Where sincerity and sarcasm meet, Portuguese artist/illustrator Wasted Rita is ready, pen in hand, to share her reflections with the world. And the world is listening. With nearly 70,000 followers on Instagram and numerous exhibitions, the 30-year-old self-described “emotional terrorist and agent provocateur” has a global audience.
Madonna buys her art, using emoji hearts in her comments on the Wasted Rita Instagram account. And Banksy invited her to take part in his 2015Dismaland show, the dystopian parody of Disneyland featuring the likes of Damien Hirst, Jimmy Cauty and Jenny Holzer, among others.
However, Lisbon-based Gomes remains respectfully unfazed. Sidestepping the hype isas much a form of protection, as a way to keep the creative flow in motion.
“I’m usually not interested in that side of things – when it comes to anything – not only in arts, but also in all other areas as well, pop culture and the like. I just like to be very cold in my opinions and passions. And I need to be a bit of an outsider to comment, so I need that distance – to create, as well,” explains Rita.
The work for her show, “Thank you for Existing” as part of the Macau Alter Ego exhibition (on display at Taipa Houses Museum until September 9), sees the artist in her element, playing on her deadpan dysfunctional take of a globalised world and packaging it into user friendly souvenirs with her trademark themes: anxiety, individualism, feminism, existence, searching, significance.
“I wanted to mix existential dread with gift shops, and also brands such as Supreme, Gucci and all those brands that are known globally and everyone wants to have a t-shirt or something from theme to create a status in their lives,” the artist says of the tourist trinkets on show in her exhibit at Taipa-Houses Museum.
“I’m making an installation of a fake souvenir shop with t-shirts and fake products and a vending machine full of souvenirs, and instead of promoting a city, they are just promoting anxiety, existential dread and all the things I’ve been talking about in my work since day one.”
Raised in a small town and attending a religious school, drawing has always been a form of escapism for Gomes. The decision to study art saw her encouraged to pursue her “punk, DIY, counterculture, trashy attitude” rather than succumbing to classic digital graphic design which she “always found tedious”.
In 2011, towards the end of her degree, Gomes created the Rita Bored blog, documenting everyday thoughts and reflections, archiving everything she was creating. TheInternet took note, with the blog’s sense of humour and honesty striking a chord, and the illustrator saw her work featured in countless art and graphic design websites, magazines and books, and exhibited worldwide ever since.
The artistic name Gomes chose for herself, Wasted Rita, still generates a lot of curiosity to this day. Steeped in irony, the choice of the word ‘Wasted’ stemmed from a feeling of wasting her life and opportunities to create, to an overriding sense of feeling like an “insecure bummer drowned in fear”.
She decided to replace that feeling with one of being at peace with making mistakes instead. That, coupled with a love of US punk band Black Flag, helped make the moment ‘Wasted Rita’ popped into her head feel like a moment of “sacred revelation”.
In 2012, her base of international clients grew, as did participation in solo and group exhibitions in Portugal and abroad. 2013 saw a move to Berlin and the artist begin to earn a living from her art, as well as learning the art of promoting her own work – something that has stood her well, as evidenced by her success, and steadfast confidence in her process and talent.
The titles of the exhibitions and works are in themselves as playful and provocative as thepainting, drawing, and mixed-media work itself: The people, the dying and all the fun in between; Girls just want to cum and have fundamental rights and then cum again;The waking, the sleeping and all the nihilism in between; Human Beings – God's Only Mistake.
Inspiration comes from numerous sources including film, TV shows, and
standup comedy including Cameron Esposito, Amy Sedaris, Kate Berlant and John Early. Music also plays a big role and is a pretty mixed bag, from Punk to Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande, Drake, and more “chilled stuff”.
“I don’t think about my work as much as people probably think I do. It’s much more something that happens rather than something I programme, or think or create a concept behind. It’s just something that happens,” the artist says of her creativity.
“I don’t have a process, it depends on what I’m working on. For example, in the case of this exhibition, I came with an exact idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to do a show of newspaper and magazines shelves, I wanted to make a vending machine with all the souvenirs and the t-shirts and the fake objects.”
“But then the process of knowing about what to write on these things comes from just sitting and thinking about what subjects I have in my mind. It’s very spontaneous, messy and last minute – and people hate me for that!” she laughs.
“Everything comes from something I’m feeling, but sometimes people think it’s ironic and it’s not ironic. So there is a lot of space for misunderstandings – you might think you know me, but do you? Probably not. Because maybe what you are reading is not what I’m saying.”
Spoken like a true agent provocateur.
Thank You For Existing – Wasted Rita
On display at Taipa Houses Museum until September 9
