Community activism through art
An interview with Caitlin Taguibao
Photo credit: Caitlin Taguibao
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See this art on the city's map here.
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This mural, titled Resilience!, was created by the collective Jakarundi Graphics for the Destination Danforth program with East End Arts. Caitlin Taguibao worked in collaboration with artists Lara Lucretia, Jennifer Messon, Marissa Hartmann, and Xuan-Yen Cao. To learn more about Jakarundi Graphics, visit their website. To see more of Caitlin's art, murals, and other projects, check out her website.
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Asha Swann 00:04
On this episode of Toronto's Artery, I spoke with Caitlin Taguibao, an artist who creates illustrations and murals throughout the city. She told me about her time painting on the streets of Indonesia, and how her creative process works. We also spoke about how public art and street art can give people a sense of pride in their communities.
Asha Swann 00:29
Can you tell me about what it was like getting started as an artist, or how long you've been doing art?
Caitlin Taguibao 00:35
I mean, I did go to an art high school here in Toronto. And then later on, I went to OCAD, for illustration. And as a child, I would go to, you know, community art classes, and especially taking the Chinese brush painting course, because that was very fun and expressive for me, as opposed to like more traditional drawing classes. And I think that did inform my illustration style. But I would say in terms of mural painting, specifically, I started about in 2015. Let's just say in 2011, I graduated from OCAD. And from then I kind of took a break from art making and illustration, design stuff, but I slowly got back into it through community gardening and being involved with community garden groups, because I'd make posters for events and other things that were happening. So that, I think, really reinvigorated my love for creating for public spaces. After that, yeah, I spent a lot of time working with smaller organizations who I kind of really just supported on a personal level. And then that fueled my desire to create art in public spaces. So my first mural was a mural that was painted for a group in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto. And it was with a few friends, painting along a fence that surrounded it a community garden. And so that was really kind of like the epitome of what I wanted to do, just like paint in the sun with my friends, for an organization and I believed in, you know, just like give art to the public?
Asha Swann 02:03
Have any of the murals you've done stood out as being your favourite ones, or ones you felt like were really impactful?
Caitlin Taguibao 02:10
I think that one, my first one was one of my favourite ones. And I thought it was pretty impactful, too. It definitely led to more opportunities for myself as an artist that gave me more connections with the people I was painting with. It also, like really changed the environment of the community garden that it's surrounded. And I think it just encompassed a lot of elements of painting in public places that I really would like to do with my projects. I can't say that it's grown to a place now where I do that all the time, because there's just so many different kinds of public art projects that I'm involved in now. But it was yeah, that's definitely one of my favourites. Another one is also, well, it doesn't really exist anymore—but there's this one that I painted in Indonesia. I spent a few winters like creating in Indonesia and I have to say too, like the art community in the city of Jogjakarta in Indonesia was like super helpful and supportive in fueling my desire to create art. But there was one mural, it was on the side of an art space/bookstore. And it was a program they had called Kiss on the wall where artists would have to paint a mural on the wall. And then the next month, they get another artists to come in paint over that mural and paint their own design. I mean, the painting I did paint was very personal to me. And so I had that freedom to kind of just paint whatever I wanted. But I think also the ephemeral nature of it really spoke to me in terms of like, not attaching yourself to this thing that lived on the streets and having to paint over another friend's artwork in order to paint my own design. And then having somebody else who I knew in the community paint over my art was kind of a liberating experience.
Asha Swann 03:47
I feel like that would be almost like an a personal exercise and like how to let go, I guess, like, don't get too attached, but try to create in the moment, I feel like that'd be a really cool thing like mentally to do.
Caitlin Taguibao 03:57
Yeah, and I think painting murals has definitely taught me that because you never know what's going to happen to your mural on the streets, you know, somebody who might paint over it, somebody might tag it and it kind of just loves its own life after you have spent so much time with it.
Asha Swann 04:10
Did you do many other murals when you were in Indonesia?
Caitlin Taguibao 04:13
Yeah, I would say that the artist community there really nurtured my life in street art and murals.
Asha Swann 04:20
How do you find the street art community in Toronto compares to Indonesia?
Caitlin Taguibao 04:25
I'd say it's pretty supportive here in terms of people wanting to paint things, people being open to painting together and working together. However, I think there are a lot more administrative blocks here in Toronto that make it harder to really just like, be creative, and kind of just put work out there. When I was in Indonesia, I don't know if it's like this right now, but it was a lot easier to kind of just speak to a wall owner and then just start painting the next day. Whereas here there's often a big design process that happens. You know, you have to like apply for certain things, or you have to like get permission from the building owner. And the building owner is at this point, oftentimes, like a huge corporation or real estate property manager or somebody who doesn't even live in Toronto. So it's very hard to get these kinds of projects rolling and also to like, make it feel meaningful to the people who are actually in that community or occupying the space of the building that you're painting.
