Cereal Mascots Are Alive and Disturbing at Raco Ruiz' Solo Exhibit

(SPOT.ph) Though not exactly the healthiest with its high sugar content, a bowl of cereal in the morning is possibly the easiest way to break your fast. You can chug it down with milk, eat it from the box, or just carry a pack with you as you run to school. Its carton box has a mascot, filled with bright colors, and even comes with a free toy. What's not to love about it? Content creator and artist Raco Ruiz explores more of this in his second solo exhibit, Surrealicious, at Secret Fresh in San Juan. The show runs until August 18.

Surrealism in Raco Ruiz' Surrealicious

"Back when I was a kid, like, my mom did not allow me to eat these cereals. She knew it was bad for me. She knew it would make me sick. And that's what made me want it more. Kasi bawal siya," Ruiz tells SPOT.ph in an interview.

While still consuming breakfast cereals as an adult (because why not?), he now sees what's so enticing about this multi-grain goodness.

"They were designed for kids to want them. Look at the packaging."

Of course, he's talking about the design and branding that go behind these cereal brands. And while they're not the most nutritious thing to have to start your day, they're still consumed by kids (and kids-at-heart).

"Children don't know any better. They don't know what's good for them, or what's not. So, of course, like, in a way, it's surreal."

A 20th-century post-World War I art movement, surrealism is all about depicting unnerving scenes, which possibly come from the unconscious mind. It's a rebellion against rationalism, logic, and conformity, the prevalent ideologies during the time of war.

"[Surrealism] takes something real and distorts it and morphs it into something else," Ruiz adds.

Prompted by this, he hopes to know "the truth about cereals."

A Childhood Memory in Five Bowls

Surrealicious is an exhibit of five circular-shaped artworks with each frame depicting a popular cereal mascot. Each piece bears the title of a food group, which cereal-makers claim that their products have.

Notable about the depictions are the rather crazy-looking figures with yellow-and-orange eyes and elongated tongues in a trance-like state. Their claws, especially for the Koko Krunch- and Frosted Flakes-inspired mascots, are in attack mode. Each figure also has green lines surrounding them, showing a kind of movement that one can only get from a sugar rush. These are cereals, after all, and they're all about the sweet, sweet rush.

Of the five, Ruiz' favorite is "Dairy," which is an abstracted depiction of Trix Rabbit and Tony the Tiger. The piece is split in the middle, kind of yin-yang, the artist explained.

"It's like, these are the two most popular mascots for children throughout the decades. So they kind of own the cereal world. And that's why I chose bowl-shaped canvases. Not only because, well, cereals are in a bowl. Pero because they kind of own the world."

Inspiration from Pop Art and Skating

Aside from surrealism, pop art is also another movement that Ruiz is interested in. He follows the works of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. But his major influences are people he doesn't know.

"I don't know their names because I'd see them on skateboard decks or notebook covers as a kid. I just keep those designs with me, even if I didn't know who drew it."

He's also influenced by his uncle, renowned multimedia artist Jose Tence Ruiz, who showed him that "pwede palang brutal yung art, pwede palang hindi masaya."

Ruiz turned these influences into a collection of brightly colored but also disturbing canvases of childhood memories.

"With my art, it looks pleasant, it looks happy, it looks vibrant. But it's really, there's a deeper meaning to it that's not that pleasant."

Surrealicious runs until August 18 at Secret Fresh, Ronac Art Center, Ortigas Avenue, San Juan City. For updates, follow Raco Ruiz on Instagram and TikTok.

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