From Tesla cars to Brazilian waxes, being smooth is everything in today’s world – but why, artist wonders

‘Why are we thinking about beauty without edges?’ asks artist Jes Fan. His works’ rounded edges and fluid forms hide unexpected materials like blood and urine

A trans male who recalls a ‘draconian’ education at Diocesan Girls’ School in Hong Kong, Fan’s art also questions the construction of race and gender identities

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Jes Fan’s “Function begets Form” on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Photo: Zan Wimberley/courtesy the artist and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong

Published: 7:30pm, 29 Aug 2020Updated: 7:30pm, 29 Aug 2020

Artist Jes Fan is fascinated by the beautiful and the repulsive. His exploration of the contrast between them leads him to question our standards of beauty, shaped as they are by consumerism.

“In the age of Teslas and Brazilian waxes, everything has to be smooth and [without corners]. Beyond feminine beauty, in architecture you see highly digitally rendered curvature,” he says.

“Why are we thinking about beauty without edges? It stoops to consumerist needs, it’s a very accessible idea of beauty.”

Fan finds beauty in the grotesque. The rounded edges, glossy surfaces and fluid forms that constitute Fan’s visually seductive aesthetic disguise the most unexpected materials.

Jes Fan at an exhibition of artworks “Form begets Function”, “Xenophoria” (rear), and “Function begets Form”, commissioned for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Photo: Ken Leanfore, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Urine, melanin, and blood are suspended within what look like blown glass orbs in both Form Begets Function and Function Begets Form. The works were commissioned for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, which opened in June this year and runs until September.