HEAVEN 2 HELL by Lu Yang
The Orange Garden, in collaboration with Panetteria Atomica, is proud to present Heaven 2 Hell, Lu Yang’s first solo exhibition in Italy, curated by Arturo Passacantando and Tommaso de Benedictis.
Heaven 2 Hell presents a series of works in which the artist develops an imaginary world, a system in which digital ontology is explored through genderless superheroes.
We find ourselves constricted to our own bodies – bodies that have been defined for us rather than by us. Video-games, the internet and digital media have all been used as tools for reclaiming one’s own space, imagination and identity.
Uterus Man draws his superpowers from the female reproductive system, gliding on a sanitary pad, he embodies gender and bodily autonomy while fighting for them at the same time. Like character building in a videogame, Uterus Man is Lu Yang’s process of reclaiming and redefining the perception of their own body (and ultimately ours) through autonomous means. In the arcade game, Lu Yang gives you the tools to take control over Uterus Man, presenting the ultimate sacrifice of the self while instigating a reversal in power relations. Who’s controlling who?
We progressively level up through The Great Adventure of the Material World, where our superhero Knight guides us through fantastical digital landscapes populated by anthropomorphic beings and floating desires. Shifting through different states of reincarnations, the Knight subversively leads us from Heaven into Hell attempting to finding solace in mortality. Through the defiant act in rejecting technological paradise for hell, he ultimately gains the power to destroy those flawed capitalist desires, which drive and define our preconceptions.
Like character building in an RPG video-game, Lu Yang’s practice is based on a process of re-claiming, re-defining, and shaping their own body through autonomous means. Existing both as single channel films and as playable, third-person arcade games, Lu Yang’s creations give you the tools to take control over her characters, presenting the ultimate sacrifice of the self.
In Lu Yang’s universe, nothing is static, everything is in flux
