Evil does not differ from justice, and justice does not differ from evil - A story of Xiao Lu / By Wen Pulin

I recently saw a very colourful Xiao Lu. One of her hands was wrapped in white bandage, previously wounded during her “Polar” exhibition, whilst the other hand maneuvered the steering wheel with ease. She spun her dreamy blue Jeep around, parked the car, and strode out like a true warrior in her blue gown, with her sapphire blue hair tailed by a strain of glaringly red fringe fluttering against the wind. She was lively, free and unfettered, like a giant butterfly.

The Caterpillar

Xiao Lu appeared in public sight out of the blue. In the year when the rigorous 1985 New Wave Movement reached its peak, all the heavyweights in the art circle gathered at the most established institution of Chinese art - the National Art Museum of China, awaiting the ultimate title grants for star artists.

“Bang! Bang!” The event culminated with Xiao Lu firing two gunshots, immediately taking away the spotlight from all the stars present. 

Xiao Lu, Dialogue, 1989.2.5

In a bizarre way, Xiao Lu’s gunshots became completely misinterpreted in patriarchal discourse, and the incident was regarded as a “performance piece” soon after. Xiao Lu, like a poor caterpillar, was still in a state of shock and panic. This time, the male star involved in the incident soon disappeared from public sight. In Chinese avant-garde art history, it is usually female artists who disappear without rhyme or reason and the spotlight always falls on the men in the end.

15 years later, Xiao Lu came back from Australia all by herself. She approached me and asked me to publish the video which recorded the shooting scene that year so as to clear her name. Rumour had it that the male and the female were both firing gunshots consecutively or that it was solely the male who fired the gunshots. Luckily, I happened to be there at that time and recorded the scene, which could help her reveal the truth.

Later, Xiao Lu fired 15 gunshots at her own photo, saying that it was a closure for her relationship in the past 15 years. It all made sense as the two gunshots at her own installation “Dialogue” were also to address issues with her relationship.

Undoubtedly, an artist’s original intention is different from the artwork itself, but the complete misinterpretation it provokes has nothing to do with the artist. Yet somehow, the two gunshots have been echoing in art history and contemporary history till this day. 20 years later, Xiao Lu recollected: the gunshots never stopped during that year.

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. That is the truth we have always believed in and the foundation and safeguard of the legitimacy of our regime. A gun represents privilege, like Pharaoh's scepter.

Xiao Lu later published her autobiographical novel Dialogue, which covered the background and details of the two shootings, and of course, the story of the “gun” itself.

Many years later, I had the opportunity to visit Xiao Lu’s parents. Her mother is a very kind lady who used to serve in the New Fourth Army. She told me very proudly with a strong Shandong accent, “I was a true senior cadre!” Xiao Lu’s father was the then President of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in the 80s. I was very fascinated by how the Academy became the central hub of Chinese avant-garde art. He said modestly, “I did not do much. I only moved the lid of a well and opened a small gap. When the sunshine and fresh air got through, flowers bloomed on their own.” I noticed an oil painting on the wall - a portrait of Hu Yaobang painted by him.

The Seed

In 2007, I collaborated with Now Gallery by Zhang Rui and Huang Liaoyuan on the exhibition “Seven Sins: The Seven Performances in 1989 China Avant-Garde Exhibition”. In preparation for it, we tried to find all the “disrupters” from that year, and came to know some later artworks and stories of these stars. Xiao Lu’s new work “Sperm” shocked the public again. The artwork consists of a small fridge with a stack of glass bottles ready for collecting sperm.

Xiao Lu, Sperm, 2006.5.21-23

In 2006, The Long March Space of 789 Art Zone organised a “New Long March”. Many stars from the art circle gathered and travelled along the historical route of the Long March by the Red Army all the way to Yan’an. Xiao Lu was among them. To her recollection, the trip was “suffused with hormones”. On the way, everyone loved singing in unison a song of Chairman Mao’s quotations in Hunan Huagu Opera style from the Cultural Revolution era:

We Communist Party members are like seeds

The people are like soil

Everywhere we go

We shall be united with the local people

And take roots and blossom among the people...

At that time, Xiao Lu was no longer the little princess she used to be.

“I don’t have many eggs left. If I wait till menopause hits, it would be too late to give birth to a child.”

Apparently, she was stimulated by the group of “live animals” right in front of her, and a flash of inspiration hit her instantly. She prepared an installation, and publicly asked fellow male participants to donate sperm to her in Yan’an.

Wow! We’ve all heard of the story of Xuanzang's journey to the West to obtain the Buddhist scriptures in Tang Dynasty, and now we have Heroine Xiao asking for sperm at the sacred place of revolution. I was truly amazed. 

