There are no elaborate ramblings about his aesthetics. There is no elongated eulogy about his inspirations. What introduces the viewer to Jose Legaspi's work is a few short words by the Filipino artist himself, a few lines staring coldly from a white wall - and more of a confession for past sins than a celebration of creativity.
'I do not care to draw pretty pictures. All I want is to show things in me that, otherwise, I prefer to hide. Here I lay bare my true satanic self, all the corruption in my soul. Only those who wish to share my torment can look at my sketches and be just as lost.
'What is life - the struggle to surrender, the endurance of misery? Agony is the night of submission, the morning-after of resignation.' Legaspi's world is one where cruelty shapes the being and claustrophobia becomes a vital ingredient of existence. Beside his testimony ranges the visual representation of his askew subconsciousness: among them a dog ravaging the insides of a woman (Dog Eating Woman); a man with a halo soliciting pleasure by dismembering a human carcass (Joy/Murder); and a woman, heavily pregnant, with blood gushing out of myriad self-inflicted stab wounds (Blood Debt).
In the aptly-titled 'Nightmare Obsession', his first exhibition in Hong Kong, Legaspi unveils an apocalyptic world where human beings, reduced to naked, savage beasts, feed on each other for carnal and abusive pleasures: an existence dictated by cruelty and alienation, where blood flows like wine and the act of maiming is the new Holy Communion.
Claustrophobia - probably the ultimate disease for the modern urbanite - is a thread that dominates and unites Legaspi's work. All the brutality he depicts takes place in a dark, enclosed space: shady corners to rooms are commonplace in his paintings, while a fire blazing through the windows of a doorless building in The Fire touches on the psyche of people weary of being trapped inside threatening concrete blocks.
The juxtaposition of these vivid scenes from hell with fine artistic sensibility is another reason why Legaspi's work has such a highly disturbing quality. Not one to mince words or images when a full revelation of self is called for, his devilish scenes are depicted with artistic finesse.