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There are two things the Ayala Museum is doing with its newly launched public art program, OpenSpace. By putting art out in the streets — or at least in its foyer on the corner of Makati Avenue and Dela Rosa Street — it’s making art a whole lot more accessible. And by doing that, it’s courting Instagram posts and acknowledging the importance of digital media.
The museum launched OpenSpace Thursday night with Toym Imao’s Last Lost Lust for Four Forgotten Episodes, a carroza-like installation inspired by the cancellation of Voltes V in the ‘70s.
“I was 11 years old at that time, and for me, yun ang Martial Law. As a child, Voltes V was one big thing and suddenly, it was yanked out. Biglang nawala yung source of joy mo,” explains Imao who became a fan boy soon after. “This is an allegory of my childhood’s angst, anger, and frustration.”
The idea was simmering in Imao’s mind for a good decade. “I was doing my graduate studies in the US. When I come home, sabi ko I will reinvent myself,” says Imao, who is popular for building monuments and other public art.
Last Lost Lust is the first of three art installations that OpenSpace will feature from Imao. First exhibited in UP, Imao says he will and has tweaked the carrozas for the OpenSpace exhibition. “It was after seeing the second installment of the series last February that Ayala Museum invited me here. When I got invited, I said I’ll upgrade them, add 100% more to the piece to make it richer [than the previous].”
All three carrozas reference Imao’s traumatizing Martial Law experience of getting all his animes pulled out from TV. The second carroza references Mazinger Z while the third will be Daimos.
While the characters featured in the Last Lost Lust carroza are a callout to characters in the popular Japanese cartoon series, it’s hard to ignore Marcos’ effigy right smack in the middle, the Voltes V costume-wearing St. Michael on top, and even the gin bottles on the side.
“The gin bottles on the side references the gaseras. It can be a source of illumination but if you observe, they’re Molotov bombs hurled towards the effigy of Marcos. St. Michael, who is wearing the Voltes V armor, is defeating a representation of militarization. All this is part of my political awakening so I work around that.”
While it all sounds very militant and curious, the installation is done in a whimsical and light manner — friendly enough to be placed in a public space and striking enough to launch Ayala Museum’s OpenSpace.
OpenSpace brings Ayala Museum’s gallery count to six, supplementing the four floors of space within the Museum itself and the Artist Space, where Heart Evangelista had her first art exhibit.
