Sugar-coated Fairy Tales
José Drummond is a Macao artist of boundless imagination and creativity. Since 1992, he has held 20 solo exhibitions and the forthcoming exhibition is his seventh solo show organised by the Art for All Society (AFA) in Macao. He is also a prolific artist who has participated in numerous joint exhibitions in different parts of the world. He has been dedicated to the creation of painting and video recordings for many years; personally, I am very fond of his video works. After much experimentation, he has gradually developed a unique style in this genre.
There has been a lack of opportunity in Macao for the appreciation of video works hence José Drummond’s works are easily recognised at first sight. In his older works – such as The Painter (2005), The Fugitive (2006), The Narcissist (2007), and The Illusionist (2008) – José Drummond never ceased exploring the truth and falsehood of human nature and facts, while seeking to express himself through the techniques of partial enlargement, humour and metaphor. His works are indeed impressive and enable people to review them again and again - whether the playback in reverse order used to depict the beautiful scene of white chrysanthemum pedals returning to their receptacle or the nausea-inducing scene of vomiting honey from the mouth.
In addition to his individual creations, José Drummond has endeavoured to promote the development of local video works by organising a variety of exhibitions and seminars. For example, he introduced the roving exhibition entitled Human Emotions Project – International Artists Using Film & Video to Macao and Beijing last year, which showcased more than 40 video works from around the globe, widening the horizons of local artists in video production.
The forthcoming Fairy Tales exhibition will feature three sets of artworks. First, The Aesthetician comprising 85 magazine pages painted is a continuation of his previous work The Storyteller in terms of imagery and connotation. On the basis of common printed materials extracted from a wide variety of magazine advertisements promoting ‘beauty’ - ranging from whitening, anti-wrinkles, breast enhancement, waist sliming, weight loss, body shaping, liposuction to plastic surgery - it seeks to re-create these materials and endow them with a unique style.
Today, it seems that ‘plasticity’ is the only way to pursue aesthetics, particularly a product promoted by a near-perfect star endorser. Rather than severely criticising the advertising focus or female pursuit of beauty or making use of this hot issue to express his real intentions, his work constantly adheres to his innate style and gives a new interpretation of the concept of ‘mask’ in a strict but humorous manner.
The second work - The Fighter - echoes the artistic approach adopted in The Aesthetician, which attempts to give a new meaning to images on printed materials. Magazine advertisements are replaced by images of ‘massage girls’ on leaflets distributed on the streets. The series is composed of two patchworks in red and yellow colours, respectively, with 50 small images pieced together. From a distance, they look very much like pornography. What is advertised in these leaflets is the massage girl who has a ‘beautiful face and fabulous figure’ and provides a massage service at a price lower than that of a sauna centre. In addition, to ‘integrate their services with the community’, they also provide ‘delivery services’ such as door-to-door and hotel deliveries, etc.
In ancient times, a heroine known as Hua Mulan joined an all-male army in place of her father. In today’s society, these ‘female fighters’ from all corners of the world are ‘outfitted’ and ‘dressed up’ for their role. The most distinctive features of José Drummond’s works often lie in his uncovering of life’s trivial details. He transforms himself into a ‘leaflet make-up artist’ in this work, which deeply impresses audiences.
The third work - The Pretender - is the largest video work of his individual creations, which is a production for participating in the exhibition The Butterfly Effect - An Artistic Communication Project of Cross-Strait Four-Regions organised by renowned Chinese curator Feng Boyi early this year at He Xiang Ning Art Museum in Shenzhen. This work series is full of fun and connotations, in which José Drummond ingeniously incorporates the theme of the Internet and the nature of spreading ‘news’ from mouth to mouth via the Internet to interpret his association with The Butterfly Effect.
He once conducted an experiment by registering on a networking website in Mainland China, following which he received many letters from females from different parts of China. Although these letters were seemingly written to seek friends or marriage partners, the more important motivation driving the girls was to seek change. But what would make them determine to leave their homeland? A better life and future? It is not difficult for one to sense the difference between their attitudes toward marriage and the mating preferences familiar to us. The ‘struggles’ and ‘fighters’ deep inside their hearts are similar to the exterior ‘struggles’ existing among the massage girls, although dissimilar in form.
To accomplish this video work, José, regardless of the cold weather, spent several days filming eleven ‘female leads’ in a suburban area near the AFA Beijing Contemporary Art Centre early this year. Although the leads were only substitutes for the girls who responded to José Drummond’s letters through the website, the filming is surprisingly consistent with his idea.
The Pretender, The Aesthetician and The Fighter are themed around feminism. The two shackles (patriarchy and feudalism) imposed on women in the past has been replaced by the notion of the ‘equality of men and women’ in modern society; however, the social status and rights of females still have room for improvement in Mainland China, in particular in poor rural areas far from cities. The social issues reflected in José Drummond’s works are exactly the ‘fairy tales’ that many girls from the Mainland dream of. Compared with the fairy tales we learned from an early age, modern ‘fairy tales’ in sugar-coated disguise seem more palatable, although more untrue and even further from reality.
- James Chu, Curator
