RX | Pop-Paradox

Through his art, RX creates twisted versions of fairy tale characters such as a VR-wearing Alice, an adolescent Little Mermaid, and a reset Pinocchio, deconstructing iconic figures in pop culture. He seeks to dismantle the idealized images of innocence and purity that these figures are often associated with. By infusing these familiar fairy tale characters with elements of eroticism, chaos, greed, violence, despair, pity, and ruin, RX uses these once-pleasurable but now distorted images to reflect the realities of contemporary society.

RX draws inspiration from didactic cartoon stories, distorting and reshaping their inherent narratives to reveal the ugliness of human desires. The prosperity and excess of one thing often signify the lack of something else, much like the two sides of a coin. As a result, when viewers engage with his works, they are almost compelled to interact with the art on both a visual and intellectual level, establishing a genuine dialogue with the pieces.

Regarding the video of some sculptures of RX

Pop-Paradox Volume #1

ISBN: 9788409579914
PAGES: 200
LANGUAGE: English
EDITOR: ArtToyGama
PUBLICATION DATE: 09/09/2024
DIMENSION: 21,5×21,5×2 cm

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Mona (the lady) Lisa,蒙太奇博物馆,3分钟

A New Apple

It’s heard that RX’s new book, “Pop-Paradox,” has hit the shelves, and it’s safe to say that the publication is certainly good news for his long-time followers and collectors. If you are hearing about him for the first time, congratulations as well; through this book, you have discovered a hidden treasure map.

In a way, this treasure map serves as RX’s personal biography or diary, detailing the artistic projects he has created in recent years. You may find yourself laughing out loud as you piece together some of the intriguing details in the book, but what comes after the laughter? That depends on your perspectives on human nature, politics, and society. Reflecting on his works, you’ll notice that people tend to have fixed views and attitudes towards everything, which this artist’s humor aims to challenge: the sacred can also be fragile, villains may be helpless and lonely, and even in the sunlight, there can be shadows of sin… When these cartoon characters are integrated into sociologist Bourdieu’s concept of the Artistic Field and infused with an absurd atmosphere, it prompts us to reconsider certain established notions.

The holy ghost. In 2020, mixed media and led light, 19 cm

Fragments of consciousness. In 2024, oil on canvas, 40×40 cm

Perhaps RX himself did not intend to create works that make people laugh. Perhaps when we catch a glimpse of a surprising side of something fixed, or face death, or see the dissolution of seriousness and sanctity, our instinct is to laugh? I do not know. But they do strongly attract the audience. This attraction is not necessarily a kind of liking, but it could also be attracted by the playful images, the great visual carnival, a kind of bad taste, and a kind of curiosity. The audience is not a critic and does not have to pay attention to the critical meaning of consumerism, but whether it is in the industry or out of the industry, the first feeling when seeing the pop characters drawn by RX is a big surprise – people’s experiences after seeing these will often be divided into two extremes, either feeling nauseating and frivolous, or after watching patiently, saying: “This is an incredibly fresh Southern European voice.” What kind of person would interpret Snow White as a dissolute character? On another page, the dwarfs and the prince are no longer the image representing warmth and redemption. What RX leaves us is a strong psychological subversion, those familiar images representing beauty, bringing you a cultural trauma.

However, the necessity of artists like RX in society proves that when art and contemporary culture encounter the shifts of the times, it is natural for art, which was once influenced by religion, politics, history, and science, to have its “reproductive isolation” breached by popular culture. After all, we cannot ignore that comics and cartoons have become one of the dominant visual cultures of our era, influencing so many artists. Moreover, since the 1980s, the interaction and co-creation with the public have become the greatest charm of contemporary art: an individual soul awaits the gaze and interpretation of another stranger. You are empowered to interpret a piece of work because you are unique, possessing irreplaceable life experiences and insights about the world. A good piece of art should have the ability to lead the audience into the deepest levels of consciousness, a capacity that we typically lack. It must overturn our emotions, shock us, and reveal a consciousness that we have yet to explore, experience, or understand. I believe RX’s art achieves this in several ways: it shakes us through violence, religiosity, curiosity, compassion, disgust, shame, contradictions, desires, or beliefs. These provocative methods are justified because art should not be equated with a moral lesson. His paintings and sculptures are rife with irony, metaphor, and parody, showing both traces of tradition and a continuous resistance to it. RX is like a Trojan horse from the city of cartoons, penetrating the audience’s subconscious and igniting their imagination and instinctive reactions.

