When it comes to cartooning in Goa, Alex Raphael Fernandes also known as Alexyz is a living legend. Originally from Siolim, he has sketched and drawn every major event that has taken place in Goa over the last five decades with lots of humour and a pinch of reality check. As he nears his 80 birthday on October 24, this year, he wanted to have not just a celebration of life but that of his art and his friendship with people that make a difference in our state. ‘Alexyz @ 80’ is an exhibition to celebrate his works and will be held from October 5 to 15 at Art Chamber-Galeria de Belas Artes, Calangute.
“I’ve got about 70 framed works as I’m putting up cartoons that I did 40 years back. I want to display cartoons that were my biggest achievements, like the Mandovi Bridge collapse, my journey to countries like France, Portugal, Australia and UK, where I held my exhibitions. A painting I am going to highlight is called R.I.P. Goa and I’ve got a very strong poem about it. I predicted what is happening now, way back in 2008 when I did a book called ‘Goa, Goan, Going, Gone’. The cartoons I put in that book were drawn 10 years before that, in 1998. I have been talking about what is happening to Goa but people did not wake up then,” says Alexyz, elaborating on the theme of the exhibition. He will also give an opportunity to 10-year-old Pearl, Genovia Sequeira and Vaibhav Salgaonkar, budding artists he has been mentoring over the last few years.
The ten-day celebration will also include a screening of the documentary on Alexyz by Kurt Fernandes. The cartoonist informs, “The documentary is being made in the UK now and is sponsored by Douglas Fernandes, Kurt’s father. This is my birthday gift from Douglas. Kurt had come down from the UK, and met all my friends, Dr Francisco Colaco, Dr Sidney Pinto do Rosario, Mingel Braganza, and other friends who have all said something about me in the documentary. This was done about six months back.”
Alexyz is the only Indian cartoonist to be invited to have his exhibition by the Labour MP Keith Vaz in 2000 in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. Though the exhibition was just of two and half hours duration, Alexyz stayed for over a month in the country. His exhibition gave him the chance to meet the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, John Major and for the first time an opportunity for Goans in England to go to the Parliament House.
On October 13, World Goa Day will be celebrated at the festival with a special song composed for the day. Alexyz will be singing a song on World Goa Day and Rabin and Raj D’Pietro have set it to music. They will also release a video on the song that will be performed live. Besides that, Alexyz will be performing two new original songs. “I am performing a very original song on laughter which is like an anthem on laughter and I will get people to laugh with me. The other song is a semi classical song, which is one side of me that people have not heard of,” adds Alexyz.
While many cartoonists are now going digital, Alexyz is on a mission to convince them to do cartoons by hand. “Digital cartoons can be photocopied and a hundred prints can be sold. But cartoons done by hand have more value. I will work with my hands as long as I can,” says Alexyz.
However, Alexyz’s friends have now taken the initiative to digitise his earlier works. “Over 50 years, I have done about 40,000 cartoons without any editing. My friends took about 25,000 of my best cartoons, which have been scanned and are in the process of being digitised. They see the value of my work and feel it has to be documented for the future,” says the young-at-heart cartoonist.