Mall creatures

"The real world is where the monsters are."

~Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

"Garden of Earthly Delights" in The Gallery of Greenbelt 5 is artist Leeroy New's latest exhibition. I have featured some of his works before: the alien on a tumor, a spiky red balete, and two lovely young ladies in fluorescent plastic. His work is unmistakable and can seem more like creatures from nightmares. An article in Circuit magazine's website about this exhibit is quite educational. Even after reading it, though, I still wouldn't want any of his works in my home.

Canopy

"Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity."

~Damien Hirst, English artist

This is what it looks like underneath "The Trees" of artist Reynato Paz Contreras (see yesterday's post). They don't provide a lot of shelter from either sun or rain, unfortunately.

Intertwined

"Art-making is not about telling the truth but making the truth felt."

~Christian Boltanski, French sculptor

Made of recycled stainless steel, "The Trees" by artist Reynato Paz Contreras stands in the middle of the park in the middle of the roundabout that is Burgos Circle in Bonifacio Global City. According to the artist, "The three trunks signify stability. The intertwining branches and leaves create a circular effect to symbolise the 'circle of life.' This sculpture represents the interrelationship of humanity and nature, and the vital role that each one plays. May it remind everyone to preserve the environment not just for today but for the future as well."

Postcards from Cambodia: Angkor Wat

One of the few things I was willing to wake up at an ungodly hour for was to watch the sun rise over Cambodia's greatest treasure: Angkor Wat, the City of Temples. 
  First a Hindu then a Buddhist temple complex, Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II.  
  It is the largest religious monument in the world and its perfect symmetry is a wonder to behold.
  The main temple of Angkor Wat is composed of three rectangular galleries, each higher than the next.
  Every inch of the walls of each gallery is covered in elaborate bas-relief scenes from Hindu mythology and literature.
  Angkor Wat's Temple Mountain, its central and uppermost sanctuary, is an architectural representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hindu mythology.
  From the uppermost terrace, one can see across the lower galleries to the bridge which crosses the moat around Angkor Wat, and all the way to the outer wall.
  The image of Buddha in the uppermost sanctuary depicts him seated on the coils of a Naga. Legend says that Buddha was so deep in meditation, he did not notice the storm that began raging around him. So the Naga coiled itself under Buddha to raise him from the muddy waters and bent its seven heads (one of which is broken here) over him to protect him from the rain. Of all the temples in the Angkor district of Siem Reap, only Angkor Wat was never abandoned and it is still an active Buddhist temple today.

Postcards from Cambodia: Banteay Srei

The 10th century Banteay Srei, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, is distinctive among Angkor's many temples because of the miniature scale of its buildings.

It was constructed using a hard red sandstone which can be carved like wood. Despite being more than a thousand years old, the temple retains much of its intricate decorative carvings.

Framed

"Set wide the window. Let me drink the day."

~Edith Wharton, Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses

Other than the enormous floor lamp in the middle of the room (see yesterday's post), the interior of Earth Kitchen is simple and even quite spartan: raw cement floors and walls, and tables and chairs that are very utilitarian. The big window which looks out onto the street is beautifully screened by the bamboo and palm trees outside, however, making it look like a painting from inside. The real paintings which currently adorn the otherwise bare walls were created by students of Cabuynan Elementary School in Tanauan, Leyte who survived Typhoon Haiyan. They are for sale for PhP500 each and all of the proceeds will be used to rebuild their school.

Tree of life

"The two basic items necessary to sustain life
are sunshine and coconut milk."

~Dustin Hoffman, American actor

In the Philippines, the coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) is considered the tree of life. Sustenance and shelter are just the most basic needs that coconut trees can provide. The list of useful products and by-products that come from every part of coconut trees, though not endless, is very long. In fact, we have a government agency under the Department of Agriculture that focuses solely on the coconut industry: the Philippine Coconut Authority.

This is artist Impy Pilapil's tribute to the Philippine "Tree of Life." It is made of metal and glass, and stands in the atrium of the Eugenio Lopez Center in Antipolo City.

Gestation

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man
than the way in which they can build
and yet leave a landscape as it was before."

~Robert Lynd (1879–1949), Irish writer

A new building will be constructed in the Loyola Heights Campus of Ateneo de Manila University and, it being a Catholic university, a ground blessing was held last week. For the occasion, young sculptor and furniture maker Niccolo Jose created "Blue Eagle's Nest" using the soil and wood found on the site. The nest with its two eggs will remain on the site until the groundbreaking or until the next season's rains wash them away, whichever comes first.

