Ram Mallari

 

Ram Mallari, the God of Steel Things 
 
Text  by Filipina Lippi 

Last June 2011, Mario “Ram” Mallari, 45, a builder, draftsman, gardener, and maker of fancy ironworks, was worried because there were no job orders and his workers were idle in his shop on Commonwealth Avenue in North Fairview, suburban Quezon City.

“Pasukan ng mga bata nuon. Nalungkot ako. Walang tunog ang grinder; walang kislap ang welding machine, kaya naisip kong gumawa ng isang maliit na steel motorbike. Mahilig kasi ako sa motorbike, yung Harley-Davidson type,” Mallari recalls. It was the start of his belated, but fast-paced journey into art-making.

 

In his first attempt, Mallari used a “Denso” spark plug (composed of steel and ceramic) to fashion the bike’s machine; he cut two pieces from an old steel pipe to craft the bike’s wheels; he picked out a damaged Yale padlock for the backrest; a wrecked L-shaped Allen wrench for the bike’s handle bar; a grinder’s wrench for the wheel guard; and a tiny angular steel bar for the bike’s seat.

 

Welding them together took two hours; refining and reshaping the assemblage into a satisfactory form, and coating it with rust remover and varnish (to arrest rust) took another hour. Mallari’s first art work -- a six-inch long and four-inch high chopper motorbike, like the one used in Easy Rider (a 1969 Hollywood movie) -- attracted friends and buyers as well when he posted a picture  in his Facebook account.

 

“The attention inspired me. I decided not to sell my first piece,” says Mallari. Using the same method of putting together and refining odd pieces of industrial waste found in his shop, he made several steel versions of the Harley-Davidson, a motocross, and a big racer bike. “I made  more than 10 bikes last year, sold two during my first one man show at Indios Bravos Gallery in suburban San Juan last November 2011; and three others to new collectors who visited my shop,” he says.

 

Since then, Mallari became an indefatigable creator of miniature war equipment. He used angular bars, bolts and nuts, door knobs, hinges, parts of (car’s) shock absorbers, parts of  antique typewriters and computers to make small versions of  his favorite “macho” toys.

 

From June to October last year, Mallari manufactured an impressive list: an 18-inch long and eight-inch high aircraft carrier; an 18- inch by 10-inch large caliber gun; a two-feet by two feet Apache AH 64 (helicopter); a two feet by two feet Scorpion -- a fictional robotic assemblage depicted in the movie Transformer; a 48- inch by 18-inch battleship; a small catapult or Medieval era stone thrower; a 16-inch by 12-inch Hellfire Apache (a helicopter gunship circa 1980s); an 18-inch by 16 inch German tank, dubbed by soldiers as the Ogre; and a 24-inch high paratrooper or robotic soldier with a rotating head measuring 12 inches.

 

Mallari’s Black Baron was an interpretation in steel of The Red Baron – a World War 1 German planel; he also interpreted in steel a small Tora Tora, Japan’s World War II zero fighter plane. .  He immortalized (also in steel) a backhoe, a classic coal-operated train, and a  modern Formula One racing car.

 

“Research helped me in making these pieces; they came from my childhood fantasies. I was fond of war movies as a young boy. One of my favorite movies then was Apache, which featured modern military equipment in the 80s. At the time, I could draw from the top of my head all models of tanks, planes and battleships,” he says. “Now, I am still fascinated with powerful objects. I don’t think that will change.”

 

“I was also a frustrated military man,” he confesses. He has many friends who are “men of action,” including members of the intelligence community and the elite Presidential Security Group, whom he met in business dealings after bagging several construction projects with government agencies in the past.

 

“Many of my friends and new collectors have been asking me to make smaller and lighter versions of my (classic) war materiel. Kasi kapansin-pansion daw ito pag nakapatong ito sa kanilang mesa,” he says. Eighty percent of his buyers and fans are men. He also believes that his role is to gratify the artistic demands of male buyers.

 

Of course, Mallari has also moved into other realms.  He has done a rock star, a motor rider, a shooter, a Samurai warrior, and a fisherman. “They all represent the activities that I love doing,” he explains, adding, “I play the guitar. I’m a shooter, mahilig sa baril. Nag bi-bike ako hanggang San Mateo, Rizal.”

 

 

“The rich cultural heritage of the Samurai, a military class in olden Japan has always astounded me. I am planning to make a series of different Samurai warriors who used bow and arrows, guns, spears, and swords during Japan’s Edo period from the 17th to the 19th century,” he says with visible enthusiasm.  

 

One activity eludes him, however. Mallari, who putters about all day in his shop, says, “Gustong-gusto kong mag-fishing, pero hanga ngayon hindi ko pa ito nagagawa.” He has not yet done a self portrait.

 

Mallari has also tried creating steel birds, cougars, dragons, elephants, fishes, horses, the long-legged ostrich, and butaan, the endangered giant monitor lizard found  only in Philippines’ Polillo Island.

