Apple in Love
He Jia
和嘉
Production date
2006
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
180 x 321 cm
Notes
With the gaudy palette and super-gloss finish of Pop Art celebrations of consumer desire in mid-twentieth century America, He Jia uses the visual language of advertising to create strange narratives featuring his characteristic ‘happy balloon men’. With the perfect, gleaming white teeth of a toothpaste commercial and reflective highlights bouncing off his apparently airbrushed, plastic-coated skin, here his blue character flies through the composition on water-skis, reaching out to grab a shiny, red apple. Temptation in a beach resort Garden of Eden? Perhaps He Jia is making a wry comment about the moral dangers of seductive new possibilities for purchasing pleasure offered in the 21st century Chinese market economy.
Accession number
2006.011