Tag Archives: surrealism

Geisai Taipei 3 Art Fair Registration Open! 12/4/2011

Geisai Taipei is one of the big chances for independent artists and crafters to get noticed by the Asian art market, including galleries, curators, organizations, magazines and other organizations. One the one hand, with hundreds of artists competing for a handful of recognition awards, the chances of self-representing artists getting “discovered” and represented are slim to none – but on the other hand, that tiny chance of getting your art in front of industry leaders is enough, for most of us, to dish out the US$ 234 for a little booth (W 180X D 180X H 240cm) at this one day art fair event.

Plus, the growing popularity of Geisai and the large community of Taipei art connoisseurs means that, if well-utilized, Geisei can be a great opportunity to grow your fan base and increase your exposure – and maybe even to connect with some interested buyers.

Successful art fair presentation

Although I joined Geisei 2 last year, I didn’t know what I was getting into and presented very, very poorly. With just one little booth, I figured I better cram in as many paintings as possible, stacking them up on top of each other, and stuffing each little corner with personal oddities, fliers, news-scraps… I even had an electronic talking fish and a wooden Buddha statue to try and give my booth some style and color. BAD IDEA. You don’t want to present your art like 2nd hand knock-offs at a flea market. You want to project your paintings’ value with simple and clean presentation. Think like a gallery: white walls, lots of space, crisply printed title tags, high quality printed materials (i.e. business cards). If there’s room, perhaps a catalogue of works/price list.

What art should I show?

This question is much more tricky. With hundreds of competitors, you need a selection of paintings that brands you as an artist, stands out for it’s unique style, technique and theme. You want pieces that complement each other with similar colors. But you also want fucking good paintings – absolutely finished, pristine and polished: this means the edges have been painted or framed, the canvas has been glossed, it looks perfect. At the same time, you want something edgy/striking enough to make people gasp in awe-stricken stupor (ok, maybe not if you’re a landscape artist – but you should still shoot for it). Paint something that grips viewers and makes them sigh in wonder at the captivating beauty – or repugnant horror or scandalous humor – something that they will immediately go find their friends and drag them to visit your booth.

So what am I going to present?

Well I’m still struggling with that question. On the one hand I have some of my standard, unusual, Magritte-esque surrealist portraits of beautiful girls; a few of them are pretty good. Portraits or people paintings have won in the past. I also have some stronger pieces; my orange juice Buddha or my new sexy Sponge-Bob adultery painting, which is SURE to make a stir. But I also came back to Peru with some awesome wooden ornamental frames, to do a series of pop-art/religious icon paintings, which could be pretty awesome. I may need to get 2 booths this year.

Skinny

“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

“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

“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