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might say that I’m being needlessly provocative
or something, but for me, it’s not like that at
all. People prefer not to think about things like
disease and death, but the fact is that it happens.
It is a part of being human, but because my work
highlights aspects of our reality that people might
wish to put to the back of their minds, of course
some viewers will be shocked.’
? ‘It is the same with Uterusman,’ she continues.
‘People think that blood and flesh is disgusting,
but we are made of these things. The female
reproductive system is a taboo subject. The reality
of childbirth is not something that people openly
discuss, yet most women will experience it at least
once. Again, it is a crucial part of human existence
that people are disgusted by. With my work, I
want to show people the truth, even if they might
not like it.’
? Some of Lu’s other projects have been equally
ambitious, and controversial. In ‘The Cruel
Electromagnetic Wave above Absolute Zero’ she
uses an infra-red camera to capture scenes in the
amputee unit of a hospital, amongst other places.
‘The equipment I used here was perfect for what
I wanted to achieve: I wanted to capture the
intersection between life and death,’ she reflects.
‘The amputees were particularly interesting,
because most of their body is emitting heat, but
then you have the cold blue of their prosthetic
limbs.’ Even more haunting are shots of recently
dead rodents, where you can see their bodies turn
blue as the heat leaves them. The fact that the
film is set against furious death metal soundtrack
makes the whole sequence appear as mad as a
box of spiders.
? One of her most interesting projects to date
has to be ‘Re-animation: Underwater Zombie
Frog Ballet’ in which music becomes more than a
complementary aspect of the piece, and actually
combines seamlessly with the imagery. Shot in a
Tokyo medical facility, the video shows a watertank holding the bodies of recently dead frogs
that had been used in dissection classes. The
frogs are hooked up to wires, and their legs
pulse with the beat of electronic drum sounds.
It makes for unsettling viewing, and brings to
mind Frankenstein and other such classics of
Romanticism that questioned the boundaries of
what science could, and should achieve. ‘I am
really interested in historic figures such as Galvani,
and the idea that it could be possible to reanimate dead flesh. You see, this experiment only
has a window of a few minutes. After that the
muscles do not respond to the electronic pulses,’
remarks Lu.
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