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Jose LEGASPI
The Philippines b.1959
 The artist installing Phlegm 2000–02 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 Queensland Art Gallery Photograph: Natasha Harth |
Legaspi’s work is informed by wide interests. His university education in the Philippines included biology and zoology, and he once planned a medical career. This scientific background is evident in the detachment with which Legaspi presents his images of violence and horror. His work is concerned with the investigation of personal psychological states, and his sculptures and drawings build on disturbing childhood memories. Legaspi’s bleak and obsessional imagery can be confronting, but is often filled with tenderness and pity, evoking the dualism of love and hate that exists in daily life. Legaspi has exhibited widely in the Philippines, as well as in Hong Kong, Europe and the USA.
More information about the artist
 Jose Legaspi Phlegm 2000–02 Chalk and charcoal on paper 1000 drawings: 22.8 x 30.5cm each Collection: The artist Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
 Jose Legaspi Phlegm (detail) 2000–02 Chalk and charcoal on paper 1000 drawings: 22.8 x 30.5cm each Collection: The artist Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
 Jose Legaspi Phlegm (details) 2000–02 Chalk and charcoal on paper 1000 drawings: 22.8 x 30.5cm each Collection: The artist |
Phlegm 2000– 02 is made up of 1000 intimate, monochrome charcoal drawings on loose-leaf bond paper. They are arranged as a grid on the walls of a room devoted to their display. The images are arranged by the artist in an apparently random sequence, compounding the work’s nightmarish quality by frustrating the viewer’s attempts to construct a linear narrative. These images depict a realm of human behaviour in which sexual pleasure meets pain. The figures in these compositions take part in bizarre and repulsive acts, often appearing to be trapped in a cell-like space.
 Jose Legaspi Phlegm (details) 2000–02 Chalk and charcoal on paper 1000 drawings: 22.8 x 30.5cm each Collection: The artist |
There are several sources for Legaspi’s images, such as the religious fascination with the gruesome details of Christ’s crucifixion and the martyrdom of the Saints. The daily reality of poverty, corruption and violence for many Filipinos is another source. The artist’s own sense of sexual alienation, being an openly gay man within a society generally intolerant of homosexuality, also inflects his work.
List of works in APT 2002
Artists and Works
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