Tuesday, May 08, 2007 Artist of the lost and found By Mayette Q. Tabada
ARTIST OF ALL TRADES. Except for the paint, wire and bulbs that he buys, Ben Salgado’s creations are put together from bits and pieces picked up as a hiker, travel writer, backpacker and photography assistant.
Throw in a couple of spokes from an exercise bike, the washed-out pink hub of a foot therapeutic massager, bulb, wire and socket.
If your answer is “junk,” that’s because you don’t have the eyes and hands of Ben Salgado, artist of the serendipitous discovery transformed into uncommon home décor and conversation openers.
Salgado, 42, often pops up at his friends’ home and offices. From the voluminous bag slung over his shoulder, he pulls out an odd assortment of objects to sell, like classic pocketbooks whose yellowing pages crackle like dry, fallen leaves.
But it is the lamps for which he is known.
Collectors are drawn to the table lamps’ muted glow and their way of transforming the most cluttered desk, the plainest alcove.
Unlit, the lamps by Binggoy (Salgado’s nickname) startle and set one musing on the unexpected twists and turns of creativity.
It is a topic that engrosses Salgado, whose father, grandfather and uncle were architects. Unlike his two brothers who dabbled in architecture and fine arts studies, the English major student was keener on the written word.
Reading and writing literature though led him to an attachment for his late mother’s bedside lamp. Made through papier mache, the lampshade was painted gold and embedded with sequins, beads and buttons.
When Salgado accidentally broke the lamp, a gift from his mother’s student, he discovered that, in repairing it, he came up with a totally changed piece, which was not unpleasing.
This was his start. Peripatetic by habit, Salgado collected discarded furniture, broken glass and oddities of metal, plastic and fabric. At his workshop, he puts together this assortment into table lamps, key counters and anything dictated by whimsy.
Although he is unable to judge the aesthetics of his works, Salgado’s friends and acquaintances, many of them artists and writers, liked what they saw and collected.
Ranging from P250 to P600, the collectibles concretize Salgado’s belief in “functional art.”
Inspired by the Bantayan artist Villadolid, who sold his artwork by walking around neighborhoods and pricing it within the reach of housewives, Salgado plans to include his pieces in online auctions for junk art, as well as walk around more and convert other people’s trash into functional art gracing homes and work places.