 

“I transformed the hull of an antique coal-fed iron that my mother Nieves gave me, to make the head of Angler’s fish. I used the chain of a bike’s motor to depict the slender and long neck of a12-inch ostrich sculpture; I used metal screws for its nails; bolt and spark plugs for its long legs; old forks for its wings,” he says.

 

Explaining his choice of beasts, Mallari turns sentimental: “I like doing different varieties of fish in steel because many of my friends are fond of fishing. Marami ring natutuwang mangolekta ng elepante at kabayo. Personally, gusto ko ang cougar kasi malakas, matapang, at angat ito sa ibang hayop. I like making a steel replica of butaan to underline my campaign for the protection of endangered species in the Philippines. Gusto ko i-preserve sila (sa art) habang nandiyan pa sila. My interpretation of the mythical dragon (lizard with wings) was taken from the butaan. I made a series of ostriches in homage to my giant pets that died after my farm in San Mateo, Rizal was flooded when Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) hit Manila in September 2009.”

 

Compared to his small pieces of war materiel, Mallari’s animals are larger in size and more massive. His cougar is two feet high and three and a half feet long; his dragon (with wings made of metal washers) is four feet high and five feet long.Butaan, almost  two feet tall and four feet long; his biggest fish, almost two feet tall, and two feet long. His unfinished work, a running cheetah, is almost life-size: about five feet tall, including three feet tail.

 

Mallari is also fond of making soft or household pieces, like lamp shades (that are made of round steel washers), wall clocks (that are studded with steel work) and bonsai (the twigs like a collection of reptilian tails). Even if they are gracefully shaped, they are mannish, proud, and strong. “I make decorative household pieces for men. My lamp shade is something that a man will choose; it is not like the feminine-looking lamp shades that women buy. Ang aking wall clock ay bagay sa opisina ng lalaki,” he says

 

Even if Mallari uses found industrial waste, materials that are unlikely used to honor and immortalize a subject matter in art, his finished works (including the smaller ones) always come out mysteriously strong; the steel they are made of exalts power. Explaining the essence of his art works, he says, “My intention is to make strong pieces. I have achieved this with the use of steel. Ang steel ay parang pang eternity. Hindi ito sumusuko. It’s a symbol of life, of not giving in. I have a respect for steel. As a builder, I have been exposed to it. Ang tagal ko nang kasama ang steel; nagkakaintindihan na kaming mabuti.”

 

Some of his “personal pieces” he is not ashamed to call “art”. One is a wooden mask adorned with parts of cannibalized computers and typewriters; he titled his, “Nowhere Man.” Another,  titled “Preserving Innocence,” is a rag doll placed inside a glass case, triggered by a problematic episode in his first daughter’s growing up. A piece titled “Circle of Life” is a vertical sculpture with five round steel bars; inside the round frame at the sculpture’s base is a man carrying four other frames, each of which contains the following: a fisherman, a fish, a bonsai plant, and an artistic assemblage (symbol of art). “It’s about holding on, at hindi pagbibitiw ng mga minamahal.” he explains.

 

Mallari likes mounting some of his pieces on rotating pedestals so that viewers can scrutinize the art works in the round. “Visible lahat ang parts ng aking ginagawa.  I’m proud of my craftsmanship; it is my way of paying homage to my subject matter,” he explains.

 

Last August 2011, barely two months after he decided to become a full-time artist, Mallari got several scrap metals, angular bars, second-hand colored roofing sheets, aluminum insulation, and aluminum-framed sliding glass windows from his warehouse.  In a week’s time, he finished a 20-foot long, eight-foot wide, and eight-foot high art gallery. “I wanted it to look like a container van – to secure my growing collection. The gallery has no name, but sports a display window and is equipped with a good lighting system,” he says.

 

“Masarap maging artist,” says Mallari. Looking forward, he has been buying expensive protective gear for welding, to protect his eyes and lungs from the fumes when he dons his armor for his artistic battles.

 

His life

 

Mallari grew up near a depressed area in Batasan (Commonwealth). When he was a teen-ager, a construction firm hired him as a utility boy. “I was so thin; I didn’t qualify as a construction worker.” He finished his secondary studies with a study grant from Father Ben Carreon. Because of poverty, he dropped out of his architectural studies at the Technological Institute of the Philippines in 1985. Then he became a time-keeper and warehouse checker in a construction firm for the next two years, a graphic designer for two more years. As soon as he married Mildred Caballero in 1990, he found work as a draftsman in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where he stayed until 1993. The marriage failed after his return to Manila, and he took custody of his daughter Anna Lorraine (now 22) after an annulment. He married again in 1995. With his second wife Glenda, he has five children: Mark Leovin, 16; Troy Brian, 14; Oliver Glen, 12; Claire Marie, 11; and Vera Patrice, 9.