Cosmic comics

MANILA, Philippines - The last time comedian, TV host, movie star, songwriter, STAR columnist and visual artist Joey de Leon mounted an art exhibit, it involved Joey interacting with the masters in rendering the face of Christ — Ang Kiukok, Cesar Legaspi, Malang, Joya, Juvenal Sanso, Onib Olmedo, Napoleon Abueva, Federico Alcuaz, Ephraim Samson, and Romulo Olazo, among other greats. “Lent Goes Rock,” it was called. The poster depicts the messiah in shades, a harbinger of the artworks that were on view in that show: Jesus redux, reinvented, revaluated and — pardon the pun — rechristened. That was in 1985. That was 24 years ago. Finale Art File was still in Pasay Road. Jack Nicholson had yet to play the Joker. The world was a stranger animal then.

Joey didn’t stop painting, though. He would do a number on wood or canvas and keep it in storage, the way he has kept casino chips, writings (songs, poems, scripts), photos and souvenirs from trips abroad in boxes and wooden chests. You could consider those paintings as mental postcards — snapshots of an artist’s temperament at that time. He even has five-minute spray-painted nudes. The clown, of course, will forever be a fascination for Joey. Not just because he is one of the kings of comedy (along with Tito Sotto and Vic Sotto).

“I like things that are colorful — carousels, jukeboxes, slot machines, and clowns,” Joey explains, adding that he has done paintings of jesters with ice cream, with balloons, etc. “(I never got into) mother-and-child paintings. Hindi ako nag-ganoon. Gusto ko laging kakaiba.”

Now, he returns to the art scene with a show that opens on June 30, 6 p.m., at The Crucible Gallery. (This is a two-man show with artist Igan D’Bayan. “Joey’s Fish & Chips + Igan’s Heavy Mental” are on view until July 12.)

De Leon presents clown and fish paintings, using casino chips as a metaphor for chance and — what he learned from his longtime friend, the late National Artist Ang Kiukok — “accidental beauty.”

Joey recalls, “Sabi ni Kiukok sa ‘kin, ‘Minsan may dumi na (dapat) pabayaan.’” It happens often: Drips or dribbles the artist didn’t plan, or deliberately put, start acquiring transcendent beauty, becoming enchanting mistakes. (Jackson Pollock was obviously a believer in that, too. Same with contemporary masters like Julian Schnabel and Anselm Kiefer.)

De Leon’s association with Kiukok has been legendary. They’ve been mag-kumpare since the ’80s. Joey recalls hanging out in Kiukok’s studio before heading for his daily Eat Bulaga! appearances. Joey has around 200 Kiukok paintings — clowns, Christ, and (not the usual subject of the master) lotuses. And, ah, get this: In a scene from Romeo Loves Juliet, the big-spending patriarch played by Joey wants to impress his wife played by Ai-Ai de las Alas by getting her an “Ang Kiukok.” He comes back with, not a painting but, the artist himself (Nyak!), with Kiukok doing a cameo in that movie.

Embedded into Joey’s paintings are casino chips he collects from his Las Vegas sojourns — from Crown, Holland, MGM Grand, The Venetian, Desert Inn, and Circus Circus, among others. There is even a casino chip from the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer, depicting a risen Christ. Casino chips, according to him, are somewhat like paintings: They accrue in value the rarer they get. A chip from those old, dismantled casinos in Cuba command as much as $10,000 — that is if you can find one.

“Natuwa lang ako, kasi wala pa akong narinig na gumawa nito before. Naisip ko nga sa next show ‘Food on Wood’ naman (laughs).”

His comic side comes out in the titles of his paintings and the pose of his subjects. One clown wears a fish for a wig (“Hairfish”). Another lovingly cradles a fish (“Sleep in Heavenly Fish”). There are naughty ones as well (“Titi the Clown” and “Pussy-Eating Fish”), which only an Escalera Brother could come up with. One clown has his fingers bitten off by a piranha, with blood dripping (“The Fish That Ate My Peace”), which Joey says is his “most D’Bayan-ish painting.”

