Lu's artistic practice has been profoundly shaped by the socio-political transformations of Taiwan. Across decades, Lu's art has consistently centered on the human condition, whether through urban structures, symbolic objects, or natural imagery. His stylistic trajectory has progressed from fierce critique to a balance of reason and emotion, incorporating diverse techniques and cross-media experiments. Through his practice, Lu engages with the pulse of society, portraying the evolving cultural identity of Taiwan.
A Tale of Two Cities: Lu Hsien-ming & Kuo Wei-kuo Duo Solo Exhibitions (Excerpted Edition)
Both Lu and Kuo have left clues that revealed the development of Taiwanese society in their exhibitions, and depicted people's difficulties, or the difficulties of existence, in the process of urbanization and modernization in Taiwanese society.
Text / Cui Can-can (Curator)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...
— A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens recounted the conflicting, vibrant era he lived in. People at that time experienced unprecedented difficulties, which, on the one hand, originated from inheriting the past history, and on the other hand, were aggravated by having to accept the
ceaseless changes that had been taking place at that time. As a historical reference to the duo exhibitions of Lu Hsien-ming and Kuo Wei-kuo, "A Tale of Two Cities" refers to the realities we are facing as well as the possibilities of existence today.
In each individual's mind, there is an ideal society or home; and this ideal often comes from the pursuit of an active mode of life. This exhibition is a co-exhibition of Lu Hsien-ming and Kuo Wei-kuo; it is also their explorations of the living condition and realities that people have been encountering. Since the 80s, the two artists have started from the changes in Taiwanese society, and with an analyzing eye, transformed the observed social problems into the momentum of artistic expression. One could also say that, through an artistic approach, as Lu and Kuo reacted and responded to the social realities, they have both touched upon the social, historical and cultural suppression of individuals, and the consequent adaptations triggered by such suppression.
In terms of artistic techniques, both artists adopt powerful symbolism as well as an anachronism and a mixture of images, space and sumbols Through a theatrical approach
and creative scenes, they rearrange the things and objects in reality so that the problems are foregrounded, and a new tensional relationship between each object is formed. While the creation of this relationship constructs the uniqueness of their artistic styles, it also enables a deeper investigation into those problems in reality.
Both Lu and Kuo have left clues that revealed the development of Taiwanese society in their exhibitions, and depicted people's difficulties, or the difficulties of existence, in the process of urbanization and modernization in Taiwanese society. They pointed to the ideal home that did not exist in reality, and examined this era, people's life and social development, individual and collective losses and fantasies, and all the changes that have taken place and are happening at the moment.
Lu Hsien-ming: Glimpses of Cities
A city is a unique space that each modern individual inhabits. It carries the cultural achievements of modern people, as well as their dreams and disappointments. No city is a mere multitude of buildings but rather a fusion of countless exuberant, complicated individuals.
In Lu's work, the relations between the development of urban modernization and the individuals have kept appearing. He started Road Bridge series in the 1990s as the cities in Taiwan began to develop in a fast pace and when he turned his eyes to the rising modern architectural monuments in this city. This product of industrialization symbolizes the spirit of a city. However, behind the grand narrative of this modern spirit, Lu placed his emphasis on the city itself as well as the changes of its inhabitants and the progress of time. Modernization has made people's lives more convenient and easier, and has accelerated the operation of modern economy. It seems to have become an unstoppable trend around the globe. Nevertheless, submerged in this trend and behind the dazzling and glorious appearances, countless individuals have been forced to experience and bear the burdens of the changes that have happened to them.
The making of a great era requires the silent dedication of unnumbered individuals. In Lu's work, those city dwellers, or urban vagrants, were modern cities' givers, participants and recipients of benefits on the one hand, while on the other, they have suffered from all the anxieties, chaos and losses brought about by the changes. The speed of modern times is faster in a way that it compresses people's time. While feeling helpless in coping with so many things, people have been experiencing drastic changes as time is compressed for better efficiency, and as individuals are treated like instruments for the greater good. In fact, Lu's work has been looking into this dual contradiction. What is the future of rhis pacern of development in such a fast pace? What meanings does it bear for the people that live in This city? In what way does it sustain and continue our history and civilization? Finally, who is there to mend the breaks that, more than often, take place in the sustainment and continuation?
