Some of the paintings featured in 'Pers Lab Atbp'.
As pioneers of the Original Pilipino Music subgenre people now refer to as The Manila Sound, Hotdog has crafted some of the biggest sing-along hits in pop music history.
With lyrics that are often witty and playful, tunes like Pers Lab”, “Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko”, “Manila”, “Annie Batungbakal”, “Bongga Ka Day” and “Beh Buti Nga” tell stories that generations of music fans continue to relate to—as proven by several successful reunion concerts of the band over the last three years.
So it comes as no surprise to see these songs interpreted by six different painters in the ongoing art exhibit “Pers Lab Atbp”. Dubbed as “the most anticipated art/music event of the year”, the undertaking was spearheaded by no less than Hotdog’s founding bass player and chief songwriter, Dennis Garcia.
Hotdog founding member Dennis Garcia (second from left) with featured artists Nelson Cruz, Myra Mendoza-Portillo, Dennis Magdamo and Bong Pedro.
An accomplished advertising executive himself who also dabbles in finger painting, Dennis, known as simply Mr. D to close friends, asked five of his creative friends in the industry to help him put up the exhibit.
“Four months ago, I wanted to do a book of my lyrics so I asked my friend, Nelson Cruz, to help me visualize. He said why don’t we do a better idea so we did this instead,” Dennis recalled in an interview with InterAksyon during the opening of the art exhibit last October 4 at Art Galileia at The Fort.
Aside from Dennis and Nelson, who is currently a sought-after director of television commercials, the featured artists of “Pers Lab Atbp” also include former ABS-CBN casting director Myra Mendoza-Portillo, mixed visual artist Dennis Magdamo, creative director Bong Pedro and the internationally acclaimed Fernando Modesto, who is billed as special guest artist.
The exhibit consisted of these artists’ interpretations of Hotdog’s greatest hits as well as other popular and little known gems written or co-written by Mr. D not only for the band but also for other artists. In deciding how the songs will be distributed, Dennis decided on simply raffling them off.
“Siyempre, nahiya naman ako if I get all the good songs. I got all the lesser known songs which is fine by me,” he exclaimed.
“The song was written from a lady’s point of view with lyrics like ‘taghiyawat sa ilong, ice cream na bilad’ pero hindi lang naman babae ang nagkakaroon ng first love. Pati mga lalaki din and sometimes that first love stays with us for a long time. And guys sort of remember them mostly during those lonely moments when they need a physical release,” he said with a wink.
Another eye-catching painting is Bong Pedro’s take on “BADAF Forever”, a song written by Dennis for the Hagibis parody group Charing back in the early ’80s. Pedro’s artwork is also partly a homage to the immortal album cover of “Abbey Road” album and in no way mocks the Fab Four or even remotely suggests that they are gay.
“I’m a Beatles fan kasi so yan ang naisip kong pinakamagaling na interpretation kasi The Beatles during the 60s wore a lot of flowery clothes so yun lang yun,” he explained.
Then there’s Dennis Magdamo’s mixed media concoction of “Annie Batungbakal”. Being both an art designer and a photographer, Magdamo was able to deftly blend the two media together to come up with a very compelling interpretation of one of the band’s best hits, which later inspired the film of the same title starring Nora Aunor.
“Interpreting the songs of Hotdog proved to be a very stimulating and challenging experience for me,” he admitted. “In ‘Annie Batungbakal’, the song goes, ‘Sa umaga dispatsadora, sa gabi siya’s bonggang bongga’, so I decided to interpret her as a split personality that showed her two sides and then merged them into one.”
Other highlights in the exhibit are artworks interpreting “Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko,” “Manila,” “Bongga Ka, ‘Day”, “Ikaw Pa Rin,” “O, Lumapit Ka,” “Langit Na Naman”, “Bandang Pinoy” “Dying to Tell You,” “Panaginip,” “Behh, Buti Nga” and “Careful, Careful”. These songs were also played in the background during the opening.
Although the exhibit will run until October 14, most of the paintings were already sold during the first day. That is why Mr. D is already at work on a sequel of sorts.
“We’re planning another art exhibit called ‘OPM Forever’ that will cover popular OPM hits and not just the songs I wrote,” he announced. Asked if fellow OPM artists will also be invited to contribute paintings, Dennis said many of his fellow composers also dabble in painting, citing TV5’s “Wow Mali Pa Rin” host Joey De Leon as an example that he just might invite.
And yes, there will be another Hotdog reunion concert this coming November. “Hopefully, people will come to see us again,” he concluded.
‘Pers Lab Atbp’ art exhibit immortalizes Hotdog’s greatest hits on canvas
Source: InterAksyon.com (October 06, 2013 at 04:47PM)
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