Where the Art is

I had wanted to go to the Terno Au Go Go gig at the Fort last Saturday, but a friend wanted us to meet up at her friend's gallery/furniture store at the Marikina Shoe Expo in Cubao first. By the time she finally got there, though, it was too late to go all the way to Makati. So we ended up checking out the scene there at the so-called Cubao X.

At Pablo, there was an ongoing exhibit of photos of, well, small children. Kids in playgrounds, eating ice cream, playing on the beach, just being kids. Maybe they had a reason for pasting bunny-rabbit cute pictures of little children, but sadly, I was not impressed. Good thing I know the owner so we at least had free beer and nachos the whole time we were there. She didn't need to know my sentiments about the exhibit though hehe.

Over at Black Soup, which is co-owned by another friend, musician and writer Pearlsha aka Peach aka Isha, there was another, very interesting exhibit. No cutesy pics of kids here. Instead, they were showing photos of gory crime scenes from news photographers, mostly tabloids, I suspect. If you're into pictures of suicides by hanging, shootings complete with blood-soaked corpses (before being covered-up by newspapers), criminals in handcuffs and various other scenes from the police beat, go check this one out. Look for the one with the girl who committed suicide by jumping off a building but ended up with her head underneath a parked car. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Finally at the last place we went to (the name of which escapes me at the moment), there was a really weird but strangely fascinating exhibit. The promoters obviously wanted to defy any preconceived notions we might have about what art is, so they decided to hang anything and everything they could get their hands on and have the audacity to call it "art." There was a small mattress with small slits to make eyes and a mouth, really old algebra test papers from high school, posters of government officials cleverly, er, "manipulated" and other assorted items. There was even a part of the exhibit dedicated solely to advocating for the release of murder suspect Paco Larrañaga. Shades of social relevance in a place that was screaming rebellion and/or apathy? Nah. I can already hear a friend of mine calling it nothing more than pretentious bullshit. Hehe.

Here are two of my favorite items from that exhibit:


Somebody obviously didn't have qualms picking up a pesky little cucaracha, sticking a pin in him and giving him a name.


Remember those cheap posters we had hanging around our (public elementary school) classrooms? This one had me in stitches. Check out the one on the bottom right. That type is called "Antipolo." Jee-sus.