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MANILA, Philippines - Who is this Dutch sculptor whose figurative installations combine a touch of ironic Old Master tableaux vivant-style composition with a strong dose of the macabre?

He was born in Egmond aan Zee in the Netherlands. His installations are life-size representations of disturbing scenes including human figures and props formed from materials such as polyurethane and Styrofoam. His work often references the uncanny and takes influence from the aesthetics horror and the history of conflict, war and politics.

Frozen in permanent gestures like ventriloquist’s dummies (“The Peckhamian Mimic,” 2007), sometimes quasi-drunkenly gurning or grinning, as in “Asalto de la Diligencia” (2008) or expressionlessly looking on, these posturing figures have an eerie charge, like carnivalesque puppet grim reapers rising from the detritus of post-industrial culture, poignantly made out of a material that will not last.

Thematically, his carefully decayed constructions often deal with unfair deals, profiteering, and the ghosts of colonialism and imperialism. The figures in “The Dance” (2008) all happen to be made from a single mould, based on a composite of a 16th-17th century trader character amalgamated from historical figures such as Pedro de Alvarado, Peter de Minuit and Hernan Cortes, as well as Rembrandt’s “Nightwatch.”

The installation recalls the monument in New York’s Battery Park celebrating the Dutch purchase of Manhattan for some beads and mirrors; here, as the artist explains, “the clones are trading with themselves, their own kind, ripping off each other and dancing towards their destiny; self-destruction.” The characters’ grand, nightmarish song and dance has a deathly tone, with its symbolic black coating, like dripping tar.

There is something inherently perverse about making such carefully crafted figures out of a material so trashy, fragile and ephemeral. The desolate figures in “The Shooting Lesson” (2007) recreate characters taken from Picasso’s “Les Saltimbanques,” melancholy harlequins reminiscent of the cycle of life and of human powerlessness.

“We humans have to face the fact that we are part of a natural process, no matter who or where you are on planet earth. It is embedded in our system, but there is hope! Morality, intelligence and compassion can save us.”

Last week’s question: Who is the French born chef whose Left Bank Brasseries were named one of the eight wonders of Bay Area dining by the San Francisco Chronicle?

Answer: Roland Passot

Winner: Alfred Competente of Bulacan

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Text your answer to 0915-6486414 with your name and address. One winner will be chosen through a raffle of texts with the correct answer. The winner will receive P2,000 worth of SM gift certificates for use at Our Home, SM Department Store, or SM Supermarket. They can claim their prize at Our Home in SM Megamall. Call the store manager at 634-1951.Bring photocopies of two valid IDs and a clipping of the Design Quiz issue in which you appear as winner.