Menagerie - Alfred Marasigan

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Menagerie is a project on the strangeness of displacement. Musikkpaviljongen is one of the oldest structures in Tromsø, Norway and I would like to think of it as a music box on the top of the world. I was inspired to create a sculpture that pays homage to the Tigmanaukan, a mystical creature from mostly Tagalog or Luzon myths in the Northern islands of the Philippines. In the beginning was nothingness and the Tigmanaukan, a giant cosmic bird that eventually got bored of the universe and pecked at the first bamboo tree. It split into two revealing the first man (Malakas or Strong) and woman (Maganda or Beautiful). A few 17th century naturalists have pointed to the Philippine fairy bluebird (Irena cyanogastra, a IUCN Red List endemic species) as the inspiration for this enduring creation story. 

The feeling of being displaced from my country has helped me rediscover my culture. Today, my sculpture features the actual cries of the Philippine fairy bluebird emanating from a fictional device that mimics a strange quality of being alive. Be they geographic, mythic, artistic, or personal, our stories ultimately animate us. 

2018 © All bird recordings were sourced from https://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Irenacyanogastra; bird footage from https://www.hbw.com/ibc/video/philippine-fairy-bluebirdirena-cyanogastra/male-foraging-berries.