Igan D'Bayan in NU107's The Magazine Show
MANILA, Philippines - The Magazine Show debuts on its new time slot tomorrow, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.on NU 107 with special guest Igan D’Bayan, today’s hottest and most controversial artist who is a favorite of connoisseurs of art and free will.
An artist, musician and journalist, Igan who works for The Philippine STAR as a Lifestyle sub-editor, has exhibited in five solo exhibitions in Manila for The Crucible Gallery and was featured in several group shows abroad.His works grab us by the neck and shake us up into facing the darkest corner of our soul.
His painting for the 2009 Asian International Art Exhibition (AIAE) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — his take on conjugal dictatorship and maligno stories of barrio folk, replete with skulls, bones, breasts and genitalia — was deemed unfit to be exhibited at the National Art Gallery in KL.
Igan considers his work as a deconstruction of the idyllic into a gothic, meta-historical horror-show of sorts, with an emphasis on the gluttony, violence and dread that characterize the backwaters of Philippine history, as well as everything sick and subnormal about contemporary Filipino life.
He calls it, “Weird Filipiniana.”
The artist finds inspiration in horror and slasher movies (from art-house cinema to Lionsgate movies), sci-fi horror video games (Resident Evil, Dead Space), heavy metal iconography, as well as books about the Nazis, human atrocities, the occult and mysterious diseases. Although he considers Francis Bacon, Damien Hirst and H.R. Giger huge influences, he doesn’t try to ape their style. “I think I steal more from writers and filmmakers. My favorites are Kafka and Borges, Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch. When I get painter’s block, I watch The Holy Mountain or Eraserhead, or my precious Gunther Von Hagens autopsy DVD.”
In the words of art critic Cid Reyes, “In D’Bayan’s serial paintings, we see humanity descend into the depths of interior darkness. This is Expressionism wielding a hatchet. (His) works exude a miasma, a vaporous exhalation of death, decay and devastation.”
Igan’s most recent show, “Dead Beliefs and Black Vomits” at the SM Art Center, featured deranged subjects such as Nietzsche depicted as a dog beside Beelzebub in a Nazi uniform, the White Castle Whisky girl transformed into a sideshow freak on a pale horse heralding despair, a pant-less Charles Darwin carrying a green alien baby, Hitler being fellated by a golem, Marcosian monsters, dogs of real politics, and the whole medieval evilness of Martial Law, among others.
Sam Marcelo of Business World writes, “Blow jobs, inverted crosses, and genitals are visual clichés for artist Igan D’Bayan. In ‘Dead Beliefs and Black Vomits,’ he makes generous use of them to poke fun at ideologies… (How) all these isms — Christianism, Nazism, Darwinism, Satanism — end up failing and corroding their followers.”
The Magazine Show goes on air every Saturday 1p.m. on NU 107, with hosts model Raya Mananquil and surf photographer Mark Dimalanta.
Also, get a cut from only the best this Saturday as The Reel Score features the funny Adam Sandler film You Don’t Mess With The Zohan featuring tracks from The Human League, Balkin Beat Box, Pretty Poison and more. Guesting on the show is Basement Salon executive and sought-after hair savant, Stefan Wilczynski, as he talks about his profession of choice. Get to really know Stefan on The Reel Score with hosts Roanna Ruiz and Martin Jelsma, 11 a.m.to 12 nn this Saturday on NU107.
You can catch both shows live on the webcast www.nu107fm.com.
