December's Museum: Yuchengco Museum

This weekend was the only time that we could find to fit in a visit to a museum this month, as the majority of the month will be spent traveling for Christmas (One more week! I'm so excited that I'll be in Myanmar soon.) and next week I am in the provinces with a group of students for a week of community service.

Hanging Zen Garden

Needless to say, with all of the stress and busyness that comes with the end of the semester we did not want an all day commitment for our museum visit. Turns out that there is a second museum in Makati, one of the closest neighborhoods to where I live, and so we set off to visit the Yuchengco Museum. It is a fairly new museum, having been started in 2005 to house the private collection of Ambassador Alfonso T Yuchengco. Located on four small floors, the museum seems to be mostly dedicated to changing exhibits with a few small rooms of permanent works on display. One of those permanent installations is a hanging zen garden of paper rocks that was a definite focal point.

Special Exhibit: Blessing Manila

Butterfly symmetry

The exhibit on display during our visit was a entitled Blessing Manila and had two floors of work by the Taiwanese artist Yang Ding Xian. We were absolutely enthralled by his symmetrical butterfly pieces that resembled kaleidoscope images on the third floor. Then when we hit the ground floor and came across some mountain inspired work a woman stepped up to us and said "You know, that is the artist right there." So we had the unexpected pleasure of spending 20 minutes talking with Mr. Xian about his work and his inspiration while a nice older man generously translated for us. I will admit that having that opportunity not only made me appreciate his work a lot more, but made me realize just how special it can be to truly understand what an artist is trying to represent with his work. I would have never dreamed that our random museum choice would result in a one-on-one discussion with the featured artist, but it definitely made for a special visit.

Katie listing to Yang Ding Xian

Yuchengco Museum
RCBC Plaza
Corner Ayala and Senator Gil J. Puyat Avenues
Makati City, Metro Manila
Hours: Mon-Sat 10 am-6 pm
Entry Fee: 100 pesos

An Update on Christmas Decorations

Market Market's lights

I thought that perhaps it was time to add an update on Christmas decorations, so you could get a sense of how over the top things get. It has taken me a while to get this together, so this is an idea of where things were in mid-November. Towards the start of the month I noticed that the red star and green Christmas tree had reappeared on the stop lights in my area of town, making me smile as I wait to cross the street.

SM Aura's sea themed decorations

The malls have gone all out. The one closest to me choosing an underwater theme this year, which I suppose is appropriate for the Philippines. I must admit their decorations are beautiful, even if they don't exactly evoke a Christmas feeling to me. I was a bit confused when I waited in line the other day to enter the display only to find a wrap around screen showing basically an aquarium tunnel. No Santa's snorkeling, no reindeer or snow. Not at all what I expected after last year. 

Powerplant mall is decked out

Of course other malls have gone the traditional route. With hanging lights and green trees. In fact Powerplant Mall was so decked out I found it a bit overwhelming. Green garland decked hallways, a huge tree....and then African Saharan animals with scarfs. Ummm...okay. The penguins on the other side of the lobby made a bit more sense to me. Until you start to think that no part of the Philippines gets cold enough for those birds. Sometimes you just have to suspend your sense of reality and enjoy the festive holiday spirit for what it is.

 

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at the over the top decorations this year. After all I saw them last year. When we ventured out to a local market recently it was just stall after stall of Christmas, more Santas then I had ever seen together before. It does just make me wonder where do all the decorations go the other 8 months a year? I do need to get myself out after dark to a couple of places that will begin sound and light shows with the start of December, giving me the opportunity to realize that it does continue to ramp up as we get closer to the holiday.

  

Street market full of Christmas