Nikki Luna explores Aural Art with 'Menagerie'

Nikki Luna is often portrayed as an unlikely art world darling. 

Stylish and gregarious, her fashionable exterior belies a prolific artist and a relentless activist for women’s and children’s rights enhanced by her thirst to expand her knowledge. She is currently pursuing her graduate degree in Women and Development Studies at the University of the Philippines. As a result, her in-depth understanding of her causes and her creative mind meld seamlessly in her art.

Apart from being a Sotheby’s acclaimed artist, Luna founded STARTart project in 2008, a nonprofit group offering art therapy to children whose parents were victims of human rights violations. She has helped children of the Maguindanao massacre victims as well as the kids of Morong 43. Last August, she traveled to Sierra Leone, and spent 336 eye-opening hours teaching art therapy to women and children of this war-torn African country.

One of the most interesting things about Nikki’s work is her ability to use the most unlikely materials sourced from everyday life. She thinks that color, material, shapes and size must all relate with one another to create a unifying theme.

Nikki has used a range of common materials from eggshells to ribbons for her shows as the banality of these objects becomes relatable and is a way to reach out to more people.

Nikki has used eggshells, resin, ribbons, soap and antique lace to convey her thoughts, as she believes mundane objects make her work accessible to more people thus breeding familiarity, understanding and openness.

In her most recent piece, Nikki delves into aural art with a sound installation at the Finale Gallery’s video room called “Menagerie of Bursting Lilies.”

Tucked in the second floor of the art space, the viewer enters a dark room with light from a projector passing through a maze of brass tubes. The video depicts an operation done by a doctor. Viewed behind bars, the black slits form a virtual prison.

The visual only tells a fraction of the story Luna dares to share. One needs to press one’s ear next to the metal cylinders as a confession reverberates in a Filipino and an English narrative:

“During my pregnancy, you had the guts to tell me you couldn’t give your love to this child because you didn’t love me. I’m alone and I can’t get his father to meet him! You know I don’t have a friggin’ idea how to play basketball.”

“Can you give me a breakdown of monthly expenses? Thanks.’ Makapal din talaga ang mukha mo.”

Nikki champions feminism and children’s rights beyond the realm of the art world with her StartART project, a nonprofit group offering art therapy to children whose parents were victims of human rights violations.

A topic Nikki often talks about in her work, this show capitalizes on the idea that domesticity is a sad and lonely place of confinement. The sound in the cylinders conveys the voices of women; finally able to speak out yet they are hidden and anonymous. Their purpose is bound by religion, traditions and the status quo.

Haunting and thought-provoking, Nikki’s “menagerie” opens our eyes and ears to the realities of feminism and the woman’s everyday struggles. Although her art is wrapped in metaphor, her message is loud, clear and concise.

That’s what I like the most about Luna’s work. She fights for her causes without being too preachy or too abrasive. This is the kind of thing that makes people listen and take notice.

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“Menagerie of Bursting Lilies” will run until Dec. 31 at the Finale Art Gallery (http://www.finaleartfile.com/), La Fuerza Compound, Pasong Tamo, Makati City.

The words in Filipino were taken from an actual letter and the stories were narrated by two of Nikki’s favorite women — Angel Aquino (Filipino) and Andi Eigenmann (English). Nikki also shares that Manuel Legarda of ‘90s rock legends Razorback and Wolfgang helped in the recording for this project.

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Grace Velasco blogs at http://divasoria.ph.

“Menagerie of Bursting Lilies” lets Nikki explore audio and visual art where she uses several brass cylinders conveying women’s stories before a screen and when viewed from one side, the experience is likened to a virtual prison.