Here are a few pics from Geisai #3 in Taipei – my theme was “irreligious iconography” so I did some simple pop-culture icons and celebrities using antique religious icon frames from Cuzco, Peru. My paintings were very popular – everybody turned the corner, smiled or laughed, then grabbed their friends to come take a look.
Sponge Bob, Domo, Adultery = Fine art? This is for an upcoming show titled “Fetish”. I like how it’s cute and dirty at the same time. Although I did it just for fun, it really gets a strong reaction (which is always good).
Please share if you like it!
“Skinny” 皮包骨 – 71x9cm – Oil on Canvas, 2010
A perfect “Hour Glass” figure – and yet it is obviously distorted and perverse. How thin is ‘too thin’? How much pressure, both internal and external, is put on women to lose weight in order to be considered beautiful? This painting highlights the self-consciousness of ‘bathing suit anxiety’.
一個完美的「沙漏」人物，可是身材卻明顯地歪曲且不合常理。瘦到什麼程度才叫做「太瘦」呢？為了看起來美麗，不知道有多少的內在和外在壓力讓女性開始減肥。這幅畫強調的是「泳衣焦慮」的自我意識。
Oil on Canvas Surrealism Oil Painting by Derek Murphy www.derekmurphyart.com
“Endangered Species” 瀕臨絕種物種– 117x91cm- Oil on Canvas, 2010
Asian mermaid in a lunchbox, paired with disposable chopsticks. This painting draws attention to the fact that we are literally eating ourselves out of our home, not only by exhausting the natural food supply, but also through our disposable eating habits, which create enormous excesses of waste and garbage.
午餐盒裡的亞洲美人魚，還配有一雙免洗筷。這幅畫讓我們注意到一件事，由於我們都在外用餐，不只逐漸耗盡天然食物，再加上用完即丟的飲食壞習慣，糟蹋了大量食物也產生大量垃圾。
Oil on Canvas Surrealism Oil Painting by Derek Murphy www.derekmurphyart.com
“Lamb Chop ” 血浴– 127x97cm- Oil on Canvas, 2010
A.k.a. “Criobolium” – a poor man’s taurobolium; involves the slaughter of a sacred animal, and the ritual bathing in its blood. The death of the animal was supposed to take away sins – it died in the place of a human in order to satiate the bloodthirsty gods. The blood of the animal was used to wash away remaining sins. These practices were common in the Roman empire; Criobolium in particular was used in the worship of Attis and the Great Mother.
The ancient ritual continues, albeit in symbolic form, in modern Christianity. In this painting, Jesus has torn apart Lamb Chop and is shaking drops of blood on a bunch of Asian females. This sacred and powerful ceremony is belittled by the uninterested revelers, who are characteristically involved in playfully posing for the camera. Jesus is exasperated or resigned; he’s acting out of habit and duty, but has lost confidence in making real spiritual progress.
Interpretations: Jesus is the ‘tree of life’ – however he’s standing on the trunk of a much bigger and older tradition. The Jesus in this painting is really only a boy (young and short). The Taiwanese/Chinese, whose own spiritual traditions (mostly offshoots of Buddhism) predate Christianity, coddle and humor him in his bizarre and gruesome attempt to use ancient magical blood rituals to save their eternal souls.
Likewise, missionaries in Asia are often very earnestly trying to do what they consider is right; however their beliefs are often cut off from the vast and complicated history of Christianity and offer instead a rough, well-meant but ineffectual (and culturally inappropriate) form of indoctrination.
