When art becomes the muse

MANILA, Philippines - We asked some of our favorite creatives to talk about the art that recently moved them. We’re not talking art theory. We’re talking art appreciation. Whether you know your Magrittes from your Monets, your Olan Ventura from your Ronald Ventura, it shouldn’t get in the way of simply appreciating. — Raymond Ang

“The one that really pulled my he(art)strings would be the ‘Untitled’ collaboration piece by Mona and Soler Santos in last year’s Art Fair Philippines. I can’t really articulate all the emotions that I felt while staring at it for 10 minutes (or more, I believe). A close-up of flora and a worm’s eye-view of a green house: two totally different worlds and a diptych at the same time. There are small squares in the middle of the two pieces and it features an image exchange in each other’s work, completing the quad like an awry jigsaw puzzle, only it’s not awry at all, but a declamation of intimate affection. I don’t want to spoil the brilliance of the artwork with such a cheesy and clichéd line like ‘You complete me,’ but I’m cheesy and clichéd and I’m sorry, Ma’am Mona and Sir Soler Santos.” — Tokwa Penaflorida, artist

“I was lucky to catch Mike Kelley’s final exhibit at the MOMA PS1. He killed himself last year and one of the last installations he was working on was ‘Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites.’ He created this between 1991 and 1999 by grouping recycled stuffed animals into piles by color and stitching them together into ottoman-sized orbs. He also fabricated shiny resin sculptures in unusual geometric shapes that he anchored to the walls like sentinels, surrounding the orbs. Then he added air fresheners to top it all off. The result is quite magical to see (and smell).”— An Estrada, photographer/blogger at Your Evil Twin

“Art Fair PH 2013 was a real highlight! I loved the installations such as the gigantic piece by Gabby Barredo, the giant mural of Dex Fernandez, the exhibition of key artwork by Nona Garcia, Marina Cruz, etc., and that one that looked down into the elevator shaft/abyss. It was also great seeing all the cool pieces from different galleries such as Eugenia Alcaide’s thread portraits + Wataru Sakuma’s cutout city map at ArtInformal; Luis Santos’s portrait at West Gallery and more!”— Kissa Castaneda, editor of Wander; lifestyle editor at Elle Decor Philippines

“My favorite exhibit ever was Zeus Bascon’s ‘Trees Burn Down.’ Every single artwork had a twisted interpretation of reality. I remember looking at ‘The Wildflower’ and felt like I was being invited by the ‘ghost of the dark side of nature’ (I can’t think of other ways to describe it) to his psychedelic, wavy version of the forest. All I needed to get there was to take some of his ‘special’ leaves.” —Paul Jatayna, designer at OS Accessories