Text and photos ELIZABETH LOLARGA
BILLED as “the most anticipated artistic/musical event of the year, ” the show “Pers Lab” carries the advertising profession’s glib hyperbole. Nevertheless, the six artists (Nelson Cruz, Dennis Garcia, Dennis Magdamo, Bong Pedro, Fernando Modesto and Myra Portillo) pleasantly surprise and lend substance to their claim.
Opening night at Art Galileia was graced by notables in the advertising, public relations and pop culture worlds. What the artists did with the lyrics of the Hotdog Band’s hits from the ’70s that defined a generation is beyond wit. It IS wit.
The exercise is ekphrasis in reverse. In ekphratic poems, artworks inspire verses. This time the subjects are those words set to music that teeny boppers and twenty-somethings grooved to. Garcia called them “painting songs. I have no other way of describing them.”
Watercolorist Portillo was a Hotdog fan in college. She and Garcia worked later at an ad agency. Of her youth, she said, “Our generation was into discos. ‘Annie Batungbakal’ was a song all of us connected to.’
She recounted the creative process: “We were assigned five songs each. These were raffled off. One song that ‘picked me’ was ‘Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko,’ an iconic song of modern Pinoy music. I didn’t want to paint a beauty queen to make the painting easily identifiable with the song. The lyrics are about a woman who is the love of a man’s life, more beautiful than any Miss Universe.”
She chose her daughter as model, making her wear a crown of flowers to suggest the image of loveliness that Miss Universe stands for.
Watercolors have been her hobby for years. She paints landscapes and still life until Garcia brought up the idea of interpreting songs through paintings.
She recalled, “I wasn’t confident that I could deliver. It meant painting portraits, something I was not good at. ‘Painting songs’ was his maverick idea. One must glimpse what the songwriter was thinking when he wrote the songs in order to interpret them.”
Cruz, an expatriate ad guy until he switched to directing TV commercials, said of Garcia, “I was a little intimidated by the prospect of working with him, but he turned out to be a kind-hearted, inspiring leader. I first saw him in the ’70s on TV as part of the Red Fox band. They were outrageous!”
He continued, “As a student whose music revolved around what my father played on his phono (Matt Monroe and Sousa’s marches), I thought the band was the devil incarnate. Soon after, I saw him with Hotdog playing bass on ‘Ikaw ang Miss Universe.’ The mellower sound was to my liking. The lyrics caught my attention–they were simple and street-wise. Hotdog songs spoke of life as I knew it to be.”
About his title painting “Pers Lab,” he called it “a lover’s longing for her beau and the effects this had on her. I chose to paint it from a man’s point of view, less romantic and more erotic. Let’s face it, men remember their first love differently from women. I put myself in the shoes, or briefs, of a lonely Pinoy seaman in his bunker, pining for his first love and doing what his loins urge him to be done. I sent a picture of ‘Pers Lab’ to Dennis, and he laughed. I knew I had nailed it.”
About lyrics being the source of a painter’s inspiration, Cruz said, “I’ve always liked Don Maclean’s ‘Starry Night’ inspired by Van Gogh’s painting. It gave an extra dimension to the great painting, bringing it closer to people’s hearts. Doing the reverse is interesting. Songs affect us in different ways. Seeing how artists are inspired by a song to do a visual interpretation of the same may give birth to great artworks.”
Pedro, an ad agency creative director, met Garcia when he applied as Bozell Worldwide art director. He said, “I was in school when these hits were playing on the radio. I was fortunate to get songs I’m familiar with in the raffle. It made it easier for me to interpret them.”
Modesto described his first encounter with Hotdog’s “Manila Sound”: “It is the soundtrack of my youth. It caught everyone’s attention. We were all singing it. Until today the lyrics are embedded in my brain.”
He picked “Bongga Ka Day” in the raffle. “It’s the pinaka-bonggang Hotdog song–so Pinoy in essence and spirit dahil bongga talaga tayong mga Pinoy. We’re full of energy, fun and creativity–bongga talaga! ‘Amoy Pinipig’ is so relatable. It used to be the line of Dolphy to his wife Marsha in ‘John en Marsha’ whenever he felt extra romantic.”
“Pers Lab” runs until Oct. 14. Art Galileia is on the second level, Fort Pointe, 28th st., Bonifacio Global City of Taguig.