Silence is Compliance
Image source: Stephanie Valencia via Unsplash
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Art has long been reflective of the public's politics. In 2020, after the death of George Floyd, many people created street art to show their frustration with racism and police brutality. This piece in Burbank, California, immortalizes Floyd's face. It was created by Alex Ali Gonzalez and Alejandro Chavez.
Asha Swann 05:28
Do you feel like the city of Toronto, whoever the next mayor is, do you feel like they could be doing more to promote public art and community art?
Caitlin Taguibao 05:36
There's a really great program called StreetART Toronto that works out of City Hall. And they were I think they were actually born from Rob Ford administration. They had this whole like anti-graffiti campaign. And I think the program started as a way to counteract the graffiti and to kind of like, you know, beautify walls, "If like, we're gonna wash over graffiti, maybe we could just paint a mural there instead." And so I haven't actually seen like too much, so much of a difference between mayor to Mayor. Like I think the city, through this program, has been super supportive. And they've like, done a lot to get murals up there really quickly. And I think it's pretty incredible. Yeah, so I don't—I see that program getting stronger. And I just hope with whoever comes next, it will continue to develop this way.
Asha Swann 06:22
Yeah, I definitely hope so too. Because I know where I grew up, there wasn't really much of a street art scene. So I remember coming out here like I've only lived out here just recently for school and to me, it's like so crazy to be able to see so much art here. I love it personally.
Caitlin Taguibao 06:37
Oh, cool. Where did you move from?
Asha Swann 06:38
I moved from Ottawa. Are there any like bucket list types of places that you would like to do art kind of like in Indonesia, or anywhere else?
Caitlin Taguibao 06:47
A large multi-storey building. I've seen images of other mural artists painting, like high-rise buildings in Europe. And it seems like it would be so cool to have this large piece hovering above the city where people are walking around and living their day-to-day lives — and it's not associated with like a commercial space at all or a large corporation. And it's also a big challenge. So that would be really cool to do one day.
Asha Swann 07:10
Yeah, I definitely think that would be really cool. My school does like, I think there's like one mural on the side of one of the residences at Ryerson [TMU]. And it's like, you can really see it from like Gould Street. So whenever I walked by, I'm like, "Oh, cool." I love seeing huge displays of art. So I would love to see more like that in the city too.
Caitlin Taguibao 07:29
Cool. Yeah, they're definitely helpful for just finding your way around the city. I know a lot of people refer to certain murals at certain intersections, but they don't really remember what the street address is or what the streets are. They're just like, "Oh, you know, that mural at this corner?"
Asha Swann 07:43
Yeah, they're definitely like visible landmarks, which is really cool. What kind of impact do you think art can have when it comes to helping bring a community together?
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Caitlin Taguibao 07:51
Well, I think, there are a few projects I worked on in the past few years with the collective under Jakarundi Graphics. And there was one that was done in the East End at Main and Danforth at the side of a Sobeys. And it was like a multi-year project, it kind of encompassed another project that happened before it through a series called East End Love. So some people in our collective, they had done these stencil-making workshops with various people of the community in the neighbourhood that specifically addressed, you know, anti-racism, anti-Islamophobia, which was like something that was happening in that neighbourhood at the time. Huge, like issues were happening. And so various youth groups came together and created these stencils, these messages that they felt were reflective of what they were feeling. And then we had this opportunity to paint a mural on this wall that encompassed those stencil messages, and as well as our own imagery of what we thought would be representative of an anti-racism message.
So I think that was like a very proud moment of mine to be a part of that project that collectively included messages from the community, but also we were able to, like invite people to work with us. And then we were also able to speak our own message and our own thoughts of like, how we should take action against racism. And I remember when we finished it, I think I ran into few people just kind of like looking up at the mural in awe, in the parking lot. And they, like it's 2021 so we're still like pandemic mode. And this man, he just he looked at me and he expressed his gratitude for this because he felt like it really just encompassed so many voices and this collective sense of like togetherness that he hadn't really felt in a while or couldn't really hear those kinds of voices in that time. This process of like doing these workshops, and you know, talking to people these slow processes and putting it together in an image can be pretty powerful.
Asha Swann 09:50
Yeah, I think that is really powerful. I definitely get what you mean like when everyone can kind of come together. I feel like it would feel like really empowering also if you see there's like a piece of pride in your neighbourhood. So that is really cool.
Caitlin Taguibao 10:01
I do enjoy the idea of, you know, just like having somebody come care for a wall and spend time with it in a different neighbourhood or community in it. It really, as you said, brings a sense of pride to whoever gets to take care of that. That's so exciting too about finding street art in Toronto is that you never know what's going to be around the corner. Like I still keep discovering new murals, depending on which way I walk. So it's pretty exciting in that sense, but there's always something new to be discovered.
Asha Swann 10:37
This has been an episode of Toronto's Artery, a podcast about art in the heart of the city. For more episodes and to see a map of the art we discussed in today's episode, head to torontosartery.com.
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Thanks for listening!