Backyard of the Universe

Being an avid fan of Valerie Chua, I’ve been dying  to attend her first exhibit called Backyard of the Universe since its opening. Sadly, I can’t seem to do it. So when I found out that she was giving a talk together with other artists last week, I knew my chance finally came. 

The day came and I finally met Valerie in person and asked her if I could take a photo of her and she agreed. I really want to have a picture with her. But at the time, there was no one around and I don’t want to risk taking our photo the selca way because I’m not good with it. Anyway, she is really nice and approachable. I even asked her where the exact location of her exhibit (it was inside Heima) but she wasn’t sure if it was open. 

I finally reached Heima but I got disappointed because it was closed. Well, not entirely closed. When I got there, there was a close sign on the door but there were two ladies inside: a customer and a cashier. I tried to get their attention but I didn’t think they saw or hear me. After several seconds another lady went inside (apparently, I didn’t check if the door was really locked, that’s stupid of me I know) and asked her if I could enter, she nodded. Whew! That’s a relief. So, I started taking photos. The paintings are really wonderful in real life rather than seeing them online. If I only had the money, I would really buy one. There were fourteen paintings in total. The one I super like is the piece called The Fall is Short on Higher Ground. I hate the fact that my photos didn’t give justice at all. Oh, if you want to see her other paintings in larger view, kindly go to her blog. 

After some time, the two ladies went outside and when I turned around the cashier was waiting for me outside because she would lock the door. So I hurried taking photos, it would be embarrassing on my part if I kept her waiting. Besides, Valerie’s talk was about to start and I didn’t want to miss that. Thus, that explains why I only got few photos (yet this entry is quite long, haha). But that’s okay. I still got what I want even though I saw the exhibit very briefly. 

Apparently, it was a roller coaster ride for me that day. But it was all worth it. I’ve learned from the talk, saw Valerie in person and saw her lovely works. What would you say? Hitting three birds with one stone eh. Having said that, I'm ending this post with my favorite piece from the exhibit. 

P.S. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Heima. I often see features about them on magazines, blogs and television and I really like their furniture, analog and paper stuff. It’s my first time being there and I discovered that they offer a lot of products ranging from stationeries, cute lampshades, some artworks, even vinyl records and a lot of awesome stuff. Btw, Heima’s scent was so refreshing. It smelled like fresh-cut wood in Spring. And lastly, Happy Holidays! ♥♥♥

Japan: Kingdom of Characters Exhibit

You had probably know by now how fascinated I am in the Japanese culture that’s why every time I had the chance to attend an event (exhibit, anime and cosplay conventions, seminars, workshops and the likes) that has something to do with it, I always attend it. So last week, I went to the last day of Japan: Kingdom of Characters, a travelling mini-exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum and brought by Japan Foundation. More info here.

I know beforehand that taking photos is not allowed that's why I didn't bring Zephyr, my camera and it's really disappointing. So to compensate, I googled some photos of the exhibit to share with you guys so that you have an idea what the exhibit looked like.  

The exhibit was composed of a timeline of famous anime and Japanese characters as well as significant events in Japan during the past decades. 

I want to have every Hello Kitty item on this one. 

There were life-size displays of Ultraman, Neon Genesis Evengelion, Mobile Suit Gundam, Hello Kitty which I seriously want to take home! There were also short anime videos of the new forms of animations which I'm not really familiar with. There were also mini-figures from Tenjou Tenge. Moreover, there were pictures of how these characters affect the Japanese on their daily lives. 

Random:

After an hour or so after I arrived, I heard a lot of noises and when I turned my back, I was surprised that the exhibit was filled with people, most of them students. It turned out that there was a field trip going on. They even have mistaken me as someone from it. Haha.

The photos above were taken during the exhibit's opening night. I didn’t see this Doraemon mascot (?) when I went to the exhibit. What happened? 

Since it’s a travelling exhibit, I also found some photos of the exhibit on other countries. This first one was taken from an Autrallian Museum. I also learned that because of the anime characters’ prominence, they were also used by the Japanese government for some of their projects.  Some of the famous ones were Sentokun, Namisuke and Hikonyan. There were life size displays of Sentokun and Namisuke in the exhibit but Hikonyan was missing.  The second to the last photo is Sentokun and the last one is a close up of Hello Kitty life-size display with Namisuke at the back. I’m not sure where the last two photos were from though I provided their links which are found below. 

I did enjoy the exhibit because it takes you back to your childhood. For a time, I became nostalgic and asked myself, “Has it been that long already?.” On the other hand, I felt that it's an almost but not quite enjoyment because it lacks some other famous characters like Dragonball, Naruto, Sailormoon etc. that leaves a special room for the hearts of Filipinos, especially those who practically grew up with them. The timeline is also not updated. As you can see from the timeline photos, it ended in 2000s and a decade had already passed. Apparently new anime had became famous such as Bleach, Death Note, K-On, One Piece among others.

Nonetheless I still enjoyed it. It’s worth the time and effort. I also checked some exhibits inside Met and I really enjoyed looking to all of them to the point that I was the last visitor who left. Haha. :) Until my next Japanese related event adventure. Sorejā.

Photo credits:     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14