Art + Courage



Conversations with Chinese-Australian artists: Xiao Lu


In the face of global uncertainties arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and complex, shifting geo-political relationships, what can we learn from artists who actively work across national and cultural boundaries. What does the future look like from their perspective? To what extent can art help us think through complex situations and imagine a better future? How important is courage? This conversation, the first in a series, is with Xiao Lu and will focus on her recent performance work Tides created in Sydney in 2019.

CoVA CONVENOR
Associate Professor Claire Roberts
PARTICIPANTS
Xiao Lu - (born 1962) works with performance and installation. She is a graduate of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (China Academy of Art), Hangzhou. In February 1989 Xiao Lu famously fired a handgun at her installation Dialogue displayed in the China/Avant-garde exhibition at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing. In 2019 Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue a 30 year retrospective was held at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney. Xiao Lu’s work has been included in important international exhibitions, most recently Performer and Participant, Tate, London (2018) and Art and China After 1989: Theatre of the World, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2017). Her work has been collected by public and private institutions including the Tate, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Taikang Insurance Group Art Collection, Beijing; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales and White Rabbit Collection, Sydney. Xiao Lu lives and works in Beijing and Sydney.



Image: Xiao Lu, Tides (2019).