Exhibition Review | Amber Xiangning Lu: Milky Haze

 

Amber Xiangning Lu's work is on display in the exhibition “rooted, yet flowing” at Nan Ke Gallery. Her works are composed of different media such as painting, sound and installation, Interwoven into the narrative of the gallery's last-century space is a field of ghost-like memories.The works in this exhibition focus on the artist's interest in psychological space and her expression of the coexistence of different temporal dimensions in the same physical space. She re-observes the past from the perspective of the future and unearths the subtle, eerie and unsettling atmosphere of childhood memories. The translucent material seems to be the “ghost” of the object, while in contrast, the old wood shows the traces of the user's history, a “relic” type of existence. In the space formed by the two and other materials, indoor and outdoor, everyday and non-everyday gradually merge to form a dream-like surreal scene. 

 

 

 

Opening view of rooted, yet flowing, December 28, 2024 - February 23, 2025, Nan Ke Gallery, Shanghai ©  Courtesy Nan Ke Gallery,  Photographed by Tiger Chen

 

Amber's creations are rooted in long-lasting personal memories. Born in Beijing, she has been living in Guangzhou for a long time, while her grandmother was born in the South but spent most of her years in the North. The intersection of geographic locations, wrapped up in the rooted habits and cultural attributes, creates an inversion of opposites and intertexts.

 

 

 

 

Installation view of rooted, yet flowing, December 28, 2024 - February 23, 2025, Nan Ke Gallery, Shanghai ©  Courtesy Nan Ke Gallery,   Photographed by Runxin.

 

Ascending to the second floor of the exhibition, the work “Can't Be Taken Along” is a prologue of memories written with the curtains of a room from the collective memory. Amber retains the original materials of the objects, such as stainless steel, wood and glass, while adding translucent acrylic to bring out the texture of the chaotic and translucent memories that flow in the river of time.

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Wood, cockleburs , acrylic, glass, stainless steel

© Courtesy of the artist

 

Also present as “ghosts of memory” are the mixed media works “They Remained Unseen”. Pedal sewing machines from the last century look at each other through a beaded curtain, forming a panoramic view of an old living room. Such images seem to be unearthed from the depths of the mind, never to be seen again, never to fade away. Bird feathers depicting verses are placed on them, bringing associations and visions of migration and flow. Repeated ramblings spill out of them, like the vapor of memory, blurring but quietly wetting and eroding everything.

 

 

 Feather, print, plastic, resin

77h x 75w x 50d cm / Each2+1AP

© Courtesy of the artist

 

Birds made of coal are scattered on the window ledges, ironically pointing to the countervailing forces of flight and freedom. Coal symbolizes the heaviness of being on the ground, tugging at the light, dreamy associations of freedom. The surreal and absurd reverie collides with the simple and common material, like a stone thrown into the water, stirring up a whirlpool of memories.

 

 

Jet, 3D-printed Resin 

10h x 10w x 10d cm（L） 8h x 7w x 8d cm（M） 5h x 5w x 5d cm（S） 

© Courtesy of the artist 

 

Small rooms where paintings are housed in real old drawers. Memories, like documents stored with meticulous logic from an old archive, can be extracted and read in an orderly manner. The old wood and camphor restore the texture of the old furniture, the birch trees depicted in delicate oil paintings symbolize the landscape before the sandstorm, reflecting the powerful force of nature and the anxiety and anxiety that inevitably arises within human beings in the face of an approaching disaster.

 

 

17h x  44w  x 31d cm 

© Courtesy of the artist 

 

The work on the top floor, “The Night Before”, is a comprehensive carrier of memories. The translucent heater bakes the old wood, and the prologue of memories is opened and diffused. The synthesized way of creation is Lu's way of remembering time and the passing years, and her works do not simply point to the individual, but through the combination of elements, they inspire the viewer to renovate and refurbish his or her own past.

 

 

 Amber Xiangning Lu

Reclaimed wood, oil and acrylic on panel, camphor, wood wax finish, acrylic  

113h x  66w  x 26d cm

© Courtesy of the artist 

 

“The past never dies, it never even passes.” The quotation in the curatorial statement aptly illustrates the significance of memories to Amber: hard to get rid of, hard to forget, but no need to get rid of or forget, but only to exist. With the change of time, they are blurred and blended together, becoming a milk-colored fog, and what is carried in the illusion may be the most real self.

 

‍‍‍‍Text by Roxane Fu