Buddhism meets neuroscience and digital technology in The Zabludowicz Collection's LuYang NetiNeti
The Gallery's Victorian chapel is transformed for the debut UK exhibition of digital artist LuYang
October 13, 2022
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Zabludowicz Collection is a private contemporary art collection with a public facing engagement programme of exhibitions as well as events. Owned by the Zabludowicz Art Trust, the Collection has exhibition spaces in London, New York, and Sarvisalo, Finland.
Eleven years ago, the Zabludowicz Collection Trust converted an ‘at-risk’ Victorian chapel into an elegant exhibition space at Chalk Farm in London. The chapel is now a thriving arts venue with free exhibitions and events promoting contemporary and young artists.
The latest exhibition, LuYang NetiNeti, transforms the Victorian chapel into a digital world in which we are invited to explore the bodily and spiritual freedom of video games influenced by Buddhist ṣaḍgati (The Six Paths) philosophy.
The exhibition is the first UK solo show of multimedia artist LuYang (b. 1984, Shanghai). In a range of hypnotic music videos and films LuYang reimagines themself using CGI animation to perform dance routines derived using motion tracking on dancers in Japanese Pop videos and classical Legong dancing, the music videos explore each of the six paths of reincarnation as described in the Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). LuYang’s avatar ‘DOKU’, named after the phrase ‘dokusho dokushi’ (‘we are born alone and die alone’), dances at one point with their own severed head across landscapes from temples to apocalyptic deserts and space age laboratories.
Watching ‘DOKU’, viewers are transported to a digital realm in which the material limitations of bodily reality are rendered meaningless. The effect of the setting of the chapel as a religious space is amplified by the curation of the exhibition with shrine-like flags and centre stage in the main hall, above the largest screen LuYang has created a temple-like installation depicting the Bhavacakra held up by the demon Yama (a deity representing impermanence who is devoted to protecting Buddhism).
The Main Gallery’s screen shows DUKO - Binary conflicts invert illusions (2022), a new video commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection featuring the characters Heaven and Hell in a choreographed dance to heavy metal. Also shown is DOKU the self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale and is the first narrative film in the DOKU series. Featuring DOKU on a passenger plane contemplating Bhavacakra and the constant rebirth of humanity before being expelled into the atmosphere and contextualises the cacophonic constellation of videography surrounding the gallery.
The Middle Gallery has been converted into a screening room showing key works by LuYang which explore themes found in gaming, religion and neuroscience. Uterus Man (2013) is a reaction to the sexualised nature of anime and questions gender norms; although male, his power derives from a uterus. This room investigates the artist's interest in neurology and technology. The characters in the five films shown are subjected to horrific ordeals from medical procedures to supernatural transformation. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment (2016), LuYang questions the body as locus for pain and the role of torture in the afterlife, a helpless digital avatar based on the artists likeness undertakes a voyage across imaginings of hell featuring gyms, laboratories and funfairs, to the beat of a hip-hop soundtrack by GAMEFACE.
In the Back Gallery, visitors are invited to participate in the work as the gallery has been converted into an arcade. The immersive experience is taken further by recreating playable arcade games in which visitors can play as ‘DOKU’ and interact with other characters from LuYang’s work. Visitors navigate LuYang’s dark and yet humorous universe in this installation which the artist calls ‘Material World Knight (2018)’. The video games explore the artist's preoccupation with Buddhist philosophy’s questioning of the notion of the self. In The Great Adventure of Material World (2020), the viewer - or rather gamer - uses an Xbox controller to navigate a cityscape where characters question the nature of consciousness and whether cyborgs are superior to robots or organic life forms.
The exhibition space has been sensitively converted to offer a thrilling exploration of an alternate universe in which LuYang guides us on a journey which transcends the laws governing the natural world. Lead by a deep understanding of fundamental Buddhist philosophy, LuYang uses the way in which digital spaces are able to circumvent natural laws, to question religion and science. In these dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarish, films and games, LuYang questions binaries of life and death, man and woman, human and machine, creating worlds full of contradictions which, despite being imaginary, may leave us pondering the illusory nature of the self and the physical world itself.
LuYang NetiNeti is showing at Zabludowicz Collection until 12 February 2023
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
