When landing on Brannon’s (aka BB) Neocha.com profile, viewers are greeted by an over-sized Hulu Wa (a character from the popular 80s Chinese animated TV series Hulu Brothers, aka Calabash Brothers) screaming “xue tie ru ni,” a Chinese idiom literally meaning “chop iron like mud” and implying the sharpness of knife blade – perhaps the one oddly jutting out of this Hulu Wa’s mouth. This is clearly no ordinary Hulu Wa – it has yellow eyes, and hair on his chest and arms, uh, and of course the sword-mouth. What? Why? Huh?

Scrolling down the page, viewers can’t help having their eyes arrested by Brannon’s unique style, which never lacks controversial or risque elements. Blood, gore, violence, nudity, sex, anger, love, hate, religion, multilingual vulgarity, drugs, excess, and of course, rock ‘n roll, are all common place in his work. His expressiveness is just bubbling over with raw emotion and vivid authenticity.

When taking in Brannon’s illustrations, you’re indeed treated to a visually stimulating experience – perhaps at the same time you’re wondering what kind of mental state he must have been / is in to produce such bizarre and graphic images. I know I was.

To me, his art tells a story about the cruelties of youth, and who better to tell that story in China than a member of the post-80s generation?

You can see youth’s cruelties in Brannon’s ferocious Hula Wa, who is really just supposed to be child-like. You can see it in the faces of Brannon’s characters. They don’t give you the sense of hope or freshness that you would expect from their youthfulness. Instead, they are distorted, ugly, surly, painful, lonely, struggling, etc. Even scenes with laughter are tainted with touches of evil – it’s all so dark. They remind me of the phrase “the young and the hopeless.”

You can see youth’s cruelties in the subtitles and captions of his work. “We all need cocaine.” “I fuck, I strip.” “Hate is a strange (word), but I really really really don’t like you.” “Because I love you” is attached to multiple bloody, self-destructive works. His phrasings all speak of a life full of distraction, angst, and emotional suffering. They are like the murmurs of a lost kid struggling to find the meaning of everything and disillusioned by reality. Perhaps “rock’n'roll, and punk forever” are choice outlets for his reckless emotions.

In a recent blog entry titled My Life has Problems, Brannon wrote: “…all humans beings have problems…this world of ours has so many problems.”

Maybe this all helps explain the provocative and grotesque aesthetic of his work. Maybe it’s just something in the water in Shenyang, where he’s from.

At any rate, we hope Brannon continues to explore his / our troubled world and brings us more of his distinct expressiveness.

Below we’ve shared a sampling of his work. To see more, link here. For more from Brannon on NeochaEDGE, link here. /// CL