Preface to Oxymoron— Solo Exhibition by LU Zheng-yuan
by J.J. Shih
One of the guiding principles in Taiwan’s pursuit of political, social, economic, and cultural progress is undoubtedly “to base in Taiwan, embrace China, and aim for the globe.” As an iconic museum in Taiwan, since its establishment in 2001, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Taipei has striven to fulfill three major responsibilities, which are to assist in promoting Taiwanese contemporary art domestically and internationally, to co-organize exhibitions of international contemporary art, and to present Chinese contemporary art exhibitions. In recent years, to foster Taiwanese audience’s understanding of the development of Chinese contemporary society and culture, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Taipei presents a Chinese contemporary art exhibition every year, for example, themed group exhibitions like Infantization and Spectacle in 2008 and 2009, and solo exhibitions such as Reading Li Shan in 2012, Will things ever get better?- Xiang Jing @ MocaTp in 2013, History Re-presented: Cai Zhisong in 2014. Moreover, the museum has designed specially “duo exhibitions of dialogue.” Consequently, the museum has presented Gao Lei・Windowsky in 2014, Individualized Together, Polit-Sheer-Form in Taipei in 2015, and Oxymoron—Solo Exhibition by LU Zheng-yuan. With an extensive scale and excellent contents, these exhibitions attracted the attention of local media as well as the interest of the general public while facilitating artistic and cultural exchange and dialogues of ideas and concepts between Taiwan and China.
LU Zheng-yuan was born in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China in 1982. He graduated from and now teaches at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China, and currently lives and works in Beijing. He works with a wide range of genres, such as sculpture, installation, painting, performance, and interactive multimedia, and has participated in several international exhibitions, including Shanghai Biennale, Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, Chinese Contemporary Sculpture Documenta. He has had solo exhibitions presented at Songzhuang Art Center in Beijing, Museum of the Orient in Portugal, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing C5 Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts Sculpture Center, Times Art Museum, White Rabbit Gallery in Australia, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, and Eli Klein Fine Art.
From the conceptual level, Lu’s art is both realistic and abstract, incorporating standard aesthetics and improvisational elements, time-specific style and distinctive personal expressions, while also exploring art history’s perpetually debated issues. In terms of realization, he seeks to use oxymoronic conflicts between material and form as well as visuality and psychology, engaging the audience in reflective thoughts about the interconnected relationships between objective impressions and subjective cognitions. Such an approach allows the audience to construct specific texts or narrative logics with the fragmented signs and symbols. As an artist, he works both on the level of dialectic concept and visual perception, a way that emphasizes how art should escape from dictating traditions and conventions.
In Oxymoron—Solo Exhibition by LU Zheng-yuan, the artist placed both real and false perceptual elements, along with dialectic spatial installations, many of which were converted from everyday objects—familiar yet strange existences that seemed uncanny but humorous at the same time. In this conversion, the artist not only conceptually reverted existing “values,” he also kept contemplating on the contingency and inevitability in artistic creation as well as the self-contradictory relation between repeating oneself and continuous innovation. Generally speaking, the exhibition was transformed into a diversified, fragmented, and highly puzzling site open to be experienced. It encouraged the audience to embark on an “unexpected” journey of exploration while assertively selecting and interpreting the artworks. Therefore, the audience could catch a glimpse of the artist’s creative development and conceptual context, and further reflect upon their life and cultural condition. Through the artistic issues addressed by the artist, the exhibition revealed the philosophical outlook and dialectical logic of new generation artists, and examined the contrast between the audience’s artistic experience and psychological perception.
An artist’s artistic attitude, his thinking and insights, and the zeal and perseverance to realize his ideas are all prerequisites to a successful exhibition. The accomplishment of this exhibition was foremost due to the artist’s excellent artworks and the collaboration of his team. I would like to thank the academic chair of this exhibition, President FAN Dian, for setting the tone of the exhibition and his remarkable theorization. The display and organization of related activities were the collaborative efforts of the attentive execution by the Exhibition Team and Education and Development Team and the assistance and support of all the volunteers and part- time staff. Therefore, we were able to conquer difficulties and challenges to present an exhibition that was unique and perfect in its own way. In addition, my special thanks also go to Wuxi Phoenix Artist Materials for their generous support in the exhibition, Phoenix All for Art and Phoenix Art Center for their kind assistance in the exhibition affairs, EPSON for the high-quality projector equipment, and Win Wing for the annual sponsorship in the educational programs. Because of everyone’s passion and dedication, Oxymoron— Solo Exhibition by LU Zheng-yuan achieved the best and the most complete presentation, which earned the artist’s praises, the society’s acclaim, recommendations of domestic and international media, and an incredible feedback from the audience. It not only enabled the public to fully comprehend the appearance and significance of Chinese contemporary art, but also motivated a different vision and thinking in people’s mind to perceive and envisage the contemporary society and culture.