The Sponge. In 2024, nylon, resin and wood figure, 18x18x20 cm

Popeye anatomy. In 2024, PVC, 30 cm

How did John Berger put it? “Truth only exists in the telling.” If we recount how contemporary art unfolds within its time, we’ll realize that all artists, like us, are ordinary members of society. They simply approach their situation with a perspective of observation and experience. What RX has been satirizing is the consumer idols that modern society has long been crafting, such as the visual images created for us by Hollywood movies or Disney theme parks. The classic characters that he has stripped of their filters are linked to the dark underbelly of society, teeming with tendencies towards eroticism and violence. His critical target is precisely the entertainment-until-death consumer economy. Perhaps we have always been living under such madness? It operates independently, and the most terrifying aspect is that we no longer have awareness of it, but indulge it to continue to integrate and become a new form of fascism. The ultimate goal of this kind of capitalism is to eliminate differences, eliminate culture, and turn us all into standardized electronic beings, harboring the same ideals and desiring only the same things. Even the elites working in the high-rise buildings of the CBD are, in reality, no different from the men and women servants in Downton Abbey.

So, it’s not hard to understand what RX aims to do: subvert. Through all means—painting, sculpture, images, toys, and other media—his goal is to overturn our fixed value judgments about high culture, popular culture, consumer culture, and so on. He seeks to expose the dark sides of contemporary culture, especially the hidden aspects buried within daily life and the values propagated by mainstream media. He presents to us the terrifying or avoidant things, yet does so in a way that is filled with humor—sometimes humor can indeed be a means of overcoming shyness. When conveying important messages, humor acts as a smoke screen; although it somewhat dilutes the actual meaning RX points to, it often contains dramatic moments within its satire. In this regard, he reveals the horror underlying the facade of societal prosperity: we often only see the cultural images that mainstream media presents to us, unaware of the grim reality behind them. To convincingly narrate our true identities, we must first shatter this illusion of abundance and peace, confronting the reality that is both chilling and captivating.

Plus. In 2020, mixed media, 18 cm

The only God. In 2020, mixed media and led light, 22 cm

Although it may sound cliché, the fairy tales in mainstream culture and Hollywood scripts have become the excrement of our real lives. We live in an era filled with noise, where what is spoken is not too much but too little. The torrents of capitalism leave us longing for authenticity. RX is aware that many typical images in anime have been hollowed out, yet by further distorting and misusing these well-known scenes—whether it’s killing off characters from Rabbit Fire, confining superheroes in cages, or having Cars perform Fight Club—he pulls us back to reality. This is a kind of magic, allowing us to remain immersed even as we witness despair, hysteria, shame, humiliation, and loneliness.

Thus, RX’s book, as an individual’s reaction to the media age, his confusion, inquiry, satire, and even venting and provocation, may contain private childhood emotions and memories, those complex hidden feelings that cannot be expressed solely in words. These stories are deeply rooted in the context of the times. Although I may have over-interpreted and exaggerated the intrinsic meaning of his work, artwork is not the answer itself. Understanding the artist and comprehending the art piece is akin to growing a third eye to observe our world. Just as RX’s brush and chisel are hinting at the appearance of the world we live in, sometimes reminding us of the past, sometimes the present, the parts we sometimes overlook or have not yet realized, the parts beneath the iceberg.

Well, please forgive my verbosity. In conclusion, I’ll use a slogan that may seem a bit outdated logically to inspire and summarize this new book. If I recall correctly, it comes from a segment of an interview with Picasso: “It is not necessary to paint a man with a gun; An apple can be just as revolutionary.”