Ming Lu

Ming Lu’s works include photography, installation, performance, and more traditional media – porcelain and embroidery. Her recent works play on the tension between contemporary art and traditional Chinese craftsmanship. Humorously employing symbols and figures from myths, legends, prehistorical culture, and from her own biography alike, Ming Lu’s works reflect her cultural identity, which combines enduring attachments to China, the country of her birth and to Europe, where she studied art. Another focal point in Lu’s works is the femininity. The artist’s embroideries feature a cast of female characters recreated from historical myths. The artist also uses many ordinary objects in her sculptural works, such as cosmetics (notably lipstick and facial masks), lingerie, hair extensions, and transforms them into anthropomorphic playful representations of the female body and the female experience. This metaphorical and deadpan use of everyday objects to speak of important issues is a typical approach of the artist, her works often veer between abstraction and literalness; between the familiar and the uncanny; between absurdity and gravity.