HAPPY.



    


PROJECT PROFILE

Time: Variable
Space: Variable


CREDITS
Musical Score: 
"Thunderbolt" "Cosmogony" and "Show Me Forgiveness" by Björk 
"Roland's Nightmare" by TJ Dimacali 
"Sleepwa[l]king" and "2B Happy" by Donna Isadora Gimeno 
"Spiegel Im Spiegel" byArvo Pärt
Videography:  Part 2 (Sleepwa[l]king)by Mecca Maranga
Collaborators: Edd Buenaviaje, Timothy James Dimacali, Donna Isadora Gimeno, Mecca Maranga Archie Uy, A Group of Anonymous Participants, the audience
Photo Documentation: by Archie Uy / Edd Buenaviaje / Mark Philipp Opada
Other Media: Performance Projections- [prologue] [part 1 extract] [part 2] [part 3 extract] [credits]
"To Step Outside In" words by Russ Ligtas


Happy is color. That unique color inherent in every human born. Happy’s strings pull the ends of a mouth to form a genuine smile. The silver in its raiment reflect sparkles of illuminated eyes. Happy is also a song, a yawp of freedom echoing in the mountains. But Happy is lost- or its human is. Either way, they have been separated. Its human might not even recognize it anymore but Happy will not stop its search. Because among other things, Happy is also hope.




Happy is an intermedia participatory performance work that includes video art, butoh, music, poetry, and audience interaction. The performance features collaborations with various artists as well as appropriations of music and lyrics that figure heavily on the artist's the personal journey and ultimately informed the composition of the performance narrative.

On 6th of October 2009- Happy was born in room 229, a space subdivided into four studios for the Fine Arts students of the University of the Philippines. On that same night and place, “XO?” Performance Art Group was staging a show entitled Please Don’t Talk To The Natives. Happy was born a healthy glob of color in the second space to the left but was unfortunately given away by its birth parent –its human. Since then, Happy has been in search of its elusive counterpart, wandering the cities, splashing and sharing its colorful essence wherever its path leads.


The HAPPY. show is divided into three parts with a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue features Happy in a slideshow of photos by collaborator Archie Uy. Roland, Happy's human, is introduced in Part One as he finds himself in a nightmare that confronts him with his soul's true nature. Part Two involves a pre-produced collaboration between the artist and invited participants where they are asked to complete a certain phrase that is included in the final projected video featured in this section of the show. In Part Three, the artist projects an anthem-in-text piece called "To Step Outside In" as backdrop for the continuing narrative.