LAWRENCE LEK
London-based artist and musician, Lawrence Lek draws on his background in architecture, using gaming software and computer-generated imagery (CGI) to create artificial worlds. Lek’s worlds are populated with dreamers—from sentient weather satellites that dream of being artists, to fading AI popstars that dream of being famous again, all of them searching for autonomy, meaning and connection in a future dominated by data and the algorithmic analysis of human behaviour. Lek is currently developing a Sinofuturist cinematic universe, a series of films, installations, games, and soundtracks that explore tales of geopolitics and technology, and “the strange and turbulent beauty of the world to come”. |
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LU YANG
Shanghai-based artist Lu Yang has an ongoing fascination with mind-bending technologies and the neuro-physiological basis of consciousness. He has collaborated with scientists, psychologists, music producers, designers, robotics companies and pop stars to create his kaleidoscopic work, which incorporates a growing range of media including 3D-animations, games, dance, motion capture, fashion, performance, painting and sprawling installations of printed murals and LED displays. Merging Buddhist thought and iconography, pop culture, neuroscience and biology in his work, Lu tackles questions of life, death and rebirth, asking viewers to contemplate whether “consciousness can be manufactured and sustained beyond the life of the individual.” His DOKU series is named after the phrase Dokusho Dokushi meaning “we are born alone, and we die alone”, and features a digital reincarnation of Lu Yang in a parallel universe. |
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SAEBORG
Tokyo-based artist Saeborg describes themselves as “an imperfect cyborg – half human, half toy”. Their work emerged out of the queer club scene in Tokyo, each piece beginning as a costume for Department-H, a nightclub and fetish party that has been running in the city since the early 1990s. Saeborg creates inflatable worlds of latex, nightmarish and cute configurations that are stages for huge toy-like creatures to perform mythical fables of life and death. Saeborg’s aim in making these works, is “to transcend gender” and to move beyond the restrictions of human bodies to escape strict gender roles in Japanese culture. Using livestock and insects as analogies for society’s expectations and treatment of women, Saeborg creates worlds that are inhabited by creatures that “humans consider the basest of our ecosystem”.
The MCA would like to thank Supporting Exhibition Patrons of the exhibition, Chloe and Andrew Podgornik and Media Partner, The Saturday Paper.
Ultra Unreal is on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, MCA Level 1 Galleries from Friday 22 July until Sunday 2 October 2022. Free entry. |
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