Archive for November, 2014
Neo Rauch at David Zwirner
Beyond the execution is the literary and metaphoric power of these paintings. The new works of Neo Rauch are amazing! Below is a selection of Neo Rauch current paintings at Zwirner.
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LU YANG: ARCADE at wallplay
A week ago, I had the opportunity to see Lu Yang’s exhibition at wallplay in the Lower East Side. I was mesmerized by the work as it collapsed anime, gender politics and bioart. The exhibition consisted of incredibly detailed animations and prints, a video game, small 3D print sculptures of colorful monsters and photographs of a genderless individual dressed as an anime hero. The aesthetic is entirely informed by anime, at times extreme anime gore, but never for the sake of gore, the extreme laments lead one to question the essence of humanity in an era of increasing technological intervention.
The video game is presented in a traditional video game arcade with buttons (though only one works) and joystick by which the player controls a hero flying through a tunnel picking up red blood cells and staying away from cancer cells. The 3D printed sculptures consist of creatures from Lu Yang’s drawings and animations in physical form.
Perhaps most striking are the photographs and videos of animatronic frog legs. Frogs commonly used for dissection are presented in a tank embedded with actuators to make the frog legs dance to the rhythm of music.
Reanimation!Underwater Zombie frog ballet! from LuYang.
Lu Yang’s work is provocative as she investigates the nature of the body and the union between human-made technology and the natural world. My one critique is that in some work the anime aesthetic overwhelms the work itself so that the content is muted by the language of anime.