Past, Present, Future... 3-in-1 in Ayala Museum

I promised myself that I will to go to a new place or try something new every week and last weekend, the pre-Valentine’s weekend, was no exemption. And since my friend and I vowed to spend Valentine’s together until the day we remove our “I AM SINGLE” stamp on our foreheads, we decided to return to being students… a field trip in the Ayala Museum.

I was actually hoping to go ice skating that weekend since I wanted to at least learn how to stand with the skates on. But since my friend’s idea was less painful, I decided to go with her idea. *Off to the Ayala Museum*

Entrance fee was P225 and we gain access to all the exhibits. During our visit, there were a total of 5 exhibits: Face to Face: Portraiture in a digital age , Diorama of the Historical Philippines,  Boat Gallery, Paintings of Damian Domingo and pioneers of Philippine art such as Luna, Amorsolo and Zobel, Gold of Ancestors, Garments of the past (embroideries), and Ceramics. We toured the museum from the first floor to the fourth so our first stop was the exhibit on digital art.

The digital art was… interesting. It featured several Australian artists using different media to create digital art. There are digital photography, videos (I can still remember the girl dancing to the tune of Pussycat Dolls), and even interactive programs (there was an artwork that could answer your questions… sort of). The ventriloquist dummy was freaky! I do not remember what he was talking about but I know that it was something about the future and it was very pessimistic.

Next stop is the Diorama exhibit. We were first greeted by the boat gallery which was really big and well-made. I find the illustration of different people—from the aetas to Rizal to the American soldiers—and how tall they are very interesting. Too bad though that we could not take pictures inside (I was super tempted to take a snapshot but my conscience won’t let me!). The dioramas were also very nice. There was even a diorama with the people painting and there are drawings on the small canvases. Good job! J I find some diorama though a bit not well portrayed such as the fight between Magellan and Lapu-Lapu. The ones dead were all Spaniards. It is just like the photo chosen for the fight between PacMan and Morales—the picture showed PacMan punching Morales on the face. There was also a room showing video clips of Martial Law and the EDSA Revolution.

The painting exhibit is on the third floor and I fell in love with the painting of the Holy Family. It was painted on wood and it was well-preserved. It was painted around 1700s and it is still very much intact. I think we spent the most time in the painting exhibit because we were trying to understand what some of the paintings were trying to say. And we failed in some.

The next exhibit is the embroidered garments of the past. I noticed that some of the garments came from other countries and I was stumped by that. WHY? Anyway, some of the accessories exhibited were pretty nice. Who knew that Filipinas back then were fashionistas already? There were also drawers which you could pull to see what’s inside. Quite an attractive feature for kids.

Moving on to the next exhibit… gold! The gold accessories of the past were crazy! The earrings were VERY BIG and I could not imagine wearing them. No wonder in some illustrations, our ancestors piercings were as big a plates. It seems that gold was very abundant before because even bowls were gold. There were also golden belts and hilts. Moreover, the dead were masked in gold. My friend and I even kidded that the reason why they stopped putting gold over the face and just covered they eyes and lips was because they realized that it does not give justice to the nose.

The last exhibit showcased the ceramics of China and other Southeast Asian countries. This is probably the exhibit I find least interesting. I guess it is because I could still see a lot of ceramics that look a lot like the ancient ones. It must be because of the strong cultural influence of China.

The ceramics was the last exhibit but since we were “tourists” we have to stop by the museum shop. I forced myself to buy a souvenir, thus I bought the cheapest one I could find… a pack of pencils. But there are also nice notebooks, only it is on the expensive side. L

It was indeed an interesting weekend. I do not normally visit a museum but after this trip, I am now inclined to visit the National Museum and of course… Museo Pambata. J