Lu has employed some materials that are characteristic to modern cities, such as stainless steel, neon light and steel plates; and these materials actually hint at the duality of culture. In terms of the visual system and material, the reflective quality and smooth surface of the stainless steel create an intense contrast against the paint. The bright electronic neon light also goes against the dull, repressive tone of colors in the works. Steel plates used to construct the artwork bases and the frames of the works are heavy and cold, implicitly imposing upon the characters in the image. In terms of cultural discourse, however, these objects represent the achievements and major breakthroughs of modern technology, symbolizing the persistence and innovation of the modern spirit, and are markers of the durability and permanence of a city. With these paradoxical relationships, Lu's dramatic approach imbues the works with a certain efficacy in terms of its spatial presentation. Through means of visualization, Lu is able to display to the audience the actual, existing realities, which people are unable to face directly simply because they are embarrassed to.
When the audience step into the scenes of Lu's works, the sky in the images seem to be embedded with a sense of time or a kind of fluidity in history, and is constantly moving; nonetheless, the towering, fixed road bridges and modern architecture are like permanent monuments. In such dramatic scenes, the urban vagrants or elders are actually experiencing these changes. They look unsure of what to do or where to settle, and move around in the city, lonely yet remaining. These unknown people have grasped the attention of Lu Hsien-ming as they symbolize a unique community in this city, a group of marginalized people and loners in an active time brimming with ambitions. One of Lu's installations in this exhibition is a group of "growing" pillars that have been affixed with various materials. They have stood tall in different corners in the city as people tried to climb up to their goals in the massive waves of history. Some of them have left heroic memories in our minds while others remained still and unknown. Be it the rising of modernization, the monuments of the city, or the numberless individuals, in such an era of fast-paced development, it forcefully swirls up, with all its might, countless people's hope and disappointment, and moves towards the unknown afar.
However, in the corner of this city, we can see on the bodies of those lively and real individuals that the contradictions and absurdities of any era would eventually be shouldered by individuals. Its influence to every individual living in this era is realistic, profound, and powerful.
In the exhibition, when we walked through the mirror doors, the views outside the windows on both side seemed to have confused us. Which ones were real, and which ones were created by the artist? Here, at this moment, each individual became a city. "As you stand on the bridge to see the view, people that are watching the view upstairs are also looking at you. As the moon outside your window becomes a decoration to you, you have become a decoration to another person's dream."
A Tale of Two Cities: Lu Hsien-ming & Kuo Wei-kuo Duo Solo Exhibitions (Excerpted Edition)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...
— A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens recounted the conflicting, vibrant era he lived in. People at that time experienced unprecedented difficulties, which, on the one hand, originated from inheriting the past history, and on the other hand, were aggravated by having to accept the
ceaseless changes that had been taking place at that time. As a historical reference to the duo exhibitions of Lu Hsien-ming and Kuo Wei-kuo, "A Tale of Two Cities" refers to the realities we are facing as well as the possibilities of existence today.
In each individual's mind, there is an ideal society or home; and this ideal often comes from the pursuit of an active mode of life. This exhibition is a co-exhibition of Lu Hsien-ming and Kuo Wei-kuo; it is also their explorations of the living condition and realities that people have been encountering. Since the 80s, the two artists have started from the changes in Taiwanese society, and with an analyzing eye, transformed the observed social problems into the momentum of artistic expression. One could also say that, through an artistic approach, as Lu and Kuo reacted and responded to the social realities, they have both touched upon the social, historical and cultural suppression of individuals, and the consequent adaptations triggered by such suppression.
In terms of artistic techniques, both artists adopt powerful symbolism as well as an anachronism and a mixture of images, space and sumbols Through a theatrical approach
and creative scenes, they rearrange the things and objects in reality so that the problems are foregrounded, and a new tensional relationship between each object is formed. While the creation of this relationship constructs the uniqueness of their artistic styles, it also enables a deeper investigation into those problems in reality.
Both Lu and Kuo have left clues that revealed the development of Taiwanese society in their exhibitions, and depicted people's difficulties, or the difficulties of existence, in the process of urbanization and modernization in Taiwanese society. They pointed to the ideal home that did not exist in reality, and examined this era, people's life and social development, individual and collective losses and fantasies, and all the changes that have taken place and are happening at the moment.
