can’t break rocks when a tiger took your head

 

 

Title: can’t break rocks when a tiger took your head
Medium: texta and posca on cardboard
Dimensions: seven shoe widths


Artist Statement

i was hired to break rocks at the foot of a mountain in the western suburbs. the work was hard but not that hard and the pay was good. we would stop at 1:30pm each day and eat sausages. when it rained we weren’t allowed to break rocks, we had to sit under a gazebo and sort the rocks: small, medium or large. one day while the sun was out and just before we were about to eat sausages a tiger snuck up behind me and bit my head off and ran off into the 8 lane highway. my boss said i couldnt break rocks anymore without a head. now i just sit under the gazebo and sort the rocks, the pay is the same but i cant eat sausages without a head.

Jason Phu

Author: Jason Phu

I’d spend the summer holidays at my grandma’s in Campsie. She would watch Days of Our Lives and I’d just sit somewhere around the house. At some point she’d cook me boiled cabbage and vermicelli soup, sometimes with rice. When I visited my other grandma in Beijing, I’d sit with her in a haze of smoke and watch the world snooker championships. Sometimes she invited my uncles around to watch whatever soccer was on. There was nothing in my house in Croydon Park but angry cockatoos that ate poisonous yellow berries, and both of my grandmas are dead now.