Present superstition

Artist Nikki Luna’s first show for 2011 with Renan Ortiz as curator in Blanc Gallery at The Peninsula Manila is another installation/conceptual work. Luna has long been “fetishisizing” the everyday, inducing meaning out of common objects by fusing unrelated ideas such as guns and lace, or words and shadows. Now, she puts together grief and gift. The title of her show, Present Superstition, was inspired by “pigeon superstition,” but applied to the meaning of gifts or presents, another work tackling women issues. The movie Mr. Nobody came up with a line that said, “Like most living creatures, the pigeon quickly associates the pressing of a lever with reward. But when a timer releases the seal automatically every 20 seconds, the pigeon wonders, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’ If it was flapping its wings at the time, it will continue to flap, convinced that its actions have a decisive influence on what happens. We call this pigeon superstition.”

The works are made of gifts, wrapping paper made by the artist, brass and stainless metal words (floating), writings on the gallery glass and the huge neon present.

Nikki Luna has her residency in Cooper Union in New York in 2008 and is currently taking up Masters on Women and Development Studies in the University of the Philippines. She had a sold-out show in Milan, Italy with the Primo Marella group exhibition in October 2010 and participated in the Art Stage art fair in Singapore last month. Nikki has a strong social conscience, is civic minded and embraces feminist issues and beliefs. She is active in her non-profit organization startARTproject, which she founded. Her NGO provides art and therapy for young victims of human rights violations, political conflict and abuses.

Luna’s works at Sotheby’s were Unmentionables, pistols she made with resin and lace, which was sold at $12,019 and Rebel Woman, AK47 guns made of resin with lace from old wedding dresses sold at HK$50,000.

Star columnist Cecille Zamora van Straten, who has Nikki’s other Neon work.

On her present exhibit, she applied the idea of presents — gift giving and receiving. She views that traditional practice of society makes this a woman’s role — the gifts as reward, are enticed or given to women after accomplishing certain tasks or roles expected from them. The Big Neon gift seems invisible yet also feels like a cage, which she obviously made intentional.

Music playing in the background during the night was mainly by the British group The Smiths while guests enjoyed drinks and canapés. The show at The Peninsula Manila will run until Feb. 17.

The love generation party

 The First Big Party of 2011 was co-presented by Ray-Ban, the most iconic eyewear brand in the world. Grammy-nominated producer and one of the world’s top DJs Bob Sinclair, who popularized hits like Love Generation, Hold On, Lala Song and the new chart-topping hit Tik Tok featuring Sean Paul, performed at the World Trade Center. He gave such joy to his thousands of fans in the Philippines! This was truly a BIG party to start 2011 as the venue was totally jampacked. Sinclair was obviously the main reason for this as he practically mesmerized the dancing crowd with his music.

Nikki Luna collectors Pauline and Raffy Juan.

Others seen during the event were Star’s Ana Kalaw, Tessa Dragon, designer Rajo Laurel, director Robbie Carmona, Lucas Raven, Kyla Ortigas, Luxasia’s Sigrid Villamil, designer Charina Sarte and DJ Manolet Dario.

This event was a production of Driven and Avant Artist.