Shrunken oddities
Viewing Igan D’Bayan’s recent solo show at the Secret Fresh Sky Gallery in Ronac Art Center, Magallanes is like touring an alternative realm, a rare experience of slipping into a dimension where strange creatures exist and uncanny events happen.
The odd and the bizarre resonate with every figure and image one encounters in the exhibition, from armed human and animal hybrids to gigantic insects oozing with gooey secretions. But such an imaginarium may not be totally detached from the world we live our lives. We read about them in mythologies, folklore, and fairytales, and unusual beings thrive in popular culture such as in sci-fi or horror films. They are the main attractions of freak shows in fairs and carnivals. They have become an integral part of our culture and expressions. As a visual artist, D’Bayan’s oeuvre has always dealt with the weird, mysterious, and unexplainable getting enmeshed with the factual and historical. This gathering of works is no exception where the link between the real and unreal is explored on multiple levels.
Titled “Dioramas of Doom,” the exhibition features several small framed dioramas, a large-scale painting, and a set of designer toys. Inspired by a childhood experience of visiting a museum for the first time and being fascinated by its dioramas on display, he has recently become fixated on crafting his own dioramas and began incorporating such devices in his artistic language. The choice of this medium to communicate narratives, in turn, has transformed mind-boggling forms and unexplainable occurrences into miniatures and playthings.
With this intervention, the artist attempts to grasp those things which defy human logic into intelligible form and scale, giving the unfathomable a semblance of being fully understood and of predictability. In the same manner as a child would make sense of the complex adult world through the lens of his toys and games, oddities and questions that baffle the most advanced knowledge systems are processed into small replicas which are more amusing and entertaining than causing anxiety or paranoia. Even the process of constructing the compositions relives a child’s experience of mixing and matching toys to create a scenario from life. D’Bayan relates that he scoured stores in search of action figures and took delight in writing stories through the assortment of objects he has collected.
Turned into toys and action figures and assembled with dried leaves and flowers, visions of monsters and beasts become a fun, inanimate and non-threatening assemblage. Visualized in this manner, imagery that belongs to our nightmares and irrational fears deeply embedded in our consciousness are reassuringly encased in make-believe compositions. This is primarily how such themes appeal to audiences in film or television. They can shock or awe viewers because they connect to their own imagination. People watching, however, are relieved from experiencing the actual danger.
As strange as they may seem, each piece can also be taken as a potent metaphor or allegory of real-life issues confronting the society and the individual. They can speak of social ills and illustrate values, much like how the didactic function of mythology operates. Take for instance the bunny-headed creature seemingly appearing before an imaginary crowd and proclaiming a new regime. This is an all too familiar picture of the dreaded political figure with a lust for power which have risen and fallen throughout human history. The animalheaded bodies dressed in human clothing, as well as skulls and human heads atop animal and insect bodies set in domestic spaces, may perhaps remind us of inhuman action, conduct, and behavior. Or they may well be allusions to threats encroaching the perceived safety and comfort of our dear homes, referencing crimes and violence that we hear in the news on an everyday basis. Read in this light, the title, “Dioramas of Doom,” becomes a stark reminder of an eventual failure or destruction brought about by our own doings.
Though strange and outright unbelievable, the scenes presented in the exhibition may really be fragments of idioms from the real world about fears that constantly haunt humanity, those that have crept from the pits of man’s imagination all the way to the physical world and have materialized into the real and experienced. In these instances, the proverbial saying that “truth is stranger than fiction” reverberates strongly and accurately describes this interesting moment we are living in.
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