Joan Cornella's My Life is Pointless

Cornella's art is laced with black humour

 

This year has been... a write-off to say the least. The inability to get together with friends and family, to travel, having to wear masks all the time, working from home, and dealing with social-distancing measures have all taken a toll on all of us.

Which is why we all need a laugh, and artist Joan Cornella has a sarcastic, and often black humour in his work.

This work sums up 2020 for me

The 39-year-old artist from Barcelona is holding his third solo exhibition called My Life is Pointless in Hong Kong, at Sotheby's no less in Pacific Place in Admiralty. 

To ensure social-distancing measures were in place, visitors had to book a time slot to visit the gallery -- and yet they were all filled up before the exhibition started, and there are even wait lists! With the help of a publicist involved in promoting the show, I got a Friday morning time slot -- and only five or six other people were there at the same time.

Before entering we had to fill out health declaration forms, including recording our temperature, and use hand sanitizer.

Young Hongkongers seem to love Cornella's biting observations about modern life that he captures with surreal, often disturbing images.

The last time his show was here, he had some Hong Kong-inspired elements, such as how people need to multitask to survive, and how people's living spaces are so tiny that he questions why people would pay mortgages for them.

A Hong Kong-related piece?

This time the images are more general, but still satirical. As the introduction explains, his characters all share a generic blank smile and a bright cheery colour palette akin to 1950s advertising or airline safety pamphlets. 

Cornella pokes fun at horrible topics, such as cannibalism, infanticide, murder, suicide and amputation. 

"In m comics, characters are like plastic and always have a big smile even though horrible things happen to them constantly. Everything is exaggerated, although certain behaviours can relate to real life," he says.

Perhaps one piece that sums up 2020 with a woman smiling and says: "Today is a good day to feel more boredom and pain!"

Another is a cut out of a man who is smiling and his T-shirt says "free hugs" but he himself has no arms.

You get the idea.

Perhaps the only Hong Kong-related piece is a man in a suit holding up a picketing sign that reads: "Stop demonstrating" when he himself is.

Point a CCTV camera at yourself

Cornella has also created pieces of a man holding a selfie stick with a gun attached to it, pointing at his smiling face. Another version has a CCTV camera attached to the selfie stick, in case he wanted to record his every move -- which many influencers do!

If you are keen on any of Cornella's work in this exhibition, they are available for immediate purchase... someone is desperate to make a sale. We didn't dare ask the prices, but wondered who buys his work when they define the moment right now. Do they stand the test of time?

The gallery is spacious, though we had to feel for the security guards who had to listen to strange music playing all day that sounded very unsettling.

Nevertheless, we just enjoyed seeing these crazy art pieces to give us a bit of levity in such an annus horribilis to the nth degree.

My Life is Pointless by Joan Cornella

Sotheby's Hong Kong Gallery

5/F, One Pacific Place

Admiralty

December 15, 2020-January 29, 2021

Wildly Popular Disturbing Art

A man taking a selfie with a gun. Did he get the shot?

This afternoon I went to a preview of an edgy show by Spanish comic strip artist Joan Cornella.

The paintings and prints are so absurd you can't help but laugh or be disturbed by the images, showing people with generic happy faces being destructive, or having violent acts being done to them.

Four years ago Cornella decided to change his style of art by doing these comic strips and posting them on Facebook to see what the reaction would be.

A Hong Kong family with a selfie stick...

The verdict was unanimous within a short period of time -- keep doing it!

Interestingly his biggest fan base is in Hong Kong, followed by Brazil.

When I asked him why Hong Kong people love his work so much, Cornella didn't have an explanation.

Perhaps Hong Kong people feel like society or the world they live in is two-faced -- that they have to give the impression that everything is fine or perfect, but in reality it's the complete opposite. Or maybe these are "happy" people fantasizing about what they could do to their boss, or people they hate!

The show, which is on at Space 27 in Quarry Bay from May 6-21, features 38 works, and some of them were inspired by Hong Kong. One of them shows a guy in a cage home, sticking out a selfie stick so he can take a picture of himself.

Maybe because of this work Hong Kong will get more attention on the world stage for its ever increasing widening gap between the rich and poor, and how young people can only afford shoebox-sized flats.

Another painting shows a father, mother and daughter, the latter two wearing face masks, and the father holds up a selfie stick, but there's a gun pointing at them. Wonder who gets that shot?

A man in a caged home looking happy...

The best of the lot is called Two Girls, featuring the poster of the Kwong Sang Hong Two Girls, and painted over their faces are Cornella's signature generic smiley faces, one wearing a face mask and holding up a selfie stick with a gun at the end, and a modern landscape of skyscraper behind them.

 A woman with the gallery told us a family from Taiwan recently gave Cornella their family photo for him to paint over. We can only say this family is really unconventional and brave because we don't know what the artist will do to their faces and bodies!

Joan Cornella: A Hong Kong Themed Solo Exhibition

May 6-21

11am-9pm

Space 27

10/F, Block AB, Tung Chong Factory Building

653-659 King's Road

Quarry Bayd