Cartoon exhibit on display at the Museum of Belize
There’s an exhibition that opened today that focuses on cartoons as a means of communication. The best works of Charles Chavannes and those of Ras Head are on display. And while some were done about two decades ago, they still have an eerie relevance to the present. Jose Sanchez has a report.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Communicating Through Art (Cave Paintings to Cartoons) is the latest exhibit to be launched at the Museum of Belize this morning. Charles Chavannes, veteran cartoonist was at the event.
Charles Chavannes, Artist
“To tell you the truth, every time I look at a person, I always do a mental exercise in my head. How would I cartoon this person? What feature stands out and then I begin to do this haul and pull, as we say in Creole, in my head and I immediately begin to just deconstruct the actual mental picture that I have to get the cartoon.”
The museum’s intention was to show the development and transition of art as an effective communication tool since man could write on cave walls.
Shauniece Heusner, Researcher, Museum of Belize
“It is basically a timeline so we want to show form in the prehistoric days when art started but through story telling. We didn’t get the Maya art as yet but we’re gonna bring that in some time this month hopefully to show how people used to communicate back in the days with the drawings on the walls. And then we move on into the historic art from Europe, art from China using woodcuts but on paper and then we move on until paper was out but it was mostly illustrations with Francisco Goya and William Haggard depicting lifestyles through art.”
The lifestyles displayed by the cartoons, those particular to our culture are shown in the work displayed by Nacho Valdes’ OH Yeah from the 1930’s and Chavannes numerous pieces, including a memorable piece he illustrated about a Belizean American’s visit to the Jewel.
Charles Chavannes
“It was something taking place in the 70’s when a lot of the Belizean people started coming back after they had made, I would say, relative success. In reality, all you saw was these guys coming back with the big cars and throwing a lot of money around the place. However, I had an opportunity to go to the states and visit some friends and I had occasion to see how they were living and yoh si di big fancy car they brought down to Belize but their house was no better than what we had here. That’s not a—I’m not commending on anything other than it for me was very humorous how they would come here and put on a different show.”
Jose Sanchez
“Would you say your cartoons, as humorous as they were, are essentially depicting the harsh realities of life?”
Charles Chavannes
“I hope that sometimes there are things better left unsaid or people feel uncomfortable saying certain things. In that case sometimes I follow and would not say anything but just do a cartoon if I feel the need to express myself in that particular regard. Maybe that was a way to complain without saying anything. Sometimes the subtlety of doing a cartoon, hiding the real meaning behind gestures and behind certain things was a way to get the person who looked at it to really think a little bit more about what d real situation was.”
The real situation is shown in the numerous works that Ras Head did for the Belize Times. His compilation often mixed politics with popular children themes such as The Wizard of Oz. In his version, Telemedia Executive Net Vasquez becomes the Lizard of Oz, who is always giving advice to then Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel. Whether art imitating life or life imitating art, one of the first images show the duo selling forty-nine percent of the Belize Telecommunication Company. The best of Ras head begins with the influence of the Lizard over telecommunication and the country. But pushing the theme of historical significance, Chavannes completed the Battle of St. Georges Caye.
Charles Chavannes
“I took a lighthearted approach to, if you see in a couple of the scenes, the Baymen were always depicted as a drunken lot or by all accounts, that’s who our forefather were. They had nothing else to do but cut wood and drink rum.”
Internationally, cartoons have morphed from quaint Mickey mouse and Archie comics to the violence that accompanies super heroes. And in Belize political cartoons have mostly disappeared from the print media. The new age artists such as Gilvano Swasey, Santiago Cal and Yasser Musa are pushing their art into entirely new arenas. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