血浴－一個可憐男人的祭典，宰殺神聖的動物，然後泡在動物血裡當做一種儀式。動物的死亡理應帶走罪過，在凡間殺死動物是為了滿足嗜血的眾神。動物的血是用來洗去殘餘的罪過。這些儀式在羅馬帝國時期相當常見，尤其血浴是用來尊崇阿提斯和巨母神。
該儀式仍存在於今日的基督教儀式中，但僅僅以象徵性的形式表現。這幅畫中，耶穌把羊撕裂開，然後把血灑在一群亞洲女孩身上。一群對此不感興趣的人不重視這個神聖且強大的儀式，他們就只是為了照相而擺出一些玩樂的姿勢。
耶穌感到惱怒卻也逆來順受。他在實行他的權責，但已失去了可以昇華人們內心精神層面的信心。
該幅畫之詮釋：儘管耶穌站在更大、更老舊的傳統支幹之中，他仍是一顆「生命之樹」。畫中的耶穌是唯一的男生，年輕、不高。台灣人或中國人一些精神上的傳統儀式（大多與佛教有關）都早於基督教，畫中這個受嬌慣的人，企圖採用古老的神奇血浴來拯救那些女孩永恆的靈魂，非常古怪又令人感到可怕。
同樣地，亞洲的傳教士也努力做一些他們認為對的事情，可是基督教廣泛又複雜的歷史斬斷了他們這樣做的想法，反而帶來籠統、出於善意卻又達不到目的一種教化形式。
Oil on Canvas Surrealism Oil Painting by Derek Murphy www.derekmurphyart.com
“Sacrifice” 犧牲– 127x97cm- Oil on Canvas, 2010
Mixed media using real Taiwanese ‘ghost money’. The kid and his dog are dressed up as chickens using the paper money; there’s a happy contrast between the dour, unpleased kid and his dog’s expressions and the surprise of the chicken costume. Mr. KFC is actually a Chinese guy wearing a KFC costume – he’s holding a can of kerosene and a lighter with a gleeful expression. All is set to go up in smoke.
Interpretations: forcing children into roles/lifestyle that don’t suit them, dressing them up as dolls for the pleasure of adults, or due to the unhealthy influences of the ‘fast food culture’. The Chinese man dressed in white as Kernel Sanders can represent the ‘whitening’ of Asian culture via the spread of Western idealism and globalization; this would be cultural ‘mimicry’ in the postcolonial Bhabhian sense.
The playboy symbol on the lighter further adds a sexual nuance to this piece. Wearing the grin of a dirty old man, the guy is obviously getting some sick satisfaction at the thought of ‘BBQing’ this kid. We could throw in all sorts of psychoanalyses…”I’ll get you my precious… and your little dog, too!”
We could even lean biblical; this painting may be interpreted as a modern rendering of the Old Testament scene where Abraham is ready to sacrifice his son at the Lord’s command:
“And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, “Abraham” and he said, “Behold, here I am.” And he said, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” (Genesis 22:1-2)”
All in all I would say it refers to Asian parents who are overly eager to push their children into the Western roles and lifestyles they’ve seen in the movies (studying English, playing piano, eating fast food, golden retrievers and SUVs) and thereby satisfying their own need for acceptance into the normalizing influences of internationalization.
這幅畫採用混和畫法，畫中使用真正的台灣「紙錢」將小孩和他的狗裝扮成雞的樣子。孩子和狗不悅的表情，與雞的服裝帶給人的驚奇感形成一個冷酷與快樂的對比。肯德基爺爺其實是個穿著肯德基服裝的中國人，他一臉開心地拿著一罐煤油和打火機，準備將一切燒光殆盡。
這幅畫富含多種意象。例如將不適合小孩子的角色或生活方式強加於他們身上、為了大人的娛樂而將孩子打扮成玩偶、「速食文化」帶來的不健康影響等等。穿著一身白的那位中國人扮成哈蘭德桑德斯（Kernel Sanders), 體現出亞洲文化在全球化和西方理想主義傳播的影響之下, 正在逐漸「白化」。帶有從文化的角度上來模仿巴哈後殖民思想的感覺。
打火機上那花花公子的圖更進一步為這幅作品些微添加一點情色元素。露齒而笑的那個人看似一位色老頭，很明顯想要把這小孩拿來「燒烤」以滿足他變態的思想。我們可以用心理分析的角度來解讀他的內心…「寶貝，我要吃掉你…還有你的小狗狗！」
我們甚至可以從聖經的角度來看這幅畫，舊約聖經中亞伯拉罕（Abraham）遵從神的旨意，準備犧牲他的兒子，這幅畫可當成該意象的現代版詮釋。
「經歷這些事情後，神為了要考驗亞伯拉罕，於是呼叫他。亞伯拉罕：我就在這。神說道：帶著你的兒子，你摯愛的獨生子，前往摩力亞，我指引你前往一座山，在那，將他獻為燔祭品。」（創世紀第二十二章，1-2）
總之，我想說的是這幅畫體現出亞洲父母一種過份的意願，也就是將自己的孩子套入他們在電影中所見的西方國家人物的角色和生活方式，例如學英文、彈鋼琴、吃速食、養黃金獵犬、開運動休旅車，從而滿足自己對接受國際化常態影響的需求。
Oil on Canvas Surrealism Oil Painting by Derek Murphy www.derekmurphyart.com
“Mary Doody” 傀儡– 50x61cm- Oil on Canvas, 2002
Classical ‘Madonna and Child’ by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, but with Jesus as a howdy-doody puppet. Just who is in control of Christianity? It’s masculine forms of hierarchy – the triune male God – have led some to argue there is no place for women within its fold.
