Manila is such a strange city,” quips internationally acclaimed street artist Hervé di Rosa who is currently showing at the Department of Avant-Garde Clichés (D.A.G.C.) gallery on Pasong Tamo. His works, situated at the ground floor of the two-storey gallery, are placed within creative distance of the works of Filipino art collective Pablo X — meant to establish a dialogue between the two genomes of street art. He adds, “The city impressed me quickly and transmitted a lot of energy.”
The Figuration Libre
Di Rosa was in Manila recently, upon the invitation of the French embassy, Alliance Française De Manille, and his friend and D.A.G.C. gallery owner Manuel Ocampo whom he met a couple of years ago. Hervé, along with French contemporaries Robert Combas, Remi Blanchard and Francois Boisrond, started the Free Figuration movement known as “Figuration Libre” in Paris at the beginning of the ’80s.
The movement was said to have developed as a counterattack against the conceptual austerity and artistic elitism of European high art in the ‘70s, reintroducing visual pleasure and free expression to the art scene. It did so without sacrificing the stimulus of pop culture and its position in art history. Their works also parried the esteem of New York street artists Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, as Hervé had had a personal relationship Basquiat and Haring. He co-owned two Parisian pop-up stores with the latter.
Walking into the four-cornered gallery, I was greeted by several large-scale prints of what looked like an odd cacophony of one-eyed Mr. Potato Heads situated against the colorful world of Putomayo. Some were gilded in Viking gear; others sported an Elvis ‘do while smoking a cigarette; while even more others were iterations of Frankenstein and the Terra Cotta. It was a cartoon tell-all on advertising, history, pop culture, and daily life, resting comfortably on my visual palette.
A Thousand Eyes
Born in Sete in the South of France, Hervé is currently residing in Sevilla, which is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and the fourth largest city in Spain. It is there where he summons inspiration and paints his whimsical creations every day. He recalls, “I saw in 1982 in New York the beginning of street art when it began to enter galleries. Before that, in France in the ‘70s, nothing like that existed.” Drawing inspiration from books, magazines, fanzines and “print stuffs,” the artist originated a style that was his own, translating his vision into works of stencils, posters, graffiti and even cartoons.
“At the beginning of the ‘80s, I created characters like an alphabet of shapes. I invented them in order to write stories,” shares Hervé of his favorite motifs. “I’m interested in eyes. Some characters may only have one eye or… one thousand eyes.” Looking at his work, you can make out several plot threads of an upending telenovela, a modern family if you wish, with the prerequisite that you’d have to be on LSD to achieve the whimsical disfiguration of the characters you are seeing. “I can’t speak of style. But I’ve always been influenced by popular culture and outsider art.”
Jollibee, Tricyles, and Filipino Street Art
There is a tricycle planted in the center of the gallery room that Hervé supposedly bought in Quiapo during one of his excursions. Inside of which is a mural hoisted above a carinderia signage which read “EDGAR’S LEATHER SHOES: REPAIR & MADE TO ORDER.”
“The tricycle is, for me, a real piece of sculpture. It is a real art piece when you have the opportunity to see it closely in a beautiful gallery.” He also supposedly purchased a jeepney to bring back to France in preparation for a show that he is orchestrating with Ocampo to allow Filipino artists to showcase their works in France. He reveals, “We will open a Manila show at the end of 2012 or beginning of 2013 (at the International Museum of Modest ART or MIAM which he conceived).”
While in Manila, Hervé also crafted paintings inspired by two cornerstones of Pinoy pop culture: the Sto. Nino and Jollibee. He shares, “Wherever I go in the world, the popular characters immediately focalize my attention.” First encountering the Sto. Nino during his stay in Mexico, he was glad to have come across it again in Manila, and this time, with a friend in our “national fast food chain’s” iconic mascot. “Above all, I was influenced by the energy of Manila’s artists who I met,” adds Hervé.
He ends, “I hope we are creating a new net of artists in the world who want to show unusual art, the art we like, and the point of view we defend. I’m sure the exchanges we are creating together, between (D.A.G.C.) and MIAM, will be very beneficial for both countries. I hope for Filipino artists in France.”
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The work of Hervé di Rosa is on display at D.A.G.C., Pasong Tamo Extension UPRC III Building, Makati City until Jan. 28, 2012. For more info, visit www.dagcgallery.com