The Cruel Delights Of Cheng Fei
Like cherubs stuffed to their breaking point, Cheng Fei’s figures revel in vice. Their corpulent bodies, drenched in lust and gluttony, roil and roll on the canvas. Faceless, save for collagen plumped pornstar lips, their appendages have ballooned and bloated so that they are nigh unrecognizable. Incapable of seeing, hearing, or smelling they can only imbibe and consume, feeding their own, selfish desires. Some, their skins forced beyond the confines of their elasticity, split asunder, revealing a beautiful and ghastly store of jeweled offal; strings of pearly entrails; the digested result of their hedonism which, even in death, they claw at.
Cute and macabre they manage, mostly, to draw the viewer in while simultaneously repulsing them. They are undeniably repugnant, embodying as they do the most base facets of our society, culture, species, what have you; but they do it with a greeting card sensibility which is, perhaps, what makes them so effective. It’s an interesting dichotomy, regardless of the message.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Looks like the movie poster from “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” had a litter of mewling maggot babies. They bring out my empathy. These poor gilded creatures need our help. Consumption is literally all they have.
May 19th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Awesome.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:25 am
These are so wonderfully grotesque. They remind me of Russian sausages, which we call Sardelki:
MMMM. I’m hungreh.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I dunno why but that color combinations used in the paintings has always got under my skin. In a good way of course, like grotesque candy in a way. It feels like a mix of looking at ones intestines and cute kids book drawings…message aside it’s THAT which makes me keep looking.
They feel not quite right, definitely nightmarish but the ones you sleep through wanting to see just where they take you.
January 16th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Beautiful art!! I like different!! A little twisted…sometimes too much for my taste.