Finding Purpose in Large Scale Public Art | Leeroy New | TEDxDilimanStudio

Critically acclaimed artist Leeroy New shares his story, from his early years as a street artist struggling to create opportunities to showcase his art, to finding success as a cultural advocate repurposing discarded objects into spectacular large-scale installations in public spaces. Leeroy New (b. 1986, General Santos City) is an artist-designer whose practice overlaps and intersects with film, theater, product design, and fashion. Originally trained as a sculptor, he tried everything from production design for film, to working with fashion designers, to creating 3D mock ups for commercial purposes. He was able to integrate this inclination to move from one mode of creative production to another as the spine of his creative practice.

As a response to the issue of art and art practitioners’ (in)visibility in the Philippines, New decided early on that cultivating a language for large scale public art was the challenge he had to take on. Through his persistence, despite the initially limited support and resources, what resulted were immersive installations that use a variety of found objects directly sourced from the immediate material culture of his current environment.

Through collaborations with local performance artists, he is able to transform these same materials into set pieces and even wearable sculptures culminating in a cyber-site series called Aliens of Manila, which documents alien characters inhabiting Manila’s often harsh yet colorful streets.

His most recent project, a floating performance space/garden, a collaboration with urban designer Julia Nebrija and funded by the Burning Man Global Arts Grant, was floated down Manila’s central and most polluted waterway: the Pasig River. The mobile installation is the first phase for this long-term project that explores ecological heritage and challenges local perspectives of urban space, and revives the Pasig River as public space, transport corridor, and sustainable environment through creative intervention. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx