Set to Print: Jul Advincula for Cebu Art Book Fair 2024

Editor’s Note: This interview with Leyte-born artist Jul Advincula was made possible by Cebu Art Book Fair under Tubô Cebu Art Fair 2024. Advincula/subhelic is among the fair’s featured artists, exploring visual art, nature journaling, zine making, and tattoo art.

Hello, Jul! Welcome to Kanto! How does it feel to be included in the 2024 Cebu Art Book Fair? Can you let us in on some of the highlights of your participation?

Thank you for having me! Whenever I’m at the Cebu Art Book Fair, I feel right at home. It’s my third year behind the table and I’m so grateful to the people of CABF for giving me and my friends something to look forward to every year. They do good, good work.

For this edition, I shared a booth with my brilliant friends at Studio Amping and released four new zines: “A Tree is Not There” with Gab Villacarlos, “F” with Gab, Kim Visda, Lorenz Torres, and Lawrence Ypil, “Good Angel, Bad Angel II” with Maraschin0 Bb, and “When I Was a Child I Saw the Blessed Virgin Mary Burning”. Our booth also had a zine about religious trauma, flowers, and the things that exist and no longer do. Oh, there were cheesy greeting cards too!

Glad to hear about your Tubô 2024 experience! Your art explores “impermanence, extinction, human/non-human dichotomy, and connection.” Can you tell us why you decided to center your work on these aspects? What sort of messages do you wish to impart through your art?

Honestly, I did not decide to focus on these topics. I just found myself magnetically pulled into them again and again. And I would like to say that I am still exploring.

Curiosity, wonder, and a sense of urgency guide my being. I believe impermanence, extinction, and connection are respectively curious, wonderful, and urgent.

I also want to ask about your journey as a tattoo artist. When did this start? Can you also share your observations on the changing reception of Filipinos regarding tattoos?

The tattoo venture is all Gab Villacarlos’ fault! Sometime in 2022, he showed me how a machine operates and Shari Llamis and I found out about hand-poke tattoos. After that, a bunch of pop-up Studio Ampings appeared in midtown Cebu.

I think we can all agree that tattoos are no longer taboo in contemporary society. Young women and their moms will come in and get matching ink from the nice big man with full sleeves and a nose ring. My wish is to see more flavors of artists as the scene grows, with different styles, and different philosophies. I also hope that every person who wishes to get inked will find the perfect tattoo artist for them.

You’ve participated in a few exhibitions and events. How do you maintain your unique artistic vision while competing or exhibiting on such platforms?

I try not to think too much about “maintaining a unique artistic vision”. I simply create what I create.

Lastly, what are your thoughts on the current relationship between print and art, especially as someone who performs nature journaling and zine making? Do you wish to see more young artists like yourself keep these practices alive?

Nature journaling is still quite rare in the Philippines. I know of only two nature journal clubs in the country at the moment. It’s a very niche activity, but in a climate emergency, we could use more ordinary people doing citizen science in their notebooks.

As for zines, I’m seeing more and more artists around me appearing in my collection. I know a few friends who have begun to collect zines as well. It’s a slow but steady growth. CABF is a great deadline, but I hope we reach a place where everyone feels inspired and brave to put out printed matter outside these events, any day of the year.

These formats give us the power to share colorful messages with the physical world without needing permission (thank you, punks). The world can always use more color! I suspect a lot of us are growing weary of the infinite scroll and are beginning to see the loveliness of print again. And I think that’s cool. •

instagram.com/subhelic