Lu Yang is one of the youngest Chinese female artists working with new media. Her videos, installations, and diagrams depict the politics between humans and nature with a challenging strangeness. The somewhat repulsive nature of her subject matter makes us, as viewers, very curious.Lu’s recent controversial installation “Happy Tree” features frogs, lizards, and other river creatures that she recorded by shooting lab containers inside a tree structure. Now, fresh from her experiments with animals and electronics, Lu has set out to explore the boundaries between science and fiction. Despite the fantastical qualities of her art, all Lu’s works are based on in-depth research and existing scientific evidence. Her series “Project of Seeking Cooperation with Scientific Teams” shows the complicated relationship between humans, animals, and machines, provoking a deep reflection on the possible impulses that technology might bring to society.
Lu Yang, represented by Art Labor Gallery in Shanghai, is now showing her latest endeavor, KRAFTTREMOR: Paralysis Agitans Project at the Boers-Li Gallery in Beijing. This exhibition contains video installations, digital prints, music videos, and documentary materials. The show will explore themes of control and loss in the body and in technology.The "Paralysis Agitans Project" is an investigation of the contradictory relationship between Parkinson's disease and its treatments through diagrams and animations. Samples of the frequencies of tremors associated with Parkinson's are synthesized in an electronic music clip. Through this visual exposition of opposition, Lu Yang interprets the contradictory relationships of control and being controlled, loss of control, and restorative treatment. By synthesizing the pathological transformation of the human body with electronic rhythms, Lu presents us with electronic pleasure and moral crime, reflecting on the ethical conundrums of technological society.Lu relates "Paralysis Agitans Project" to her past efforts, including "Project of Seeking Cooperation with Scientific Teams," from which she expands upon her displays of precise scientific evidence and diagrams, and "Project of Beats from Living Things," from which she takes the music video’s visual stylings to show the bodily rhythms of a living thing that has lost its control. At their core, all of these projects are concerned with control and its ethical contradictions.Lu categorizes her works as plans and projects. "Project of Seeking Cooperation with Scientific Trams," "The Project of New Century Projects," "The Project of Beats Form Living Things," and "Power of Will" are closely connected to science and biology, while “Family DIY,” "Do it Yourself! Pervert Crime," and "Gay Series" show her studies in cult culture. Although her projects cover an expansive array of topics, many of Lu’s themes overlap.“Paralysis Agitans Project” continues Lu Yang’s working path, and calls for technical support through "Project of Seeking Cooperation with Scientific Teams."Note: Lu Yang’s official web site is currently under construction. In the meantime, click here to learn more about her projects.[via Boers-Li Gallery]
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