Voiceover: Vegetables are a life necessity. And for Ju Duoqi, it is also an art must. This young lady represents some of the masterpieces of western painting in a very unique way. Lets find out in this Vegetable Museum.
In The Vegetable Museum, the vegetables change their status from being ordinary, coarse, insignificant and perishable, to being exceptional and ever lasting. Making use of vegetables and food from China’s everyday life – such as tofu, cabbage, ginger, lotus roots, coriander, sweet potato… – and through digital manipulation, Ju Duoqi presents a puzzling series of vegetable compositions representing world famous paintings like Mona Lisa by Da Vinci, The Dream by Picasso or Marilyn Monroe by Warhol.
Ju Duoqi: These are onion, dasheen, pumpkin. And this is my pot. The hands were made of broccoli, I find them very interesting. As we see, some of these were made by natural materials and some difficult effects were produced by PS. For example, this one was photographed first and then PhotoShopped for a better effect.
Voiceover: Born in 1973 in Chongqing, Ju Duoqi graduated from The Sichuan Fine Arts College though now currently lives and works in Beijing. She creates her own language and destabilizes the boundary between reality and fiction.
Ju Duoqi: When I chose the materials, according to their special shape, I paid a lot of attention to consider which is suitable for some parts of the body, such as waist or leg. And in order to save materials, I always pay more attention on their reusing. Such as the leg, sometimes you change it another way, and it could become an arm.
Voiceover: Food and aliments are recurrent theme in Ju Duoqi’s works. She puts them out of their natural context to give them a second life, which attracts a lot of visitors and artists.
Emmanuelle Berville (From France)
This is my first time I discovered these artists. I have never seen these photos before. I think it is very striking, very interesting.
Chen Yongjie (From Shenzhen):
I think it is fresh, She used a special way to represent some of the masterpieces of the western painting by the normal vegetables in her style. It is very humorous and brings an unexpected effect.
Voiceover: The vegetable museum is located at the Beijing 798 Arts Zone featuring a heavy dose of modern art and personal expression boosting the development of contemporary art and culture creative industry in art zone. The Ju Duoqi photography exhibition stays open till January 24, 2009.
