Luckily, Philippine-based artist and designer Leeroy New has as‌sured us there’s no need for alarm. Spawned from the murky depths of his imagination and brought to life at his studio in a Frankenstein-esque fashion, this ever-growing legion of anomalous and mutated life forms are all here in the name of art.

Originally trained as a sculptor, New’s insatiable curiosity led him to dabble with a variety of different mediums over the years, ranging from fashion to filmmaking. His creative work is an amalgamation of his past accumulated skills, ongoing societal observations, and his vivid—but at times disturbing—imagination. “Growing up in a small town in the south of the Philippines, I was part of a generation that was media fed with an as‌sortment of futuristic visions and fantasy worlds,” New explained. “They were so seductive and alluring to me because it was so distinct from my immediate reality. But as an adult working in the creative industries, I have made it a point to actively participate and contribute to the ever-growing continuum of visual and experiential interpretations of the future, as well as the unknown, all the while actively participating in the transformation of my current realities.”

His mind-bending work, which ranges from large-scale installations to elaborately hideous costumes, are often intended to be exhibited in public spaces; this stems from his early realization that the Filipino art scene operates quite differently from the art scene in Western countries. Through his understanding of the Filipino people’s cultural and creative habits, New decided the standard methods of presenting or experiencing art must be revamped. “I was drawn to the idea of creating work in public spaces as a means of meeting my target audience, the majority of the Filipino population who aren’t interested in art, halfway,” New explains. Despite being outwardly hideous and not adhering to conventional ideals of beauty, New’s imaginative work ultimately aims to enrich and improve people’s lives through creativity and art.

However visually jarring, New’s otherworldly creations forces people to take a second glance. Only upon closer examination will his surprising material choices reveal their true identities. For Baletes, one of his earlier projects, he reimagined the vines of the Filipino balete tree as a mutating organism that intertwined and entangled itself with the architecture of Quezon City’s Ateneo Art Gallery – the entirety of this amorphous creation was constructed with electric conduit casing and plastic cable ties.

“At one point, I realized that the value in my early works and methods is grounded on this practice of making the most of what is available, to be able to respond in an authentic manner to your social conditions,” says New. “I found this made things easier for me. Suddenly there was no pressure for me to try and catch up with the latest in art-making technologies. All I had to rely on was my inherent set of skills, sensibility for form, and, more importantly, a sense of empathy for socio-cultural situations.”

For New’s ongoing project Aliens of Manila, he continues his trend of using a myriad of unconventional materials to construct his intricate costumes, some of which have been used in his past works, such as latex and toy parts. Originally intended to be a joke and parody of the Humans of New York project, it soon developed into a collaborative project between him and fellow creatives that intended to be a visual expression of their thoughts about the relationship between people, mainstream society, and the government. 

Photos from the Aliens of Manila project are sporadically updated on their Facebook and Instagram page, often accompanied by short blurbs of text, which are sourced from either the project participants or New’s writer friends. “We try to be conscious about drawing from real voices we encounter in our daily interactions. Each alien character most probably represents a person we’ve encountered in real life.”