Tourist Art

Text by Gabrielle Civil, illustrations by Vladimir Cybil Charlier.

(excerpts)

in the market,
effusion,
emulsion,
florescence of art:
dead wood sculptures
with death grip smiles,
big-dicked warriors
with casket-like shields,
flip-flops melting
in the sun
and these
landscapes of higglers,
angular gourd men.

in the market,
in santo domingo

the two sides of the island war

here the spirits are questionable.
not roads and lights and toilets and power,
these stand unquestioned. faux taino glyphs
move in color from sun to sand, scrawl to personage /
flower / smiles. the texture of the canvases is clotted and rough.
it would be reclamation if it were ever enough.
tourist art as native camouflage, a cheerful death.

in Sto. Dgo
the tourist kills two birds with one stone:
gets taino dominicans and nigger haitians at once,
gets white sand and black magic,
an all-inclusive resort.

a tour de force

tourist art is anachronistic. tourist art is historical. tourist art is nostalgic.
tourist art is timeless. tourist art is mnemonic. tourist art is native xerox.
tourist art is anachronistic. tourist art is historical. tourist art is nostalgic.
tourist art is timeless. tourist art is mnemonic. tourist art is native xerox.
tourist art is anachronistic. tourist art is historical. tourist art is nostalgic.
tourist art is timeless. tourist art is mnemonic. tourist art is native xerox.
tourist art is anachronistic. tourist art is historical. tourist art is nostalgic.
tourist art is timeless. tourist art is mnemonic. tourist art is native xerox.
tourist art is anachronistic. tourist art is historical. tourist art is nostalgic.
tourist art is timeless. tourist art is mnemonic. tourist art is native xerox.
tourist art is anachronistic. tourist art is historical. tourist art is nostalgic.
tourist art is timeless. tourist art is mnemonic. tourist art is native xerox.
tourist art is anachronistic. tourist art is historical. tourist art is nostalgic.
tourist art is timeless. tourist art is mnemonic. tourist art is native xerox.
tourist art is ad infinitum repetition past present and future. amen.

tourist art is always selling timelessness.
the story the tourist wants to tell of the travel
not the stinging cloudburst but the cobalt sea.
not the stench but the deep burnished kiss of the sun,
not the hawkers, but the barefoot
children dancing for coins. at once, the place
disseminates itself as a story you want to tell, your story
displaced, a beautiful lie, evacuated, remote
from customs threat. no clairin no flies
no beggars no misery no bones

in Santo Domingo
the Haitian works win the war. not just
because i am mad at the roads and the lights
and the toilets and the power. but everywhere
looks reveal this: my haitian eyes undisguised,
imagination unrealized, dyaspora identity
in crates, unstoppable reproduction.
tourist art as freight.