An unplanned visit to Vinyl on Vinyl at Makati this week led us to the “Memory Vault” exhibit by visual and performance artist, Jellyfish Kisses’ (real name Anton Belardo).
Her 8th solo show features illustrative paintings, digital avatars, and various knick knacks that interpret memories collected from her previous interactive exhibit, “Memory Bank” that was launched this year at Alt Philippines. With the topic of memories being the forefront of this series, we recall the age old quote “memories last forever”, but do they really?
Going Down Memory Lane
Inspired by prompts and descriptions submitted from her last exhibit at Alt Philippines, Jellyfish Kisses brought to life the participants’ memories by getting a feeling of what they were trying to say and combining literal and abstract elements from their entries to create patchwork-like art pieces.
“Overall, it’s really interesting to see what other people would consider important memories”
Jellyfish Kisses, on her process for this work.
The memory series is the artist’s way of dealing with personal things that are happening in her life. “I started focusing and exploring on the idea of memories during the time my mom got dementia”, Jellyfish Kisses shared.
When Pictures are not Enough
Jellyfish Kisses collaborated with digital artist Jet Torrevillas to create an art video that plays back different numbered memories in a cyber dream world. It features the artist’s original characters and faceless humanoids relieving their memory. Aside from the video, she also displayed various items that serve as literal and physical memory souvenirs.
Taking a glimpse into Jellyfish Kisses’ interpretation of memories, we are left with the idea that, while memories are indeed fleeting, the feelings that we’ve attached to these will always remain.
Memory Vault will be on exhibit at Vinyl on Vinyl (La Fuerza, Makati) until September 4, 2024.
