Lopez Memorial Museum: Breaching Fences

Many people (including yours truly) do not know that right inside Ortigas Center is the Lopez Memorial Museum (LMM), which marked its 50th anniversary last February 13.  Thankfully, Janette Toral of Digital Filipino recently invited me and other bloggers to view a four-part exhibit in LMM called "Extensions", which essentially aims to challenge our notions of defined spaces.  For instance, we tend to think that the only things we see in museums are old stuff -- significant, yes, but old , and maybe we don't see these as relevant to our lives.  In short, we have defined that space.  LMM intends to break that perception by introducing the public to a new museum experience.

It started while we were being briefed outside the lobby.  We kept stealing glances at the towering "doorway" (image on the left) that bore drawings, stickers, and short messages.  LMM's researcher and consultant Mary Ann Pernia, who also served as our tour guide, said that they used it in lieu of the usual strip of ribbon to open the exhibit.  Guests left their marks on the "doorway", effectively turning it into a giant guestbook.  Then she gave us markers and said, "Enjoy!"  Cool beans!

Then, it was onto the tour.  First on our route were artworks by Pinay expat artist Maya Muñoz, whose enormous quadriptych "Coming It Going" (image on the right) held our curiosity for several minutes.  I am intrigued by the juxtaposed images; they seem to tell a story about a homesick jetsetter.  The wistfulness continues across the room, on pencil-and-ink drawings of calendar and journal pages that evoke an impatience with the ticking of the clock.  On three drawings are the faint outlines of a person gradually drowning in ink.  Are these self-portraits?  Suddenly, we're not looking at artworks, but possibly journal entries.

We obviously spent too much time in the first gallery because our tour guide practically rushed us on to the next one. Was it just me or did she look giddy about Gallery 2?  I'm sure I saw a certain gleam in her eye as we entered the world of Pilipinas Street Plan (PSP) and experienced sensory overload.

click to see larger images

Left side of PSP exhibit

Right side of PSP exhibit

All over the walls were colorful graffiti and mixed media art in three dimensions and staged in non-conventional ways, creating an alternative perspective on street graffiti, and even toys, as legit art forms.  Is that the sweet sound of glass shattering that I hear?  

"We want to go beyond the physical space," Ms. Pernia explained.  "We want to create discourses about art."

In the middle of the room is a wooden bench on which rests a sketchpad and a pencil.  It's there for visitors to use in case inspiration arrives.  This proves that there are real art lovers among the museum's staff.  They know how the Muses work.

While Muñoz's and PSP's artworks got us thinking twice about the purposes and definitions of art, the next exhibit showed us how the borderlines between art and life could be washed away.  RockEd Philippines' "Loob at Labas" literally highlights a variety of amazing creative output from a most unlikely place: behind the prison bars of Bilibid.  Poems and other creative written work are projected on the screen.  Delicate hand-crafted items made from ordinary materials are displayed at an accessible gazing level.  I was amused by an old cookbook that contains recipes collected from inmates.

But above each artwork are snippets of life inside Bilibid, seemingly placed there on purpose to remind us of the hell where these objects of beauty were born.  After viewing the accompanying video documentary about the Philippine justice system vis-a-vis imprisonment in Bilibid, you might feel like you're choking or your insides are knotting up.  But upon turning your eyes once more towards the inmates' creativity, you  will get a renewed sense of relief and optimism.  It makes you realize how deeply significant art is in the inmates' lives.  Because angst sure can crank up the creativity machine, but nothing heats it up much like hopelessness.  

Gang Badoy tweeted some inmates' reactions to the exhibit

Rounding off the 4-part exhibit is Plataporma's "now/here", which looks to me like an ongoing study on geolocation and how one's familiarity with a specific place gives it character and meaning.

I won't pretend that I completely understand Plataporma's main objective with their series of multimedia art displays, but I'm guessing that "now/here" wants us to rethink how our physical perception or familiarity with a museum, or wherever art is put on display, contributes to what we regard as art.

It sort of brings us back to the challenge of "going beyond the physical space" and shattering the notion that a museum is simply a musty archive of old artifacts.  By now we know that works of art cannot be contained only within a frame, nor is it only "artists" who can create beautiful things.

More photos featuring "Extensions" and other nifty nooks of the Lopez Memorial Museum are on my Flickr page.
Visit http://lopezmuseum.org.ph for more information.  Museum hours are from 8 A.M. - 5 P.M., Monday to Saturday.