Year 2014-2016 Medium various Artist Toym Leon Imao | Type Sculpture Location Quezon City | |
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Super Robot - Suffer Reboot is the name given to a series of three sculptures by Filipino artist Toym Leon Imao. The sculptures, made from 2014 to 2016, are each inspired by a specific Japanese mecha animated television series which were popular in the Philippines in the 1970s.
The names of each sculpture are alliterations. The first sculpture in the series, Last, Lost, Lust for Four Forgotten Episodes, is based on Voltes V, and was made in September 2014. The second sculpture, Coping with a Couple's Copious Cupboard of Curios, Cops, Cuffs and Corpses, is based on Mazinger Z, and was made in July 2015. The third sculpture, The Fright to Fight or Flight with Freights of Plights, is based on Daimos, and was made in February 2016. All of them were first exhibited at the steps of the Palma Hall at the University of the Philippines Diliman.
The sculptures were made to symbolize the sufferings and injustices experienced by Filipinos, with an emphasis towards the time of martial law during Ferdinand Marcos' presidency, when many Japanese mecha animated series became popular among Filipino children. By 1979, Marcos banned every mecha series considered to have violent content inappropriate for children. Imao, who used to watch Voltes V and other mecha series, made the sculptures to symbolize his anger when those series' broadcasts were halted by Marcos: "At first it was only because he deprived me of a favorite TV character. And then a sort of political awakening happened. Suddenly, I was affected by what grownups were talking about: Martial law."