Pilot Report

Posts Tagged ‘pierre emmanuel michel’

It doesn’t take any expertise to enjoy the city of Manila, but it does take the eye of an artist to interpret it. It’s a stunning place, with a lively sense of timing for altering the moment, and the people living here seem to have an uncanny ability to play with the events as they come with great skill and grace. From the bursting energy in the streets to the austerity of the Manila hotels , there is something about the place that invites artistic reproduction.

The Manila from the Sky exhibit this past summer at Kaida Gallery was a chance to see how one artist chooses to represent a Manila of the moment, where ariel views of the citiscapes provide an often unseen perspective. Gazing out from the rooftops of any big city can open up anyone’s vision to the nature of the place, and in Manila it becomes clear that this is a city of color.

It’s the work of Pierre-Emmanuel Michel , a French graphic designer who’s been interested in capturing his own visual records of life in this country for some time. He lives here part of the time, and spends a good part in the other big cities in the world. He captures an essence of the place that is also marked by its impermanence, and in this way starts to get at the real heart of the moment.