The exhibition Digital Descending at ARoS takes the form of a flashing immersive world made up of sounds, screens, film and a video game, creating a sensuous and hectic digital universe. Visitors move through Lu Yang’s virtual parallel world inhabited by gods and demons, heroes, warriors and cyborgs inspired by universes hailing from the realms of gaming, manga and Eastern religions.

 - For many people, especially younger people, gaming offers a virtual parallel universe that can seem more interesting, immersive and stimulating than the real world. Lu Yang is very preoccupied with the realms of opportunity unleashed in these parallel worlds. Here you or your digital character can gain superpowers, adopt a range of different roles and zap across time and space, says curator at ARoS Jeanett Stampe.

In the various works featured in the exhibition, the artist’s own genderless avatar appears in multiple versions, including the brand-new hyper-realistic avatar DOKU, which constitutes the main character in the work DOKU – 6 Realms of Reincarnation. Lu Yang calls the avatar a digital reincarnation: DOKU is based on a high-tech face scan of the artist’s own face, capable of reproducing expressions with almost 100 per cent accuracy.

About Lu Yang

Multi-media artist Lu Yang (born 1984) creates fantastical, often painful, and shocking images which represent an interdisciplinary blend of religion, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology and modern technology, as well as the allusions to real life forms and structures of natural and religious origin. The output of Lu Yang’s artistic practice spans game engines, 3D-animated films, video game installations, holograms, motion capture performances, virtual reality and software manipulation. The artist also collaborates with acclaimed scientists, psychologists, performers, designers, experimental composers, music producers, robotics companies and pop stars.

Lu Yang’s work has been featured in major museums and institutions internationally including recent important solo exhibitions at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark; Spiral, Tokyo, Japan; M WOODS, Beijing; MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, USA; UCCA, Beijing; and Fukuoka Asia Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan. Recent works in large-scale thematic exhibitions include Asia Society Triennial 2021, New York; Shanghai Biennale 2018 and 2012; Athens Biennale 2018; Liverpool Biennial 2016; Montreal International Digital Art Biennial 2016; 56th Venice Biennale 2015 China Pavilion; and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2014.

Lu Yang’s work has also been curated into exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2020. Lu Yang was awarded the BMW Art Journey in 2019, following which Yang commenced the making of a new digital body of work titled DOKU.

Press photos are available for download at via Dropbox free of charge provided that the photographer is credited.

The exhibition is supported by:

S.C. Van fonden
Beckett Fonden
Knud Højgaards Fond
William Demant Fonden
Aarhuus Stiftstidendes Fond
Statens Kunstfond