Annals of a tick

Dex Fernandez’s Garapata suggests an artistic practice that is keen on collective experience. Employing Instagram and Facebook to document, present and promote Garapata’s activities further underline the desire towards collaboration (a significant aspect of what has been called “participatory art”) and contamination (in Filipino, pamimeste) within and of social space. Fernandez’s inclination to contaminate would seem fitting in the current mood of contemporary art. The National Arts Month has arrived on schedule and a swell of exhibitions and events coinciding with the opening of the forthcoming Art Fair Philippines 2017 inundates the city. The rest of the region’s big fairs hover about: Art Stage Singapore has just packed up and the Art Basel Hong Kong is a few weeks away. If the spectacle were a tick, the easily enthused may be easily bled dry.

But Fernandez’s Garapata is too decisively (or divisively) cute and affable to snuff out art fairs. What it can do or, more specifically, what Garapata’s presence is able to express, is the continued domination of a knotty, highly-adaptable free market that feeds on — among others — (in)visibility, networking and generous helpings of precarious work. As the values of commodities (inside fairs and beyond) bloat, a large number of artists find themselves having to work out tighter transactions within even tighter latitudes just to get by. Garapata’s charming hostility is the embodiment of hostilities within the art world and elsewhere. The proceeding are fragments of an interview with Dex Fernandez on the provenance of Garapata and the finer operations of his forthcoming work, “Hobo in Wanderland,” for Art Fair Philippines 2017.

Birth

“When I was a child, my younger siblings and I became fond of removing ticks from our dog. Before long, we couldn’t stop the ticks from spreading all over the house... we had to get rid of the dog. When I was (studying) fine arts, I really liked drawing creatures and monsters. One of the characters I was able to develop was Garapata. Later on I was introduced to street art and graffiti. I joined Pilipinas Street Plan (PSP) and learned that a street artist should have a trademark character and pseudonym.

“I thought Garapata would be a great character for this because now, the ticks can live and spread in the streets, not just our home. From then on, Garapata has evolved. It has ‘given birth’ to toys, merchandise, chairs — it has become useful.

“In a way I see myself as Garapata, always wandering and looking for a host where I can live and settle...”

Material

“Wheatpaste posters were my first material for Garapata. They’re ready-made and you just slap them on the wall. Street art should be quick, done in seconds, as it is still illegal by law. Soon I got tired of wheatpaste and moved to stickers. It’s more convenient because you can place them anywhere; inside the taxi, jeep, bus, public toilet, wherever.

“Garapata circulated well. I took advantage of this and made things that were useful like clothes, bags and chairs. And I also like the idea that, by wearing a shirt, you too have become host to Garapta.”

Fair

“It’s important that Garapata is in the streets! It is street art after all. But I’m not restrictive. I don’t inhibit the spaces it can be in.

“My work for the Art Fair will be an interactive or participatory project of Garapata Animation. I want other people to be part of Garapata’s journey by coloring, drawing and creating scenes on each page/frame of the animated video. The final output will be psychedelic in effect because of the layering of images.

“I want to take advantage of the many different kinds of people who will enter my booth. It will be good to collaborate with them. This is open to any kind of person in any profession. The idea is for the animation to be like us: people who journey and meet other people who, in turn, add to our growth and evolution or help us develop our minds, and bodies, too.

“I did not adjust anything for the Art Fair. I just continued my ideas for Garapata. I’m just happy that I am being given a booth so I can do something that I’ve always wanted to do. I’m grateful for the trust of the Art Fair team. My work isn’t easy to sell. But I believe that there are many collectors who are open-minded about this kind of art.

“The Art Fair is clearly a commercial venue for art. It is a marketplace where buyers fight over objects. In this regard, I do not want to be part of this sellable art. I want to challenge buyers and see how open their minds and ‘tastes’ are in buying art. Hindi ko habol mag-benta. I just want to have fun and invite others to join the fun.

“Globe (the telecommunications company) sponsored my booth. The Art Fair team brought me to them because the idea behind my work is interactivity. Sakto sa idea o imahe ng Globe. They mixed in commercial (stuff) with this project. But the concept of my work has nothing to do with this big company.”