Artists Justin Caguiat and Rafael Delacruz’s The Tramp brings together a new film, installation, painting, and prints, marking the artists’ first institutional exhibition on the West Coast. Commissioned by the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, The Tramp publicly shares the process of creating collaborative art.
Wesley, Chips, and Hiroko
The heart of this exhibition centers on a new film made by the duo known together as Caguiat Delacruz. The Tramp follows the characters Wesley, his dog Chips, and Hiroko as they wander the streets of Oakland and the fields of Half Moon Bay. Wearing baggy pants, snug jackets, and bowler hats, the artists reinterpret Charlie Chaplin’s beloved character in The Tramp. The 1915 silent film was shot and produced by Essanay Studios in Fremont, 35 miles south of San Francisco. The playful character uses his wits to survive, eluding authority figures and tricking the elite in modern society. Chaplin’s protagonist reappeared in other films, and the Tramp character went on to represent the everyman.
The characters move through the Oakland landscape bearing witness to their surroundings. Wesley and Chips represent a kind of nomadic existence and the experience of being untethered from a structured society. Hiroko is played by the well-known Bay Area dancer Hiroko Tamana, master and pioneer of Butoh (the “dance of darkness”). Hiroko, as an experienced dancer and teacher, has the gift for using her body to communicate, in keeping with the silent film era, when actors were required to let their expressions tell the story. This tangential skill is yet another link to the 1915 film and the time and place in which it was created.
The gallery environment as a deconstructed film set
The inner workings of the film and its aftermath become the gallery environment the artists offer to encompass the exhibition. Deconstructed production sets are repurposed as exhibition furniture, and storyboards and behind-the-scenes photographs, costumes, prints, and ephemera are assembled within the space. The blending of the film with the art space softens the borders between media.
The Tramp was filmed digitally and transferred to VHS for purposes of the exhibition. Like all dated media, the VHS presentation reminds us of another time as it does not concern itself with the sharp, hyper-focused experience of contemporary film. Images are softer and finer details more impressionistic. The tape, throughout the exhibition, will spontaneously fast-forward or rewind at random points in the film, guaranteeing a one-of-a-kind experience for each gallery visitor and underscoring the space as a living organism of ideas. This use of play embodies Caguiat Delacruz’s own collaborative processes. Paintings, drawings, and plates (used to make prints) are passed back and forth between the artists as an ongoing dialogue. During the process, they find freedom to experiment together and push the boundaries of their work to the margins. The exhibition is a welcoming inclusion of the viewer into their intricate web-like world, reflecting on the precarity and possibility of contemporary life.
This exhibition marks Caguiat Delacruz’s third collaborative exhibition and their first institutional exhibition on the West Coast. The duo underscores their kinship with Chaplin’s iconic everyman character to reflect on the rampant demands of the art market, the pressure on the artists as individuals, and the changing social landscape of San Francisco, as tech companies continue to displace working-class communities. Existing in a state of play, The Tramp’s characters remind us of why we make art in the first place, and our collective endless potential as creators in an ever-changing world.
The Tramp is on view through Nov. 21.
Updated June 18, 2026