Joey loves the offbeat. He hangs out in Salvador Dali museums, started liking Rene Magritte because of his kids. He loves the mind-altering surreal visions of both.

But De Leon also dabbles in the surreal himself, as exemplified by his Metropop-winning song (for the special Rappin’ Rock category) Langgonisang Maong, Dagang Denims in the late ’70s. O kay puting uwak. Yelong maitim. Sorbetes na bato. Sarili mong bangkay ay makikita mo. The entire lyrics, believe it or not, came to him in a dream. What is the surreal after all but the dominion of dreams. Mahiwaga ka, Panaginip.

“Natutulog ako sa middle room sa bahay nina Vic sa Malate na nagiba na ngayon. Nakakatakot ’yung room na ’yun — may mga paintings doon ng mga ninuno nila na parang nakatingin sa ’yo kahit saan ka pumunta. Isang gabi, napanaginipan ko ’yung buong kanta. Dalawa lang (na images) ang tinanggal ko.

Joey shakes his head. “Marami akong panaginip na weird.”

Harlequins From Hell

Speaking of the weird and the demented, Igan D’Bayan’s paintings in “Heavy Mental” were inspired by John Wayne Gacy (a serial killer who dressed up in a clown costume), Slipknot, Amusement, House of 1,000 Corpses, The Nazis and the Occult, Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, his research on historical figures (such as Stalin with his purges, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge), and a song called Langgonisang Maong, Dagang Denims.

“Joey’s line in that particular song ‘Sarili mong bangkay ay makikita mo…’ could very well describe my aesthetics and preferred subjects,” Igan says. That song was hugely influential when D’Bayan first heard it. As a kid, he loved Aliwan comics, Tito, Vic & Joey flicks (particularly Mr. One-Two-Three and Goodah!), Chiquito zombie movies (Estong Tutong, Mang Kepweng) and Joey De Leon solo outings (Starzan, Elvis and James, etc.). 

“I love how Joey’s movies, TV shows, and even artworks appeal to the masses. He made me realize that the goal of an artist is not just to create art for collectors and academics, but to somehow — even elliptically — have something to do with the lives of ordinary people. For these recent paintings, I aimed for a certain look. The combination of Jodorowsky’s crucified dogs and those cute-as-hell Robo-Rats. What’s interesting is that Joey and I didn’t plan on doing clown paintings. It was something serendipitous, an artful accident.”

Igan’s “Heavy Mental” series features paintings such as “Year Zero,” “McManifest Destiny,” “The Final Solution” and the “Great Leap Forward.” Hitler, Idi Amin, and the other members of the “Tuesday Group of That’s Entertainment from Hell” are depicted as evil, insane clowns to underscore the absurdity and dark comedy of historical events.

He has also rendered the Joker defeating Batman, a takeoff from the Ginebra San Miguel logo created by Amorsolo. This work titled ‘The Last Great Arkham Asylum Auction House Painting” is a metaphor for the triumph of the tricksters (Hirst, Koons) over the romantics in contemporary art. 

“Every time I am in Joey’s house talking to him about art over coffee, I still have to pinch myself to check if I were just dreaming it all up. Sometimes, he’d give me a John Lennon CD, or a devil-face shirt ‘Worn By’ Siouxsie Sioux. Now that’s surreal, man.”

D’Bayan concludes, “Joey de Leon is a hero to most Filipino artists of my generation who grew up on Eat Bulaga! and Sesame Street. Joey is like the joker in the Steve Miller song. His recent paintings are a testament that there are more cards up his sleeve.”

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The opening cocktails of “Joey de Leon’s Fish & Chips + Igan D’Bayan’s Heavy Mental” is on June 30, Tuesday, 6 p.m., at The Crucible, fourth floor, SM Megamall A, Mandaluyong City. For information, call Chari Elinzano or Inas Amoyo at 635-6061.