In line with this year’s Earth Day theme, Climate Change, Luis Yee Jr. or Junyee conceived of an outdoor installation Hangin ay Buhay, in praise of wind power as a non-pollutant and clean energy source.
Three hundred bamboo poles stand in the front lawn of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), each topped with a propeller contraption, as an artistic cluster of “windmills”.
The propellers, ingeniously designed from recycled natural materials such as bamboo and corncobs, rotate with the wind silently providing the viewers and passersby a visual experience of the otherwise invisible energy resource. Other propellers appear floating within the installation as they hang from nylon cords that connect the bamboo poles.
It was in 2007 when Junyee last mounted a major outdoor installation at the front lawn, titled Angud: A Forest Once, as a response to the devastation caused by super typhoons and illegal logging in the country. An earlier project on the same site was Isang Daan installed in 1998 for the Philippine Centennial Celebration.
Junyee (b. 1942) is one of the pioneers of installation art practice and the use of biodegradable materials in art-making. His materials are ephemeral, continually renewable like nature itself, and advocate environmental protection. In his recent works, Junyee’s choice of found materials underscores the plight of our rich cultural heritage vis a vis the realities of contemporary life. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, among them the CCP 13 Artists Award (1980), Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award for Sculpture, City of Manila (1989) and the Grand Prize, National Sculpture Competition for the Holocaust Park in Israel (2007).
This bamboo installation will remain until 18 May 2014.
Special thanks to the following artists for their invaluable contribution: Ambie Abaño, Ritche Yee, Eddie Santillan with the assistance of Nicholas Yee, Rodolfo de Guzman, Fernando Olaguer, Wilfredo Escobido, Joaquin Dela Cruz, Bernard Bonto, Mark Anthony Fernandez, Joel Sanguenza, Ramil Fruelda, Jessie Aruta, Nilo Orcullo, Leonilo Carullo, Fernando Catayena, Mark Anthony Perjoles, Gerald Yordan, Neil Gaddi, Rodel Aquino, and Arman Laycano.
For more information, contact the CCP Visual Arts and Museum Division at 832-1125 loc. 1504/1505, or 832-3702, or email ccp.exhibits@gmail.com.
