Junk (Installation/Performance)

Solo Show: JUNK
Artist: Xiao Lu
Work: JUNK (Installation/Performance)
Passage Gallery, Sydney 
14 June -19 July 2024

About “JUNK”
A black room, visible round the clock from the outside through glass.
A black table, a bottle of ink, a brush-pen, several stacks of xuan paper. Eight red light bulbs.
I come to Passage Gallery irregularly. Using ink, I scrawl freely on sheet after sheet of xuan paper and then throw them in the air. Gradually, rubbish fills the space.
For thousands of years in China, literary scholars have moved in the detachment of painting landscapes and flowers-and-birds. Savouring the exquisite elegance of the otherworldly aesthetics of avoiding reality, they have achieved a nation which has seen generation after generation of centralized feudal and imperial power.
I have come from China, where there is a strict system of art censorship with untouchable red lines everywhere. The self-censorship of art organisations and artists erodes everybody’s spirit.
The blackness surrounds me: terror, oppression, helplessness, anger, despair, freedom, roaring, resistance...
And one other thing: it can go to fucking hell.
Junk!
— Xiao Lu

First Performance  14 June,2024  6:30-8:30 100 rice paper  Photo by Chen Yanyin

Second Performance  18 June,2024  3:00-4:30pm  200 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Third Performance  19 June,2024  11:15am-13:15pm  300 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Fourth Performance  21 June,2024  16:00-18:00pm  400 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Fifth Performance  24 June,2024  15:30-17:30pm  500 rice paper  Photo by Sarah Kukathas

Sixth Performance  27 June,2024  15:30-18:40pm  600 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Seventh Performance  29 June,2024  15:30-17:30pm  700 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Eighth Performance 1 July,2024  15:30-17:30pm  800 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Ninth Performance 2 July,2024  15:30-18:00pm  900 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Tenth Performance 4 July,2024  15:00-17:00pm  1000 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Eleventh Performance 6 July,2024  16:00-18:00pm  1100 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Twelfth Performance 8 July,2024  15:30-17:30pm  1200 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Thhirteenth Performance  9 July,2024  15:30-17:30pm  1300 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Fourteenth Performance  11 July,2024  15:30-17:00pm  1400 rice paper  Photo by Xiao Lu

Fifteenth Performance  15 July,2024  15:00-17:00pm  1500 rice paper  Photo by Olivia Ma

Sixteenth Performance  16 July,2024  15:30-18:30pm  1600 rice paper  Photo by Olivia Ma

JUNK Installation / Performance  14 June - 16 July 2024  Photo by Xiao Lu

Passage website：https://www.passagegallery.com/xiao-lu-mandarin

JUNK performance video link：https://www.instagram.com/p/C90h6yDSfH7/

Media reports：https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/australia-art-exhibit-junk-06172024135802.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawH0NbZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfUk3k7_3tPIOTBjNnnzGuOkUFXmOnArkiInghYjUsoM-kPW-X1VkJO6Vg_aem_rTdfnDozWK01w_ks-jAZmA