Caguiat Delacruz: The Tramp @ The Wattis Institute

Caguiat Delacruz (Justin Caguiat and Rafael Delacruz) collaborate on an exhibition at the Wattis Institute titled The Tramp, bringing together newly commissioned film, installation, painting, and prints. At the heart of the exhibition is Caguiat Delacruz’s film, which follows two characters Wesley (and his dog Chips) and Hiroko, as they wander the streets of Oakland and fields of Half Moon Bay dressed in baggy pants, snug jacket, and bowler hat. As a point of reference, the artists use Charlie Chaplin’s beloved character “The Tramp,” who appeared in the 1915 silent film with the same name, shot and produced by Essanay Studios in Fremont, 35 miles south of San Francisco. A mischievous vagrant living on the margins, the Tramp reappears in many of Chaplin's films and became the everyman’s hero. His playful antics helped him elude authority figures and trick the elite to survive in a modernizing society.

The artists have created an encompassing environment for their exhibition, inviting visitors to be surrounded by the inner workings of the film and its aftermath: deconstructed production sets are repurposed as exhibition furniture, while drawings, production stills, paintings, prints, and ephemera are presented alongside the film. Softening the borders between media, the exhibition space becomes small vignettes and stages. Through humor and pathos, Caguiat Delacruz underscores their kinship with Chaplin’s iconic character to reflect on the rampant demands of the art market on artists and critique the ever-changing social landscape of San Francisco, as tech companies continue to displace working-class communities.

The Tramp’s use of play is embodied in Caguiat Delacruz’s own collaborative process. This exhibition marks their third collaborative exhibition. Paintings, drawings, plates (used for making prints) are passed back and forth between the artists. Together, they find a freedom to experiment and push the boundaries of their work to the margins. The exhibition is a view into their intricate web-like world that invites the visitor to reflect on the precarity and possibility of contemporary life.

This exhibition is Caguiat Delacruz’s first institutional exhibition on the West Coast. 

Caguiat Delacruz: The Tramp is curated by Daisy Nam, director and chief curator, and Diego Villalobos, former associate curator, with exhibition design by Robin Beard. Special thanks to Wattis staff Armaan Mumtaz, Addy Rabinovitch, and MacKenzie Stevens.

Thank you to the artists, Greene Naftali, New York, and Hoffman Donahue, New York and Los Angeles; CCA Print Studio and master printer Courtney Sennish, Anthea Black, Karla Wozniak, Johnny Galvan; CCA students: Kayla Chin, Gabi Dagdag, Leland Mains, Ru Lyons, Barbara Klassen; Chris Paddock; SFAI Archives and Becky Alexander.

The exhibition is supported by Teiger Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Bloomberg Connects; Gary Steele and Steven Rice, the Wattis Leadership Circle: Mary and Harold Zlot, and Katie and Matt Paige, and the Curators’ Forum. Phyllis C. Wattis was the generous founding patron.

Press:

SF Examiner, by Max Blue
Artforum