RU artist, Lu Yang has been selected for the prestigious BMW Art Journey.
Please read below for her feature in ARTFORUM
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Art Basel and BMW have announced that Shanghai-based artist Lu Yang has been named the next BMW Art Journey winner. Born in 1984, Lu creates work that grapples with issues ranging from gender identity and sexuality to neuroscience, death, and the human body. Her output spans 3-D video work, animation, installation, and performance, which incorporate references to Japanese magna and anime, traditional Chinese medicine, and contemporary digital cultures.
Lu will spend the next year traveling throughout Indonesia, India, and Japan to study cultural and modern dance practices in order to investigate how the human body can be trained to overcome its physical limitations and how machines may ultimately surpass them. She will use motion-capture devices to record the dancers’ body language, gestures, and facial expressions, including the subtlest of movements—such as the the Balinese Legong dancers’ ability to manipulate their finger joints individually—and then analyze the body movements. She will later try to mimic them using robotic technologies.
Lu was unanimously chosen to participate in the initiative by a jury comprising Claire Hsu, director of the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Matthias Mühling, director of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich; Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; and Samson Young, artist and winner of the first BMW Art Journey.
Commenting on her project, titled Human Machine Reverse Motion Capture Project, the award jury said: “What we found exciting about Lu Yang’s proposal and work is the way she draws connections across time, space, and geography— traversing different realms—from Kathakali and Legong dance to Japanese pop with our potential future robotic selves.” It also noted the importance of expanding the vocabulary within the database used for robotic human expressions to include expressions found in multiple traditions.
