Picking Garbage for Art
Lily B. Libo-on
14 June 2009
DUBAI — A Filipino visual artist, Darwin Guevarra, has an eye for beauty, even for worthless junks, which he turns
into unique pieces of art.Japat, as he is known to friends
and family members, says that anything he sees on the street and at any
place, he picks up and embeds it into
his artwork.
He could have been just another Filipino expatriate trying his luck in Dubai in 2004. Yet, he has gone beyond all odds to rise as the first Filipino artist to bring home the grand prize for fine arts in the Dubai Ladies Club Shaikha Manal New Signatures Young Artist Award four years later.
Today, this visual artist, who called himself a “basurero” (scavenger), has brought more honours to his family and the Philippines for being the first Filipino to have a one-man art show at Tashkeel Gallery in Nad Al Sheba in
this emirate.
All this prestige and honour became possible after the invitation of Shaikha Lateefa bint Maktoum, who saw the power of his work and encouraged him to do more for a solo show in the gallery at Tashkeel.
From May 7 to June 11 this year, a total of 40 artworks of mixed media were displayed at Tashkeel. The uniqueness of Guevarra’s artworks lies in the mixing and putting together into one art piece anything that he finds in scavenging.
In describing Guevarra’s work, Shaikha Lateefa says: His technique could almost be described as “scavenging” — finding small ordinary everyday objects and literally embedding them within the artwork, giving them a “Darwin Guevarra” signature touch.”
Recalling the first time Shaikha Lateefa saw Guevarra’s artwork during the Shaikha Manal New Signatures Award in Dubai, she says that “when first confronting a Guevarra piece, it can be overwhelming in the best sense of the word; the work is overpowering, with many ingredients to sift through in order to decode the stirs of Darwin Guevarra’s life.”
True enough, Guevarra artworks paint the story of his life — the difficulties he and his family encountered. His first winning masterpiece “System of Humanity” was sketched after he strolled in the dark night as he could not pay for electricity in his home. As he strolled, he caught sight of the
electric meter where he saw images of people. This was enough for him to rush home and sketch the image using his imagination.
He says that the concept of “System of Humanity” evolved when he realised that the answer to their electricity problem should be the electricity itself, believing that the solution to any crisis should be to face it and use it in a pragmatic, yet resourceful way.
When he arrived in Dubai, his heart was initially filled with sadness. “In our country, I can paint, sculpture and photograph nude women and men. Here it is not possible. I found no room for my style here since the culture is different from that of my homeland.”
Inspired by his wife, Melissa, who, too, is an artist, and two sons — 16-year-old Mico and two-years-old Mac James — Japat has never relented to the barriers but continued to acquaint himself with the local art scene gradually until he has succeeded in invading the art world of Dubai.
He has created ripples as an artist and through constant stirring, he has started harvesting awards from prestigious competitions.
From winning 2nd prize in Mixed Media Category of the Red Bull UAE Art of the Can Competition in November 2006 and the Sony World Photography, France in April 2008 to the Dubai Ladies Club Shaikha Manal New Signatures Young Artists Award, First Prize in Fine Arts Category.
His latest award has led him to the prestigious one-man art show, an exhibition of Guevarra’s art work which expresses himself through surrealism, using superficial substance to portray the deepest meaning of humanity.
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