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Inventing an identity, while not new, seems to be well-suited in the contemporary age.  After all, one has to present something perpetually new to the public, particularly in the newfangled spaces of social media, which allow for the highlighting of certain qualities and the subduing of others. Tyang Karyel presents an aspect of self that luxuriates in pop culture and its ephemeral pleasures, gifted with the ability to synthesize various influences and reflect back to the world a color-candied, ecstatic, and flattened version of itself.

This world, in the context of the installation Playtime Paradiso, is a recognizable corner of the Filipino neighborhood, erected with various establishments that offer some of the most vital goods and services—from toiletries to medicines to key duplication. These mom-and-pop stores look as though they came straight out of a set of a sit-com, which was once the most popular form of Filipino entertainment before soap operas and Korean dramas replaced it. Constructed with eye-popping colors, dazzling patterns, and eccentric signage, the installation’s various components provide handcrafted versions of different consumer goods, all bearing the trademark treatment of the artist.

The products and the structures that house them typify a consideration of a Pop Art tenet, which is “surface is all.” The color, the silhouette, the overall effect of the packaging is as much as important (if not more) as the product. What titillates the eye has a leg up. And in true capitalist fashion, what we consume is believed to be an extension of who we are, as if objects are little carriers of identity that get selected by whoever resonates with them.   

In Playtime Paradiso, there is no damning critique of consumerism, rather an acknowledgment of how it makes life easy for many, especially those who could only purchase in tingi (piecemeal) and depend on sari-sari stores as lifeline. The microcosm of Filipino society that the installation represents largely relies on bayanihan, resourcefulness, and a DIY impulse. Tyang Karyel has embodied these traits in her collaboration with her neighbors and in crafting a vernacular scene through the lens of her subjectivity: hence, “Tyanganized.”

Words by Carlomar Daoana