LU LEI
b. 1972, ChinaLu Lei is a Beijing based artist. His works often incorperate materials and references from a bygone era: monumental towers and triumphal halls; Morse code lamps, maps of military barracks and sculptures of Mao Zedong. These are fragments of a recent history, yet in Lu’s hands they become illusory artefacts of an alternative reality. His meticulously laid plans bear comparison to the utopian projects of mid-century China. Watercolour paintings provide a draft for the realization of his penultimate installations, yet the artist himself- born in the early 70s- possesses no first-hand experience of Maoist China. In this sense the artist does not attempting to restore a socio-political truth but forges symbols and narratives of an idealised past.
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