ARTIST: MING LU
CURATED BY: IRINA RUSINOVICH
LOCATION: Bulowstrasse 11, 10789, Berlin
EXHIBITION DURATION: 01.09.2022 - 13.09.2022
VERNISSAGE: 01.09.2022 AT 7PM
How can artists pay attention to folklore and ancient culture? In the art community it is not a mainstream phenomenon, because we are used to associating contemporary art with something new without old-fashioned traditions. But in works by Ming Lu these opposite themes are woven and become fantastic allegorical artworks, sculptures and embroideries. She has a very playful and humorous exploration of Chinese culture with an attempt to build her own authentic visual language.
Ideas and themes for works she is taking from Chinese mythology, especially women’s characters.
Reflected about two contrast cultures Asian and European artist is searching for points of crossing and opposites. Create a new reality where these cultures become in one united.
Ming mixes gold and luxury features with minimalistic forms and monochrome backgrounds. This unique form makes her art special and recognizable among other authors. With unconventional experiment but also attention to details, she is portraying objects soaring into black sterile space. All of them look fragile, sophisticated and precious.
Methods that she chooses remind viewers about women's role in our society -- embroidery and textiles are classic women’s needleworks. This is another important theme in Lu artworks, because despite the progress we are still living in a patriarchal world. Combining traditional and contemporary she views to us how important balance can be and how new things in our lives can coexist with classic ethnic culture.
MING LU
Ming Lu’s works include photography, installation, performance, and more traditional media – porcelain and embroidery. As Made-in-China mass production became a global industrial phenomenon, the artist works closely with the handicraft that is known to be slow, inaccurate, time and labor consuming, almost forgotten but are deep- rooted.
She had been studying at the Royal College of Art, England, noticed racks of Peking ducks hanging in the windows of restaurants in London’s Chinatown, a phenomenon that occurs not in China but a constructed view of the East.