feelings of self doubt." Isn't that so funny and wise?

Oh and, are you on Facebook? To get into more of the fun, The New Gallery has a Facebook community page you can go ahead and Like.

Here's to turning our passions and delusions into reality... this mama's got another new job now. Time to show the kids how magical thinking works!

A Little Date

You can have a house full of children and still take some time to go on one-on-one dates, yes? Sometimes this is done with the little girl, recently with the big boy. After his Foldabots workshop, we took a nice walk to what Bear considers "the best fried chicken in the world" a.k.a Bon Chon Ayala Triangle. Simple joys. I love how my 7-year-old date is so easy to please.

And then...

I had to pass by an art gallery to get a little work/research done, but turns out my date really enjoyed this detour as well, thanks to this Briccio Santos installation...

He couldn't get over the clever tunnel installation, totally unaware of those valves and number codes alluding to the gas chambers of the Holocaust. Okay, I'm only guessing the allusions because the artist apparently spent time in Germany to better understand Immanuel Kant, Edmund Husserl and Merleau Ponty. Who are Husserl and Ponty? Anyway, I will stop digressing now.

That this was about the artist's "philosophical musings on reality and illusion" was lost on him. For this 7-year-old, Lego-loving, Foldabots-making, Visual Spatial Dude, it was all about the visual spatial trickery of installation artist, painter and film-maker Briccio Santos.

His exhibit at the Manila Contemporary called Numbers Revisited runs until this May first. Bear's review of Santos' work: Whoah! [Pause] What the?! Hahaahaaa! Awesome! Can I go inside (the tunnel) Mom? Take a picture of me pretend falling!

That picture above is in case you're still falling (oops, sorry, pun) for the visual trickery. I loved the installation too, by the way.

Extensions at the Lopez Museum

I love it when there's something culturally significant going-on just a short walk away from home. Yesterday I took the kids for an afternoon field trip to the Lopez Museum, particularly because I guessed their latest exhibit would have something that appeals to a 21st century child's aesthetic sense.

Amongst Jose Rizal's handwritten letters, the Juan Lunas, Hidalgos, Saguils, Bencabs and Manansalas, lo and behold…

Street Art! Click, click, click on photos to enlarge.

Obviously, the curators here are not a stuffy bunch of people. Very forward thinking Lopez Museum. Props! Pilipinas Street Plan (PSP) was responsible for the street art assemblage, which was inspired by an old Philippine map from the Lopez library collection.

The (kidrobot or kidrobot-esque?) vinyl toys represent graffiti which seem to be "creeping-in unnoticed from the street into a museum environment." That's what the brochure says and it makes sense to me. I also guessed right: among the kids favorite sights was the PSP installation. They love kidrobot dolls so that was actually a no-brainer. We hope PSP gives the Keys kids another art course this summer. Please.

Zero In: Extensions runs up to April 20, 2011. Plataporma, Rock Ed and Maya Munoz also contributing greatly to this very engaging exhibit. For more details, you can call the Lopez Museum at 631-2417.

And look…

museum-sanctioned, DO-IT-YOURSELF graffiti. Hello Little Banskys!

The little girl took up a lot of space. She was thinking Mar the Fish needs a friend. Haha! It was a good way to start the year. I've already said it, but again, Happy New Year crickets!

It's A Cartoon, It's A Sculpture, It's A...

Cross media installation! Feast your eyes on Augmented Sculpture presented at Interior Design Week 2010 in Cologne Germany, created by Grosse8 and Lichtfront....

Augmented Sculpture by GROSSE8 & LICHTFRONT / Passagen 2010 from Lichtfront on Vimeo.

In a comment on their Vimeo page, Lichtfront explains how the light sculpture was created: "We did it with 4 projectors, placed around the object. The graphics were done in AfterEffects. We worked in a composition that was cutted into the 4 output movies at the end. Then we played the 4 videos on 2 computer, synchronised by a vvvv patch."

In other words, it was not animated. But I still can't completely understand how that wasn't some cool kick-ass piece of animation. My kids call it awesome. I call it a great dose of aesthetic-influence for the day.