Oww!

"My body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story."

~Johnny Depp, American actor

A cousin whose family moved to the U.S. when he was only four years old came to the Philippines for a visit recently. On his last night here, he got this pretty awesome cross, dragon and rose tattoo. The tat was less than 24 hours old when I took this photo, the day of my cousin's departure. I think he had to go through the long flight home—more than 19 hours—with his shirt sleeve rolled up.

Play

"Men do not quit playing because they grow old;
they grow old because they quit playing."

~Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935)

Part of Arts BGC 2014, this mosaic mural and sculpture installation is in Bonifacio High Street, a high-end retail center in Bonifacio Global City in the City of Taguig. Created by the Mighty Bhutens, a group of artists based in Baguio City, the artwork is titled "Araw + Ulap + Laro = Saya" (Sun + Clouds + Play = Happiness).

In case you were thinking of asking, I have no idea what the group's name means.

See murals from around the world in Monday Mural.

Trunk warmers

"Things don't have to be extraordinary to be beautiful;
even the ordinary can be beautiful."

~Matthew in Wicker Park (2004)

As part of Bonifacio Global City's Art BGC 2014, Rags2Riches "rag-bombed" (from yarn bombing) trees all over the development and placed wind chimes on some of them.

Rags2Riches is a social enterprise composed of (mostly) women in poor communities who weave scrap cloth, organic materials and indigenous fabrics into some very lovely and unique bags, pillows and rugs.

Book art

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

~Cicero

The mural inside Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street is painted on a stack of books two stories high.

See murals from around the world in Monday Mural.

Psychedelic

"Love was a feeling completely bound up with color, like thousands of rainbows superimposed one on top of the other."

~Paulo Coelho, Brazilian novelist

The interior side of the bronze doors of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat (see yesterday's post) are made of panels of stained glass which glow brightly during the day. They kind of look messy and incomplete without the bronze, though. I would love to see the doors from outside at night when the lights of the church are on.

Secular

"Most of the time, doors remain closed simply because they have not been tried to be opened!"

~Mehmet Murat ildan, Turkish novelist and playwright

The bronze doors of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat (also known as the San Beda Chapel) in San Miguel, Manila surprised me for not having any religious iconography on them. I really like them, though, and I regret not asking who the artist was.

Benedictine diary

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."

~Pablo Picasso

After eight years painting the interior of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat in San Miguel, Manila (see previous post), Dom Lesmes Lopez and Brother Salvador Alberich left the back wall blank. There may have been a reason for it, but whatever it was, contemporary Benedictine monks did not like "the ugly white wall." So they commissioned the Italian painter Francesco Giannini to create a mural for it, one showing the story of the Benedictines in the Philippines. Working from his hometown of Peschiera del Garda, Giannini spent one year drawing detailed drafts and another year for the actual painting. The mural was inaugurated and blessed in June of 2012.

Benedictine masterpiece

"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece."

~John Ruskin (1819–1900), English art critic

The Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat was built in 1925 to serve Manila's Benedictine monks. It is more popularly known as the San Beda Chapel because of the college which the monks operate on the same grounds. The Spanish monk-artist Dom Lesmes Lopez, assisted by Brother Salvador Alberich, spent eight years from 1931 to 1939 painting the chapel's vaulted ceiling and arched walls.

A rose and a lion

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Swiss American psychiatrist

In keeping with its neo-Gothic design, the San Sebastian Church (see previous two posts) has several beautiful rose windows. I'm not sure who the saint in the middle is, but if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it was Mark the Evangelist, who is sometimes depicted with a lion and whose symbol is a winged lion.

Ecclesiastical heraldry

"Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions."

~Joyce Carol Oates, American author

The trompe l'oeil ceiling over the entrance of the San Sebastian Church (see yesterday's post) includes some of the heraldic symbols of Catholic bishops: the miter (headdress) in the middle, the crosier (staff), and Patriarchal cross.

The chandelier is real.

Sold

One wall of the Old Oven Art Cafe (see yesterday's post) displays framed photographs for sale.

The food's good, too

The quirky Old Oven Art Cafe is filled with paintings, photographs, and unusual knick-knacks. Alone? Grab a magazine. With family and friends? Grab a board game. It's actually a pretty cool place to hang out—if only it were more convenient to me.