Secrets that scream to be shared

Contemporary artist, illustrator, animator and toy designer Gary Baseman recently arrived in Bangkok for his first visit and he hasn’t come alone. Joining him is Toby, Baseman’s 2.5-metre-tall best friend and keeper of secrets and he, along with other popular characters, will be hanging around Groove at CentralWorld until the end of the year as part of the “Play with Me or Else” exhibition.

Baseman’s name might not be familiar to Thais but many will be familiar with his animation series “Teacher’s Pet”, which has landed him Emmy and Bafta awards as well as the accolade of being one of Entertainment Weekly magazine’s 100 Most Creative People.

Over the course of his long career, the 54-year-old Baseman has crossed many lines of art as a painter, illustrator, video and performance artist, animator, as well as television and movie producer, curator and toy designer. His work has been published in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Time and Rolling Stone; and he designed the best-selling board game “Cranium”. The Los Angeles Times has described his art as “adorably perverse”, “humorously playful” and “dark and childlike but with adult themes”.

Speaking to the press last week, he introduced Toby, a cat-like creature with a red hat and mischievous look, as everyman’s best friend.

“Toby loves you unconditionally. You need someone like this in your life. I started drawing Toby in my sketchbook in 1992 but he’s so precious that I didn’t introduce him to the world until 2005 at the exhibition “For the Love of Toby” in California. He has a lot of girlfriends. His first prototype was made the year I took him to Rome. I was in an unhappy marriage and even though my wife is beautiful and stylish, she refused to take photo with me. So I posed with Toby instead inside the Sistine Chapel amongst other places. Toby’s travelled around the world with me ever since.”

The exhibition also features the “Bad Bad Pets” team. Baseman, who created the characters in 2001, describes them as little troublemakers.

“The idea is that they are sitting in a corner as a punishment for something they have done wrong. So we reserved one special seat for the viewer to sit and take photos with these naughty little creatures,” he adds.

“I created the term ‘pervasive art’ because I wanted to blue the lines between fine and commercial art. It’s art that can be perceived everywhere. I love to create art that breaks down boundaries and I enjoy working with many mediums. I draw in my sketchbook anywhere anytime – as you will see, I’m even doing it now as it helps calm me,” he says.

Baseman style of art is touched and inspired by culture. It is witty but also bitter. “The characters like Toby and others look like toys but there are actually art pieces. Some are more provocative than the idea of a toy itself. A couple of years ago for an exhibition in Milan titled ‘Vicious’, I created ‘aawroo’, a lively, aggressive, furry creature hungry for passion, desire, lust and love,” he says.

Life in general inspires him, he says.

“I like to celebrate different lives. I have different kind of loves that include poetry and music and aspects of all of those go into my work. At the same time I think life is too short, so the work has to be playful, and challenging. The act of creating is very important. Even here in Thailand, I have been creating. I asked my hosts here at Central to find me a ‘Wild Girl’, a girl like my character who would dress up to go out. And I did this live painting session that introduced to the world my ideas about Bangkok.

“I am very fortunate that I have a strong range of fans. I can create the things that I want to say, which is my way of self-discovery and self-expression. It’s the idea of who you truly are, someone who tries to remove the masks that society make you wear so you fit in. You should have respect for yourself, your culture, your past, and use that respect in life to work ahead and to share. 

“Art is the communicating tool; it is how we are able to tell people ideas in a way that doesn’t allow for normal dialogue. You know, I have a lot of fans who kind of copy what I do. They draw the same kind of eyes or the elements but what they can’t copy is the depth from which this art arose, which is a kind of self sacrifice. Every character has something beyond the painting, the sculpture, the body of work that speaks about life, love, desire, passion. That is what makes me unique,” he concludes.

Visitors can check out this “uniqueness” for themselves be checking out the exhibition and making friends with Toby.

 

DARKLY HUMOROUS