Xiao Lu again exerted her ingenuity in turning an opponent’s force against them, and the larger the stage was, the greater her performance became. This time, she made those men with “guns” disarmed.

“You are treating men like tools. They all struggle with it.” A man said to her quietly.

Breaking out of the Cocoon

In a flash of time, 2009 came and witnessed the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Exhibition. 

As was proposed by their former supervisor Gao Minglu, the male artists gathered again, wanting to organise a big celebration. However, the main exhibition area was closed down on the same day, allowing only a literature review styled exhibition to be on in the Wall Art Museum. 

Xiao Lu, Wedlock, 2009.2.5

Their feelings of frustration were still strong when they heard a deafening sound of drums and gongs approaching. A funeral procession, fully dressed in Qing Dynasty styled clothes and lifting a large coffin, entered the exhibition hall.  Right after the coffin lid got cracked open, Xiao Lu, wearing heavy makeup, sat up in her white full-length wedding gown. Then followed the wedding ceremony in which Xiao Lu announced to the crowd that she was marrying herself. Gao Minglu was the celebrant and witness. Well, hosting a funeral as if it were a joyous occasion is indeed a fine tradition with Chinese characteristics.

The caterpillar from two decades ago, after years of hibernation, jumped out of the coffin, breaking out of her own shell. Xiao Lu has since bid goodbye to the confusion about her self-identity which had haunted her for years. From then on, Xiao Lu said, she rejected performances, compromises, and repetitions.

Evil Temple 

Xu Wenchang has an antithetical couplet that reads “some rooms tilting toward east and west, somebody speaking in tones of north and south”. I suppose this would be a great fit if hung at the entry of Xiao Lu’s studio. The two seem to have inherited some similar quirks. According to Xiao Lu, she has been labeled as a “performance artist” by the public, but out of all the professions she wants to be an architect the most, as it is all about finding balance in the imbalance. Therefore, she built herself a skewed temple, designed specifically for her Buddhist practice. I guess Xiao Lu created her own Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra in tones of north and south:

Xiao Lu, Skew House, 2010-2013

Evil does not differ from justice; justice does not differ from evil.

That which is evil is justice, that which is justice evil.

A righteous man speaks of evil, evil is justice;

An evil man speaks of justice, justice is evil…

Who is to say what is evil and what is justice in this world?

Xiao Lu’s architectural language is embodied in two characters: evil (邪, xié) and justice (正, zhèng). Evil does not prevail over justice, and justice does not shun away from evil. The skewed temple is straight horizontally but not so vertically, and the slanting door is matched with a square well, making the place seemingly skewed but still upright and dignified. The place perfectly resembles its owner's inner space, which is nothing short of a miracle, and only someone fearless like Xiao Lu deserves to be its owner.  

I could not imagine how she came to her epiphany; you could easily tell that her style was completely different; but still, she was just as mad as before. She was sometimes dead drunk and shooting out punch lines nonstop, and at other times skinny dipping, frightening the gods above. This is exactly the case where “the deeper the indignation is, the crazier one appears to be”. However, what she feels indignant about has gradually transcended herself, turning into more of an altruistic kindness and empathy towards all human beings. 

In 2008, in her own skewed temple, she completed her work “Coil”. The audience were all deeply touched, as if they could personally feel the alarming “suffocation”. The smoke of grief permeates the surface, but Xiao Lu was the only one to breathe it in and comprehend it. Nowadays, however, what is suffocating our fellow countrymen is more than just the haze and the coronavirus!

Xiao Lu, Coil, 2018.4.28

The struggle and bloodiness in her work “Polar” was unbearable. The narrowness and chilliness imposed by the confinement made the audience confront horror, despair and desolation. 

Xiao Lu’s work “Skew” was completed in 2019 at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Hong Kong, which filled the audience with indescribable pain. The candle light has never burned out in thirty years, and today the struggle continues at the cost of lives. The corruption, filthiness, and lack of morality, along with demons running wild, the people severely afflicted, widowed women crying late at night, ghosts whispering to the tombs in autumn...the world suddenly turned into a purgatory, how can anyone endure such a heart-wrenching pain?

Xiao Lu, Skew, 2019.9.12

Looking back, expressing one’s free will and holding fast to one’s character and integrity used to be relentlessly pursued by generations of people. Seeing the present, we are all worse than animals, taking only the form of a human being. How many of us can still hold our heads up high? Even against thousands of people, I shall march on!

Are we lucky or unlucky?

Looking around, this puts all men in shame. 

As far as my eyes can see, only Xiao Lu charges ahead. 

Early spring, February of the Year of Rat

Wen Pulin