Bad Uncle - Tribute to Michelangelo Antonioni

Chen Fei graduated from the Fine Arts program at the Beijing Film Academy in 2005. His obsession with movies and manga can explain why most of his paintings are tinged with narratives. Bad Uncle - Tribute to Michelangelo Antonioni (Lot 113) is one of the works that took on the subject matter of a movie - the composition and title of this piece allude to the landmark movie Blowup. I t was directed by the venerated Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni in the 1960s. The main character of the story, Thomas, is a renown fashion photographer. Due to the nature of his profession, he is always mingling with women. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is when Thomas straddles on top of a sprawling female model and takes pictures of her. Chen Fei borrowed this iconic composition and substituted the characters in the picture with the images of his girlfriend and himself. It is a response to the investigation of reality and fantasy - an issue that is raised in the original movie. The movie documents elements of Hippie movement, Rock and Roll, and sexuality in the Hedonist culture in England in the 1960s. By appropriating the movie scene in Chen Fei's visual vocabulary, the work reveals itself to be a statement about individualism in the New China. Chen Fei's typical self-portraits of seminudes emphasise unbridled violence and sexuality. Such treatment brings an extra edge of passion and roughness of youth to the original scene. The intricate tattoo on Chen Fei's body satisfies the viewers' desires for details in this otherwise flat painting of unmodulated colours. When the viewers move closer to examine the details of the foliage tattoo in the painting, their actions echo the title of the movie Blowup - the act of magnifying the details of an image until the truth of the matter is fully understood. Regrettably, the viewers may never unlock the real meaning behind the subject matter of this painting. As it is suggested in the movie, everyone's definition of the reality is different. Chen Fei himself is also one of the Bad Uncles who participated in designing a riddle that has no answer.