Cole Lu

But, You Know, It’s Often All I Want

Abstract:
The video But, You Know, It’s Often All I Want consists of a medley of interwoven videos repeated and altered in color hues, overlapping frames and hypnotic voiceover. Language works on several levels, endlessly flipping back and forth between the meaningful and material, verbal and non-verbal, visual language, American Sign Language. The video features a mixture of artist’ video and sourced footage from the Internet; while a performer, whose hands are covered in paint, invokes the movements of American Sign Language to play the theremin, an electronic musical instrument activated by motion. Using multiple communication platforms, Lu’s work speaks to how meaning is constructed and destructed in today’s digital climate. But, You Know, It’s Often All I Want takes the impulse further, playing videos composition malleability against its structural limitations, appearing like a meditative attempt to embossed communication gap into the digital file.

Biography:
Cole Lu received her MFA from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO). She received her bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Ming Chuan University (Taipei, Taiwan) and associate’s degree in Japanese from Jinwen University (Taipei, Taiwan).

Throughout her career, Lu has worked simultaneously as artist and curator. She is known for her varied, multimedia practice, which articulates the subject of a contemporary, fragmented identity. She uses text, photography, sculpture, and video to explore the complex layers of what is lost in the era of digital communication. Her work has been included in exhibitions throughout US, UK, Brazil, Mexico and Taiwan.

Lu’s work has been exhibited at CAM Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Pulitzer Arts Foundation; UICA Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; CENTRAL BOOKING ART SPACE, New York, NY; Museo De Arte De Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, and The 2nd annual New Digital Art Biennale- The Wrong (Again).

Her artist book “Smells Like Content” (Endless Edition, NY) is in the collection of MoMA The Museum of Modern Art Library.

She is the Assistant Director at the 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts forum fort gondo compound for the arts (St. Louis, MO, USA).