The macabre inspirations of Leeroy New

MANILA, Philippines - It’s not hard to imagine Leeroy New and Guillermo Del Toro working together. As two artists who grew up digesting every bit of B-movies, pulp, and creature feature that they can feast their eyes and hearts on, New and Del Toro’s fascination for the macabre, the strange, and the otherworldly has created a fascinating vision in their works that feeds off from a very primal source.

As a kid, New has always been drawn to the weird, even earning an “Addams Family” moniker from his own family. His new solo exhibition, “Gates of Hell,” which runs until November 9, treads the thin line between the religious and the supernatural, or rather, the strange relationship that they share with each other.

“To me, there’s no difference like how we believe these aswangs and monsters and this whole mythology of religion to sci-fi mythology. It’s all this desire to come up with stories to guide us in our experience in our daily lives. There’s a need to kind of fill this spiritual vacuum, be it in the form of aswang stories, folktales, or religious mythology and this projection of a fantasy future through sci-fi and superheroes, graphic novels or whatever,” New shares.

With all this talk of mythical creatures and the fantastic, New shares some of the films, video games, monsters, and artists that have influenced his work.

Serpents

“I’m very partial sa mga serpent monsters like dragons, snakes, basilisks, [and] weird lizards, mostly because I love the symbolic references to these serpents. I read a lot of mythology, Joseph Campbell back in high school, yung mga comparative mythologies and how all these symbols are universal and how they pop up in every culture in different forms,“ says New.

Local monsters

”I love local monsters. Yung mga sigbin, kasi I’m from Gensan so yun yung mga laging naririnig ko. Mga winged variations nung aswang like yung manananggal. More or less part yun ng aking childhood, yung mga Santelmo,“ says New.

Monsters in â€˜Power Rangers’

”Yung mga kalaban sa Power Rangers, yung mga malalaking mata. They have a term for Japanese monsters like kaiju. Ang ganda nung kitsch factor,“ says New.

Magic Gathering

”Collector ako nung elementary ako hanggang high school. It informed a lot of my visual language kasi ang gaganda ng creatures dun and they’re all invented. They’re all stylized. They’re very light references to existing forms of monsters,“ says New.

Role-playing games and video games

”Kapag mga RPG, I always choose to play the monsters. Kunyari sa Starcraft, laging Zerg lang yung nilalaro ko, yung alien talaga. Boring yung tao eh, alien dapat. Yung mga monsters na yun malaking influence sa akin, yung sci-fi language, alien creatures, [like] yung The Fifth Element,“ says New.

H.R. Giger

”In high school, my professor was an H.R. Giger fan. He had so many books that he showed us back in high school. Ang laki nung influence nun sa visual language ko with the references to the human body, Alien, ay grabe. Related din sa movie magic and all that, how they turn these creatures to life,“ says New.

‘Jason and the Argonauts’

”Favorite ko yung mga ganun. Nag-try din akong mag stop motion claymation at some point para magawa ko lang nung frustrations ko nung bata ako. Actually, it’s one big infantile fantasy that I’m trying to relive. Yan yung mga secret undertones ng work ko,“ says New.

Guillermo Del Toro

”Grabe yung aesthetic sensibility niya for monsters. It just really looks so good. Pan’s Labyrinth was the first I ever saw of his. Dun pa lang fan na ako. Hellboy ang ganda ng mga creatures even if the film was just like that. I would watch it again for the production design, the creature design, the sets. Ito na yung filmmaker mode din eh, parang “Sh**t, gusto kong gumawa ng ganyan. Next time, gagawa ako ng kaiju. Sana bigyan nila ako ulit ng space,” says New.

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