From Tita Faye, With Love

Here's a portrait of 1-year-old Chicha that hangs in her room, lovingly made by her Tita Faye.

Faye is one of my good friends who doesn't just do wonders with Photoshop - she also paints, makes clothes, cooks great lasagna, makes her own tiramisu, makes her own limoncello in the prettiest bottles, designs interiors and a whole lot of other creative stuff.

For no occasion at all, Chicha will get a dress from her, or a skirt or a pair of shorts - all fantastically cute and lovely. I'm going... hey, what's the occasion? Her: Oh I had extra fabric... I think it's more like, she gets inspired and we get gifts all year round. Did I mention she has two adorable kids? Her son is one of Bear's best buddies, who has declared he is marrying Chicha one day. Her daughter is even more charming than the charming, quirky clothes her mom makes for her.

Anywaaay.... One thing Faye and I share is a love for Nena Saguil.

Landscapes of the Mind I, 1969

Landscapes of the Mind II, 1973

Landscapes of the Mind III, 1973

So she sends me this the other day. Me plus Saguil-inspired pointilism equals this...

"Nona Saguil" hee hee!

I don't really like myself in pictures, but I'll take exception if Faye does some magic with the photo. It's not even Christmas yet but the gifts are starting to pour in....

the next wave

The youngest guest at the announcement of the 2009 Ateneo Art Awards was 3-year-old Chicha...

This year's exhibit of finalists is called The Next Wave. Could this little girl be an artist one day? Sometimes I suspect she could be a "next waver" too.... who knows.

Her comment on Ringo Bunoan's highly conceptual work: There's no drawing.

We turned this event into one of our mommy-and-me nights out. As you can see, our girls'-night-out involved a well-curated art exhibit, then a good Italian dinner. Pappy and Bear also had a simultaneous boys'-night-out. That one involved McDonalds. Haha!

Tita Yael is the curator of the Ateneo Art Gallery. She loves what she does and it shows!

The Next Wave will be on exhibit at The Shangri-la Plaza up to Monday August 17. A good reason to go to the mall this weekend. A good way to show your preschooler that sometimes art doesn't always have to be a drawing.

magic show

Actually, "magic show" is what Bear calls this building facade projection. Chicha just agrees. Called 555 KUBIK, this outdoor art extravaganza was produced by Urbanscreen. The creators explain, this is... How it would be, if a house was dreaming. Even Pappy who is rarely impressed by anything was impressed by this. Watch it!

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

Kids will really dig this, but be prepared to answer how they made "all that building magic". Or something like that. Just do some further googling and you'll be fine.

When I stumble upon things like this, I realize how the internet makes the world one giant, mind-expanding art-fest for you and your kids to enjoy. Now that is even way cooler than 555 KUBIK itself.

julian schnabel

This town just got way cooler. Recent paintings of Julian Schnabel are on temporary exhibit at the National Museum. No need to go all the way to New York or London's Tate Modern. Just go to The Museum of the Filipino People, Agrifina Circle, Ermita. The genius artist's prints are also on display at the Manila Contemporary. We went on a little field trip there today just to see. Look at those kids running in the gallery amidst all those Schnabels. Bad mom moment.

If you are up for it, the Schnabel prints are actually for sale. I felt poor pining for these.

Click on the pictures to see them closer.

Please... click on the pictures to see them closer.

I asked my companions their opinions. Bear chose this as his favorite, Bill 'After a Short Silence Then', 1998. Hand-painted 18 colour screenprint. He calls it "The White Swan".

Chicha described some of Schnabel's work as "scary". To me they were "scary-beautiful". Didn't take pictures of the scary ones. Her favorite is Flamingo 1, 1991. Etching, aquatint, printed over collage on rag paper. I think this piece resonates because she likes flamingos - and she likes them because they're pink. She is trying to act like a flamingo here.

Julian Schnabel's work will be on exhibit at the Manila Contemporary up to July 5. That's at Whitespace 2314 Chino Roces Avenue, Pasong Tamo Extension. I think this is major. Go.