When art works

MANILA, Philippines - When someone said “Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder,” he might as well have been talking about art. As contemporary culture moves further and further away from the classic tenets of our understanding of aesthetics, we’re moving into a world that’s more tangential and open to interpretation — tearing down the walls of formalist interpretations and inviting fresh perspectives.

It must be why everyone’s learning how to play together in the sandbox. While companies have increasingly been getting into corporate social responsibility (CSR), a burgeoning new movement is pushing something a little different.

We’ll call it CCR — corporate cultural responsibility. The new breed of business leaders aren’t just tending to the bottom line, they’re making sure that the companies they’re heading have a well-rounded portfolio, highlighting concern for the common good, but also making room for some cultural growth. It’s a heady balancing act and one that truly does deserve some props.

For YStyle’s 10th anniversary party, they found just that — forward-thinking brands with open minds that manage to break molds in their respective fields. The collaborations with the companies aren’t your usual corporate tie-ups. Instead, they present a savvy alternative to the ubiquitous event booth.

If anything, the YStyle party felt like Alice in Wonderland on an acid trip. If Lewis Carroll’s heroine wandered into Miley’s We Can’t Stop video instead of the Madhatter’s Party, this is probably what it would’ve looked like. The event space was transformed into a living, breathing absurdist art work — with a maze to tie all the installations together.

Aram Lowe of Rabbithole Creatives, YStyle’s main collaborator for the event, explains that YStyle editor and creative director Bea Ledesma wanted just that. “When we met with Bea, she discussed something about making the party sort of like an exhibit, because it’s a retrospective,” he explains. “But she had this idea of doing a series of different rooms, and that people would have to go through the maze… We wanted to make a sort of mini environment for YStyle… We did it like a mini forest — a forest on an acid trip.”

YStyle retrospective

YStyle x Rabbithole Creatives x Mimi Sanson-Viola

“Bea didn’t want it to be the typical retrospective gallery-style,” Aram says. “She wanted it to be a sort of explosion of the ideas that YStyle has been pushing to its audience for the longest time.”

“The letters clearly had something to do with textures,” production designer Mimi Sanson-Viola adds. “It represents how the character of YStyle is varied. It shows how different they are. Marami siyang characters. That was what I was trying to convey, how each letter had a different feel.”

Designer Martin Bautista and Young STAR’s Toff De Venecia enthusiastically took photos around this exhibit, with their friends holding up the life-sized YStyle logo above their heads, posing for their YStyle cover (on Instagram). “J’adore!” Toff said.

#JOEYSAMSONX

Joey Samson x Jo Ann Bitagcol

For the exhibit installation highlighting designer Joey Samson’s storied career, he found a willing collaborator in a good friend — model, muse, photographer Jo Ann Bitagcol. The video stars Isla Estacio-Versoza, the charismatic daughter of photographer Jake Versoza, along with his wife Karina.

“That started with another series,” Jo Ann says. The story for that video was relationships — mother and daughter, lovers, friends. After that video was cut and edited though, she realized she had a wealth of material that could be turned into something else: an affecting meditation on mother-daughter dynamics.

“What is it about Isla?” Jo Ann asks about her goddaughter. “Her beauty is very unconventional.” The scores of squealing fashion girls seemed to agree. Preview’s Karen Bolilia, one of the girls I saw transfixed by the video, seemed to be talking to herself, muttering “Omigod, she’s sooo cute!”

And photographer Charles Buenconsejo? The recent Ateneo Art Awards winner, new YStyle x Bleach Catastrophe x Everywhere We Shoot tote in hand, told me, “Uy sa laki ng tote, kasya mga jacket ni Joey,” jokingly putting one of the Joey Samson jackets in his tote.

Leave it to Jo Ann, of course — neighbors with the designer — to understand Joey’s work and find away to elevate an already classic piece and give it new meaning. “Yung casting ko was different generations and different races. That jacket for me is very universal and timeless but very modern also — and everybody can wear it,” she says. “It looks so alien and I wanted to make it normal.”

Creature pulchritude

Zact x Mimi Sanson-Viola

“For me, butterflies are so beautiful, but then they die so soon,” Mimi explains. “They have short lifespans. I wanted to convey beauty that had something to do with time. It represented beauty—how beauty is so fleeting. And the tub? That’s how people take care of themselves. That’s the routine of life.”

Designer Vania Romoff and jewelry designer Joyce Makitalo seemed particularly impressed with this one. “It’s creepy!” Joyce said. “But really cool.” The pair were spotted taking photos with the model in the tub, alternating between awe and unease.

“The Zact exhibit with the butterflies and the live model was a step forward in art and fashion,” says Norman Mier, brand manager of Zact Toothpaste. “It was an advancement in the industry, like our toothpaste. It connected with the followers of YStyle to their world — different, unique, and ahead of the pack.”

“It’s so situational,” Mimi says. “I really wanted to immerse the people in the environment. More than looking at something two-dimensional, I want to show people what it’s like to be inside the art work more than anything.”

Vertical landscape theory

Havaianas x Rabbithole Creatives

“Because it was going to be a sort of a formal dinner,” Aram says, “this idea of the chandeliers came through… Since the whole event is fun formal, binabasag lang talaga namin lahat ng concept ng formal.” And true enough, instead of the usual extravagant, baroque chandeliers typically found at formal dinners, the chandelier they constructed for Havaianas felt like a deconstruction. “We made it a little more industrial — exposing hanging wires, exposed bulbs, and the Havaianas slippers.”

For their part, Havaianas seems happy with the collaboration. “A Havaianas chandelier with crystal trim was an apt symbol of the brand’s influence in the market — it elevated a once perceived ‘lowly’ product into something desirable and iconic,” says Havaianas’ Anne Gonzalez. “And YStyle was key in building that brand cred in our early days.”

As a finishing touch, RabbitHole thought of adding an environment to amplify the installation’s impact. “We decided to up the ante a little bit,” Aram explains, “by putting the chandeliers in an enclosed area surrounded with VHS tapes. It added a little bit of mood.”

Speed

Tattoo x Mimi Sanson-Viola and Arvin Viola

“I approached each installation differently. I did this with my husband (cinematographer) Alvin Viola,” explains Mimi.

“And since Tattoo is very technical and all about mobility, we thought about doing a video. We thought that would be more appropriate more than anything static. Since they wanted something to do with speed, we wanted to convey that through the movement. We shot in all the trains in Metro Manila — LRT 1, 2, and the MRT.”

In a real sign of the times, guests whipped out their iPhones and started taking photos against the installation — sure to be Instagrammed later on. “Insta-art,” Garovs Vergara of Everywhere We Shoot joked.

“The Tattoo art installation is a true depiction and mirror of the lives of our target and subscribers,” Tattoo’s Dong Ronquillo says. “It’s living without limits and their demand for speed.”

“I was really happy that Tattoo was willing to embrace something not commercial,” Mimi says. “It’s an installation and they were really supportive of the project. It  conveyed speed — but in a way that’s very modern, very now. They understand what Millenials want.”

Photos by Tammy David and ANTON AGUILA