Artist: Cole Lu
Exhibition title: The Dust Enforcer (All These Darlings Said It’s the End and Now US)
Venue: Deli Gallery, New York, US
Date: September 13 – October 20, 2019
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Deli Gallery, New York
I’m writing in the dark, face lit by the moon and my laptop’s screen. I just woke up after dreaming of a calmed volcano; silent after a coughing blaze. Around them, all has been congealed. Embalmed in dust, all living creatures have now reached the status of simulacrum and fossil. In that process, everything gets united (although nothing can touch each other’s anymore). Cole Lu has been working with the four-winged demon Pazuzu, aka the Dust Enforcer, whose speciality is to “[scavenge] the stratified Earth and its biosphere in the form of Dust”1, by way of which they (the demon) are then able to disseminate plagues and other epidemics.
This characteristic collaboration (it is literally Lu making a pact with the devil), despite its necrotic tones, turned out to be very fruitful. Motivated by Lu’s deep investment in mythology and epidemiological studies (from a sociological point of view more than a scientific one); the group of sculptures and reliefs presented at Deli Gallery stem out of a desire to empathise with and take care of the monstrous, another word for “the infected”. It is worth noting that Lu’s interest in these fields of studies is deeply rooted in their own experience as a queer migrant affected by tuberculosis.
As a result, Lu’s sculptures are at once the result of a violent process (the exposure to volcanic dust) and a desire to preserve and nurse them. For “The Dust Enforcer (All These Darlings Said It’s the End and Now Us)”, this dual treatment converges on Geryon and his two-headed dog: Orthros. As Hercules’s tenth labour opponent, Geryon has been classically labelled as the undesirable monster. The grandchild of Medusa and nephew of Pegasus, he is deemed undeserving of empathy. Or at least, that’s what we have been led to believe.
Christina Franze (Associate professor of Latin, Greek, and literature at Marshall University) wrote an essay in 2009 titled “Sympathizing with the Monster: Making Sense of Colonization in Stesichorus’ Geryoneis”. It is enlightening to read the comments of the author on the rewriting of the myth by supposedly Sicilian-born Stesichorus (the original myth acting as both excuse and metaphor for the colonisation of Sicily by the Greeks). The supreme act of empathy towards the monster, for Franze, is thus the literary embodiment of his perspective:
“What is so surprising about Stesichorus’ story is that we see through the eyes of the monster.”2
So what does a sculpture of the monster, listless, covered in ash, accompanied by his two-headed dog, seemingly battling for survival in an oxygen chamber, provoke? The rewriting of the myth through the sculptural act (and the reliefs) might as well be the ultimate manifestation of empathy: Lu operates an act of fabricated and fast-paced fossilisation to better take care of the weakened monster. They give it a presence beyond the literary, without the hero, to hug. And Jack Halberstam taught us what taking care of our monsters might mean, as
“The monster itself is an economic form in that it condenses various racial and sexual threats to nation, capitalism and the bourgeoisie in one body…”3
-Cédric Fauq, 2019
Cole Lu is an artist and writer originally from Taipei and based in New York. Lu’s recent projects include a solo presentations The Third Lie with Syndicate at Popposition (Brussels); The Patio at Arcade Gallery (London); and a performance for Marusa Sagadin’s installation at NADA New York. Lu produced solo exhibitions in 2018 at 77 Mulberry (NY) and Monaco, (St Louis); along with a two person show with André Filipek at American Medium, (NY). Recent exhibitions include Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St Louis), Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), The 3rd New Digital Art Biennale – The Wrong (Again), I Never Read (Basel), and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (Los Angeles). Lu’s book SMELLS LIKE CONTENT (Endless Editions, New York) is part of the Museum of Modern Art Library’s Artist Book Collection. Through February 2019, Lu was an artist-in-residence at Triangle Arts Association in Brooklyn, New York.
[1] Reza Negarestani, Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials (Anomaly), 2008
[2] Christina Franze, “Sympathizing with the Monster: Making Sense of Colonization in Stesichorus’ Geryoneis” in Quaderni Urbinati di CulturaClassica,New Series, Vol. 92, No. 2 (2009), pp. 55-72
[3] Jack Halberstam, Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, Duke, 2002
Cole Lu, The Dust Enforcer (All These Darlings Said It’s the End and Now US), 2019, exhibition view, Deli Gallery, New York
Cole Lu, The Dust Enforcer (All These Darlings Said It’s the End and Now US), 2019, exhibition view, Deli Gallery, New York
Cole Lu, The Dust Enforcer (All These Darlings Said It’s the End and Now US), 2019, exhibition view, Deli Gallery, New York