Mary alone, in the Catholic tradition, is worshiped as divine, ‘mother of god’. Does the woman who bore Christ have any power or influence, or is she immediately silenced by deferring to her son? This piece problematizes the gender issues inherent in Christianity.
威廉阿道夫布羅格的經典作品《聖母與聖嬰》，只是耶穌以胡迪都迪玩偶的外型呈現。基督教是在誰的掌握之下？基督教中的階級制度以男性為主（三位一體的男性神祇），這讓許多人認為婦女在基督教信徒中是沒有地位的。
基督教傳統上認為瑪麗亞有如神明般受到景仰，是位聖母。耶穌基督的母親有任何力量或影響力嗎？或者因為她順從自己的兒子而無法表達自己心聲？這幅畫作對基督教的性別議題提出質疑。
Oil on Canvas Surrealism Oil Painting by Derek Murphy www.derekmurphyart.com
“Conservation” 對話– 117x81cm- Oil on Canvas, 2009
A bizzare twist on the recycling motif. Taking long hot showers is a comfortable habit of Western indulgence that wastes both water and energy. How many times can the water be cleaned, processed, purged and reused? Will our pursuit of sterilization and personal cleanliness lead to our own ruination? Would taking less showers paradoxically be the ‘clean’ choice?
Oil on Canvas Surrealism Oil Painting by Derek Murphy www.derekmurphyart.com
“Horny” 性飢渴– 117x91cm- Oil on Canvas, 2009
An Asian girl clutching the hem of dress coyly, is surrounded by the eager advances of two traditional temple door guards. Trapped in the gender role of sexual provider and dressed for the part, she seeks an alternative position.
一位亞洲女孩羞怯地抓住裙擺，身旁還有兩尊門神熱切求愛。這女孩落入皮條客所設的圈套而穿的跟應召女郎一樣，試圖想要脫離這處境。
Oil on Canvas Surrealism Oil Painting by Derek Murphy www.derekmurphyart.com
“One More Cup” 來一客– 130x180cm- Oil on Canvas, 2009
One More Cup – spinoff from Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Emerging from a cup of instant noodles, holding a pair of chopsticks, this girl represents modern life on this planet. Our ‘fast-food’ culture is quickly destroying our ability to sustain our living – we are consuming ourselves and eating away at our own future. Nearby Heineken bottle represents willful ignorance and turning a blind eye to such problems, drowning ourselves in instant gratification.
來一客－衍生自波迪切尼的作品《維那斯的誕生》。從泡麵杯中出現的女孩手拿一雙筷子，象徵地球上現代的生活。「速食」文化正快速地讓我們無法生活穩定，因為我們正在消費自己、啃蝕著我們的未來。附近的海尼根酒瓶象徵我們有意忽視這類問題，而且還視而不見，反倒把自己沉浸在一時的愉悅當中。
Oil on Canvas Surrealism Oil Painting by Derek Murphy www.derekmurphyart.com