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HERE for installation view �Hard Candy is an exhibition of the newest works by
emerging artist Jade Yumang. Comprised of nine portraits, Hard Candy is
a series of work that articulate a carnality that is at once bawdy and
delicately sensual. Though explicit at first glance, Hard Candy delves
beyond a young, raw homoeroticism and presents images that speak to the
essence of physicality and questions stereotypical power dynamics and gender
roles. Each work in the series is a woodcut printed
with black ink onto a delicately stretched surface of translucent silk
fabric. Behind the printed surface sits affixed to the wall a jawbreaker
that has been licked and sculpted with tender consideration. The
printed image is intrinsically pornographic and lends itself to a discourse
of power dynamics and sexual objectification and exploitation. The
young men in each portrait are in a position associated with sexual
�servicing�, a submissive, perhaps even female, role. It would be
interpreted that this anonymous �receiver� is in the power position,
masculine in his presentation and dominating the subject in a one-sided
sexual encounter. It too could be interpreted as the artist�s own
self-proclaimed position of power over the viewer and subject, dominating the
exhibition space for his own gratification. Yumang confronts this typical power
association, that the sexual positioning of the portrait�s subjects equals
exploitation and non-gratification, by introducing into the image an iconic
piece of candy. By introducing the jawbreaker, Yumang challenges the
initial interpretation of objectification and relieves the subject from his
powerless position. The jawbreaker, which has physically been sculpted
by the artist�s own mouth to reveal its layers, connotes an allured
persistence rewarded by great satisfaction. The experience of a
jawbreaker, with its foreboding name and appearance, is one of visceral
sentimentality for many who can recall the commitment needed to conquer the
candy, and the great reward that comes from each layer. This informs
the explicit image and transforms it to a portrait of enduring sensuality and
pleasure for the subject, stripping the brash initial interpretation of
exploitation, revealing a sweet, seductive exchange and a more complex and
considerate relationship. Having physically manipulated the candy
himself, Yumang has also placed himself in the role with the portrayed
subject, further hinting to the fact that he is the anonymous figure in the
portrait while at the same time extinguishing his power in the exchange and
revealing the reciprocation of what would stereotypically be interpreted as
an unbalanced situation of power. Hard Candy is a young artist�s investigation
into his identity while presenting a body of work that challenges the
viewer�s interpretation of power dynamics and stereotypes of traditional
roles in sexual relationships.� |
� Jade Yumang