By Hannah Jo Uy Images by Pinggot Zulueta “That’s not art—it’s pork fat!” said a viewer of Rafael Fuchs-Simon’s photo collection entitled “Unrendered Subcutaneous on Teflon.” “Well it’s hanging on the wall in a gallery and we’ve just discussed it for five minutes, don’t you think that makes it art?” Fuchs-Simon asked. To which the viewer replied, “I guess so.” “That,” Fuchs-Simon said, “was when I realized I was an artist.” Embracing his unique brand of artistic expression was not an easy task for Fuchs-Simon. “I’ve always taken photos and made movies, but I never considered myself an artist because I can’t paint or draw,” he shared. “No matter how many lessons I took, nothing I’d create would look like I intended.” Several years ago this self-perception was challenged when, in his trademark quirkiness, he turned his camera to the glistening left-over oil from Korean style pork shoulder presenting it as a “triumphant splatter painting infused with realism” with a vibrancy that caught the eye. Fuchs-Simon exhibited it in a gallery, and as it hung on the wall he watched from afar as viewers engaged with the object, each other and, by extension, the artist himself. This was a turning point as his definition of what makes one an artist broke barriers of conventional aesthetics as he realised that life, and the craziness that comes with it, is the best teacher at his disposal. “As someone with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), I always needed stimuli to excite me,” said the artist, who is known for being a voracious learner with an insatiable appetite for knowledge. His consumption channelled itself through his critical intellectual filter emerging as unique artistic expressions which culminated in his debut show “I’d Look Too If I Was Me.” Now on its second run, the show features six distinct collections, including photography, documentary film, interactive LED light art, sculpture, taxidermy, as well as "found, stolen, and eBay’ed doodads.” Every collection, Fuchs-Simon said, has a story. “Context is necessary,” he said, “and each is unapologetically me.” The topics greatly varying and reveal the artist’s zest for life owing to his propensity to engage with the world and its people, to partake of others and share of himself. “I created each piece around an intimate and intellectual conversation,” he said. A number of the artworks are deeply connected with nature, such as “The Bone and the Cone,” which was borne from Fuchs-Simon’s encounter with tiny pine cones, while sitting under a coastal redwood in California. “I found out that the largest tree in the world has one of the smallest pine cones,” he said. “There are 200-300 seeds in one gram. ‘Wow,’ I thought, doesn’t this deserve a frame?’” The second piece of the bone is a humorous presentation of biological, evolutionary, cultural, and personal theories on why humans don’t possess a baculum, or a penile bone in the context of monogamous relationships. “A photograph is like an exclamation point at the end of a sentence,” Fuchs-Simon said. “It’s a moment in time; the highlight of the day. While they are beautiful, I’m more interested in the whole sentence, not just the punctuation at the end.” As such, each photo in his adventure photography and film collection “#PlanNoPlan,” which documented his travels across Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, US, Peru, Cuba, and Colombia over the past three years alone, is accompanied by a narrative to cultivate more meaningful intimacy between the viewer and the maker. Fuchs-Simon’s quest to vanquish boredom is also revealed in the features installations which included five hours’ worth of video across three separate screens. “That meant that no one was able to watch all of the film footage in the course of the four hour event,” he said. “My hope was that after the event people would discuss what they saw and no one would have watched the same thing.” Another collection he highlighted is “Sexy Brofies,” which comprises 60 intimate selfies of male friends. “If I had featured females in bikinis, it wouldn’t have been so weird, though it would be in very bad taste,” he said. “In a weird way, seeing all these men in compromising positions and objectified made people laugh and keep coming back to see more and discuss with friends. I love breaking taboos. A few people asked me if I was gay during the show, which I am not, but gender preference has little importance whether or not I like someone. This piece is about breaking taboos.” The collection began as far back as 2015 when the artist took a photo of himself with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of himself, which he sent to his boss at the time. “He immediately sent me a sexy brofie back,” he said with a laugh. At the end of the day, Fuchs-Simon is interested in sharing his zest for life through unique, humorous, and unexpected visual agents looking to be bolder in his approach through medium, prints, photography, performance art, and everything under the sun. “I love experiences,” he said. “So it’s not just about one or two pieces, but creating a vibe in a certain place where people leave and say ‘wow’—whether they enjoyed it or not.”