Lu Hsien-ming: Glimpses of Cities
A city is a unique space that each modern individual inhabits. It carries the cultural achievements of modern people, as well as their dreams and disappointments. No city is a mere multitude of buildings but rather a fusion of countless exuberant, complicated individuals.
In Lu's work, the relations between the development of urban modernization and the individuals have kept appearing. He started Road Bridge series in the 1990s as the cities in Taiwan began to develop in a fast pace and when he turned his eyes to the rising modern architectural monuments in this city. This product of industrialization symbolizes the spirit of a city. However, behind the grand narrative of this modern spirit, Lu placed his emphasis on the city itself as well as the changes of its inhabitants and the progress of time. Modernization has made people's lives more convenient and easier, and has accelerated the operation of modern economy. It seems to have become an unstoppable trend around the globe. Nevertheless, submerged in this trend and behind the dazzling and glorious appearances, countless individuals have been forced to experience and bear the burdens of the changes that have happened to them.
The making of a great era requires the silent dedication of unnumbered individuals. In Lu's work, those city dwellers, or urban vagrants, were modern cities' givers, participants and recipients of benefits on the one hand, while on the other, they have suffered from all the anxieties, chaos and losses brought about by the changes. The speed of modern times is faster in a way that it compresses people's time. While feeling helpless in coping with so many things, people have been experiencing drastic changes as time is compressed for better efficiency, and as individuals are treated like instruments for the greater good. In fact, Lu's work has been looking into this dual contradiction. What is the future of rhis pacern of development in such a fast pace? What meanings does it bear for the people that live in This city? In what way does it sustain and continue our history and civilization? Finally, who is there to mend the breaks that, more than often, take place in the sustainment and continuation?
Lu has employed some materials that are characteristic to modern cities, such as stainless steel, neon light and steel plates; and these materials actually hint at the duality of culture. In terms of the visual system and material, the reflective quality and smooth surface of the stainless steel create an intense contrast against the paint. The bright electronic neon light also goes against the dull, repressive tone of colors in the works. Steel plates used to construct the artwork bases and the frames of the works are heavy and cold, implicitly imposing upon the characters in the image. In terms of cultural discourse, however, these objects represent the achievements and major breakthroughs of modern technology, symbolizing the persistence and innovation of the modern spirit, and are markers of the durability and permanence of a city. With these paradoxical relationships, Lu's dramatic approach imbues the works with a certain efficacy in terms of its spatial presentation. Through means of visualization, Lu is able to display to the audience the actual, existing realities, which people are unable to face directly simply because they are embarrassed to.
When the audience step into the scenes of Lu's works, the sky in the images seem to be embedded with a sense of time or a kind of fluidity in history, and is constantly moving; nonetheless, the towering, fixed road bridges and modern architecture are like permanent monuments. In such dramatic scenes, the urban vagrants or elders are actually experiencing these changes. They look unsure of what to do or where to settle, and move around in the city, lonely yet remaining. These unknown people have grasped the attention of Lu Hsien-ming as they symbolize a unique community in this city, a group of marginalized people and loners in an active time brimming with ambitions. One of Lu's installations in this exhibition is a group of "growing" pillars that have been affixed with various materials. They have stood tall in different corners in the city as people tried to climb up to their goals in the massive waves of history. Some of them have left heroic memories in our minds while others remained still and unknown. Be it the rising of modernization, the monuments of the city, or the numberless individuals, in such an era of fast-paced development, it forcefully swirls up, with all its might, countless people's hope and disappointment, and moves towards the unknown afar.
However, in the corner of this city, we can see on the bodies of those lively and real individuals that the contradictions and absurdities of any era would eventually be shouldered by individuals. Its influence to every individual living in this era is realistic, profound, and powerful.
In the exhibition, when we walked through the mirror doors, the views outside the windows on both side seemed to have confused us. Which ones were real, and which ones were created by the artist? Here, at this moment, each individual became a city. "As you stand on the bridge to see the view, people that are watching the view upstairs are also looking at you. As the moon outside your window becomes a decoration to you, you have become a decoration to another person's dream."
(details omitted)