Xiao Lu
JUNK
June 14 - July 19, 2024
Xiao Lu's Statement:
A black room, visible round the clock from the outside through glass. A black table, a bottle of ink, a brush-pen, several stacks of xuan paper. Eight red light bulbs.
From 14 June to 16 July, 2024, I came to Passage 16 times irregularly. Each time, I drew 100 pieces of rice paper ink paintings and threw them into the air. Gradually, rubbish filled the space. On the last time, I overturned the table where I was drawing…
For thousands of years in China, literary scholars have moved in the detachment of painting landscapes, flowers and birds. Savouring the exquisite elegance of an otherworldly aesthetic - avoiding reality. They have achieved a nation which has seen generation after generation of centralised feudal and imperial power.
I have come from China, where there is a strict system of art censorship with untouchable red lines everywhere. The self-censorship of art organisations and artists erodes everybody’s spirit.
The blackness surrounds me: terror, oppression, helplessness, anger, despair, freedom, roaring, resistance...
And one other thing: it can go to fucking hell.
Junk!
Xiao Lu
July 2024 in Sydney
肖鲁
垃圾
悉尼游廊画廊 2024年6月14日—
一个黑屋子透过一面玻璃，24小时对外开放的空间。一张黑桌子，一瓶墨汁，一支毛笔，几沓宣纸。八个红色的灯管。
从2024年6月14日到7月16日，我不定期来到Passage画廊十六次。每次画一百张宣纸抛向空中。渐渐地；垃圾充满空间。最后一次，我掀翻了画画的桌子……
中国几千年的文人墨客，行走山水花鸟之间的超然，品味笔墨的儒雅风流，逃避现实的出世美学，成就一代又一代封建集权的帝王江山。
我来自中国，那里有着严格的艺术展览审查制度，到处都是不能碰触的红线。艺术机构和艺术家的自我审查侵蚀着每个人的灵魂。
黑色包围着我，恐惧、压抑、无助、愤怒、绝望、自由、呐喊、反抗....
还有；去他妈的！
垃圾！！
肖鲁
2024年7月于悉尼
Videography and sound by Tom Compagnoni
Installation Views
About the Artist
Xiao Lu (b.1962, Hangzhou, China) currently lives and works between Sydney and Beijing. She is a graduate of the Subsidiary School of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing and Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (China Academy of Art), Hangzhou. Best known for raising a gun and shooting at her work in the National Art Museum of China in 1989, thus precipitating the closing down of the show by the government, and her brief arrest, Xiao is considered one of China’s most influential and provocative female artists. Four months after Dialogue, the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred, her gunshots were dubbed “the first gunshots of Tiananmen”. Though Xiao operates across a range of media, her work is grounded in performance art. Xiao sees performance art as a way of releasing internal conflict and negative emotions such as anger and hatred.
Xiao Lu’s work has been included in important international exhibitions, including Tate, London; Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and 4A Center of Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney. Her work has been collected by public and private institutions, including the Tate, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Taikang Insurance Group Art Collection, Beijing; and White Rabbit Collection, Sydney.