ADD “ARTIST” to Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo’s ever-expanding resume.
The Olympian makes an impact in the art world (literally) in a new exhibition mounted in New York by Filipino-American artist James Clar. Hidilyn’s contribution feels, well, extremely Hidilyn. On the large space occupied by the art installation, you can see massive aluminum sheets, crumpled and dented into hypnotic textures. This damage was inflicted by Hidilyn Diaz herself, which she created by dropping barbells on the sheets.

Clar pays full tribute to his collaborator, giving the work the name By Force of Circumstance (Hidilyn Diaz Crushed Metal). But the freestanding aluminum wall is only one part of the massive exhibit that Clar has entitled By Force of Nature.
Diaz also inspired Magwheels (1 & 2), another section of the exhibit. These are two cylindrical structures sitting atop more crumpled aluminum sheets. Each of the parol-like “wheels” are lit up with colored lights that are reflected on the contorted surface of the metal below. According to Clar, their shapes are reminiscent of the makeshift, homemade barbells that Hidilyn Diaz used to train with when she first picked up the sport as a teen in Zamboanga.

James Clar plays with light, identity in art collab with Hidilyn Diaz
Hidilyn Diaz's own brainwaves also contributed to the piece. According to host Silverlens Gallery, James Clar stuck a neurofeedback headset onto Diaz's head, measuring her neurological activity as she slept, trained, and rewatched her Olympic feat. The resulting measurements were translated by Clar into light patterns that play along the exhibit.
A final tribute to Diaz can be found in Center of Gravity (Hip Tensegrity). Hidilyn’s own anatomy — the bracing of muscle and bone as she hoists a barbell up into the air — inspired the triangular shapes of a suspended mobile.

As Silverlens Gallery puts it in their description, “Clar’s momentous sculptural work recenters how, in even the most basic of geometries, we find nature’s very own ground-breaking form.”
The Hidilyn Diaz-inspired sculptures are just three of James Clar’s artworks on display in By Force of Nature. Other pieces play on the artist’s conflicted identity as both a Filipino and an American artist, via a shimmering light display that brokenly spells THE END, set beside a stark, black rectangular cloth that reveals the American flag when caught by the light of a camera flash.
The final part of the exhibit is set inside a fish tank, where goldfish swim across an endlessly looping video that shows the parents of Filipino artists discussing the careers of their children.
By Force of Nature continues Clar’s obsession with how the digital and ephemeral can bleed profusely in the world of the tangible and tactile.
Back in the pandemic, the Wisconsin-born artist cut a looping laser animation of a running dog and projected into a video background of a locked-down Manila. Earlier, he also created an installation in Tokyo that merged an interview (in bed!) of professional gamers inside a luxury hotel suite with a faintly nightmarish video of a ghostly figure disappearing into the trees of Aokigahara forest.
The collaboration with Hidilyn Diaz seemed to be a logical extension of the artist’s themes.
It’s hard to think of anything more literally weighty than Diaz’s achievement: the crushing weight of a barbell hoisted up to the air, the feel of a gold medal on a callused palm. But Clar renders that physicality as crumpled metal sheets; as delicate triangular forms; as reflections; as lights beamed straight from Hidilyn Diaz's brain.
Clar’s exhibit runs in Silverlens New York all the way up to April 29.
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