ALTERED STATES. The whimsical pieces of Jimenez that are all made from scavenged materials from scrap yards. --PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR

WHEN Frank Gehry, the designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, started designing structures that were out of this world, no one understood him—not even his colleagues. His designs and shapes pushed the limits of architecture so much that everyone rejected his ideas thinking that all of his proposals would remain unbuilt. During this time in his career, only artists could understand what he wanted to do. They understood that in order to create a superb piece of art, one must always think beyond the accepted norms. This is why I love talking to different artists. They understand the fact that, as architects, we need to treat architecture not only as a science but, more important, as an art.

One such artist is Pete Jimenez. Whenever I talk about unique architectural designs with him, I see his face light up with genuine excitement and appreciation. When I recently got a chance to see his work in Mag:net Katipunan Gallery, I started to understand why.

Entitled Simple Creatures, the exhibit features pieces that are made of iron scrap material scavenged from the Antipolo and Fairview area. They were then welded together with other scrap material to form different “creatures.” There is a piece called Chicken Run, which is made of sheet metal for its body and gears for its feet. There is another piece that resembles the face of a cat with whiskers and is made of a combination of flattened nails and angle bars. Another interesting piece is one that is shaped like a dog with rubber castors as its feet. He gives his pieces jocular names that make you stop and think because they mostly carry double meanings. These whimsical forms and witty ironies provide fun and lightness that create a balance with the associated heaviness of the materials that he uses.

Gehry and Jimenez are in different fields, but they have the same purpose and approach to achieve it. Gehry uses forms for his designs that look seemingly impossible to be built. When built, he proves that architecture is not limited to a simple post-and-lintel construction. Jimenez, on the other hand, takes scrap metal, a material that is associated to junk and uselessness, and transforms people’s perception of it by molding it into light and quirky art pieces. They both open people’s eyes to make them believe that creativity should never be limited by an accepted perception of a particular thing.

Simple Creatures by Pete Jimenez is on view until April 17 at Mag:net Gallery, 335 Agcor Building, Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City. You may also view his works at www.magnetgalleries.com.

***You may e-mail the author at design@buensalidoarchitects.com and visit his web site at www.buensalidoarchitects.com.

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