Cole Lu, Supposed old old age might show grow old to show what it meant the soul is made of wind instead of warm red liquid (Crossing River Styx), 2019, Cold cast bronze, Overall: 30 × 63 × 1 inches (76.20 × 160.02 × 2.54 cm), Each: 30 × 20 × 1 inches (76.20 × 50.80 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, Supposed old old age might show grow old to show what it meant the soul is made of wind instead of warm red liquid (Crossing River Styx), 2019, Cold cast bronze, Overall: 30 × 63 × 1 inches (76.20 × 160.02 × 2.54 cm), Each: 30 × 20 × 1 inches (76.20 × 50.80 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, Supposed old old age might show grow old to show what it meant the soul is made of wind instead of warm red liquid (Crossing River Styx), 2019, Cold cast bronze, Overall: 30 × 63 × 1 inches (76.20 × 160.02 × 2.54 cm), Each: 30 × 20 × 1 inches (76.20 × 50.80 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, Supposed old old age might show grow old to show what it meant the soul is made of wind instead of warm red liquid (Crossing River Styx), 2019, Cold cast bronze, Overall: 30 × 63 × 1 inches (76.20 × 160.02 × 2.54 cm), Each: 30 × 20 × 1 inches (76.20 × 50.80 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, Supposed old old age might show grow old to show what it meant the soul is made of wind instead of warm red liquid (Crossing River Styx), 2019, Cold cast bronze, Overall: 30 × 63 × 1 inches (76.20 × 160.02 × 2.54 cm), Each: 30 × 20 × 1 inches (76.20 × 50.80 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, Supposed old old age might show grow old to show what it meant the soul is made of wind instead of warm red liquid (Crossing River Styx), 2019, Cold cast bronze, Overall: 30 × 63 × 1 inches (76.20 × 160.02 × 2.54 cm), Each: 30 × 20 × 1 inches (76.20 × 50.80 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, Supposed old old age might show grow old to show what it meant the soul is made of wind instead of warm red liquid (Crossing River Styx), 2019, Cold cast bronze, Overall: 30 × 63 × 1 inches (76.20 × 160.02 × 2.54 cm), Each: 30 × 20 × 1 inches (76.20 × 50.80 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, Supposed old old age might show grow old to show what it meant the soul is made of wind instead of warm red liquid (Crossing River Styx), 2019, Cold cast bronze, Overall: 30 × 63 × 1 inches (76.20 × 160.02 × 2.54 cm), Each: 30 × 20 × 1 inches (76.20 × 50.80 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, Thus, on any day, at any hour of any day, the stretch of sky left me wild and breathless. If the world ends now we are free, not a bee moved up from your spine inside. (Geryon), 2019, Fiberglass, aqua resin, 16 × 33 × 18 inches (40.64 × 83.82 × 45.72 cm)
Cole Lu, Thus, on any day, at any hour of any day, the stretch of sky left me wild and breathless. If the world ends now we are free, not a bee moved up from your spine inside. (Geryon), 2019, Fiberglass, aqua resin, 16 × 33 × 18 inches (40.64 × 83.82 × 45.72 cm)
Cole Lu, Thus, on any day, at any hour of any day, the stretch of sky left me wild and breathless. If the world ends now we are free, not a bee moved up from your spine inside. (Geryon), 2019, Fiberglass, aqua resin, 16 × 33 × 18 inches (40.64 × 83.82 × 45.72 cm)
Cole Lu, In the last seconds, it is as if everyone leaped off the mount, hold hands. The end approaches like approaching ground. Like honey is the sleep of just. (Orthros), 2019, Fiberglass, aqua resin, polyurethane, concrete, plaster, MDF, polycarbonate, 64 × 39 × 74 inches (162.56 × 99.06 × 187.96 cm)
Cole Lu, In the last seconds, it is as if everyone leaped off the mount, hold hands. The end approaches like approaching ground. Like honey is the sleep of just. (Orthros), 2019, Fiberglass, aqua resin, polyurethane, concrete, plaster, MDF, polycarbonate, 64 × 39 × 74 inches (162.56 × 99.06 × 187.96 cm)
Cole Lu, In the last seconds, it is as if everyone leaped off the mount, hold hands. The end approaches like approaching ground. Like honey is the sleep of just. (Orthros), 2019, Fiberglass, aqua resin, polyurethane, concrete, plaster, MDF, polycarbonate, 64 × 39 × 74 inches (162.56 × 99.06 × 187.96 cm)
Cole Lu, In the last seconds, it is as if everyone leaped off the mount, hold hands. The end approaches like approaching ground. Like honey is the sleep of just. (Orthros), 2019, Fiberglass, aqua resin, polyurethane, concrete, plaster, MDF, polycarbonate, 64 × 39 × 74 inches (162.56 × 99.06 × 187.96 cm)
Cole Lu, In the last seconds, it is as if everyone leaped off the mount, hold hands. The end approaches like approaching ground. Like honey is the sleep of just. (Orthros), 2019, Fiberglass, aqua resin, polyurethane, concrete, plaster, MDF, polycarbonate, 64 × 39 × 74 inches (162.56 × 99.06 × 187.96 cm)
Cole Lu, In the beginning, there was a song, when you hear it, you’ll know it is the most beautiful song in the world. (Insula), 2019, Silicone, aqua resin, fiberglass, 26 × 30 × 1 inches (66.04 × 76.20 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, In the beginning, there was a song, when you hear it, you’ll know it is the most beautiful song in the world. (Insula), 2019, Silicone, aqua resin, fiberglass, 26 × 30 × 1 inches (66.04 × 76.20 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, In the beginning, there was a song, when you hear it, you’ll know it is the most beautiful song in the world. (Insula), 2019, Silicone, aqua resin, fiberglass, 26 × 30 × 1 inches (66.04 × 76.20 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, But here it is always fluent. Here were listen to voices. Here also are stable things. (Frigidarium), 2019, But here it is always fluent. Here were listen to voices. Here also are stable things. (Frigidarium), 45 × 36 × 1 inches (114.30 × 91.44 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, But here it is always fluent. Here were listen to voices. Here also are stable things. (Frigidarium), 2019, But here it is always fluent. Here were listen to voices. Here also are stable things. (Frigidarium), 45 × 36 × 1 inches (114.30 × 91.44 × 2.54 cm)
Cole Lu, But here it is always fluent. Here were listen to voices. Here also are stable things. (Frigidarium), 2019, But here it is always fluent. Here were listen to voices. Here also are stable things. (Frigidarium), 45 × 36 × 1 inches (114.30 × 91.44 × 2.54 cm)
