Lu Cong
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Lu Cong’s cultural identity, split between mainland China where he was born in 1978 and small-town Midwest where he immigrated to 11 years later, informs his beautiful portraits mostly of white, American women. The images harken back to old cigarette ads from pre-Communist China, as well as the 18th-century Romantics in the West.
The dynamics of sexuality and romance are probably the most significant in a person’s assimilation or lack thereof in any culture, and Lu’s biography allows him to skirt a delicate line that turns the un-questioned orientalism and the unspoken emasculation of the Asian male on their heads while simultaneously empowering and revering his subjects.
1 comment
Djangolad Tuesday 17 May 2011
Not sure of the idea here.
A carefully contrived or miscalculated physiological rendering of 17 century style made “contemporary” by overlaying on a cultural icon like a skyscraper.
The exopthalmic ayes are annoying.
I find it clunky with the wobble biased toward a hope to get attention rather than presnet a lyrical idea.