From History and the Collective to Self-Awareness
Liu Sichuan
La Réforme de l'Histoire et de la Mémoire : L'Individu à la Dérive dans le Temps
LU Hang（路航）, a young French Chinese artist active on the international art stage, is renowned for his profound exploration of human nature and his emotionally expressive visual language. Through symbolic imagery, simplified forms, and bold colors, his work delves deeply into the emotional and cognitive challenges that individuals face in modern society when confronted with themselves, others, and history.
On the artist’s canvas, the complex relationships between history, the collective, and the individual are repeatedly depicted, filled with reflections on the human condition. His work showcases both the fragility and resilience of individuals in the face of societal forces. While drawing from key elements of Neo-Expressionism, Lu has also developed a more personalized and emotional mode of expression.
.From the reinterpretation of history and memory to the exploration of the individual within the collective, and the delicate presentation of perception and inner experience, Lu Hang leads us into a multi-dimensional contemplation of human existence. With the depth of his technical and emotional expression, it’s difficult for viewers to remain unmoved by his work.
Cher enfant 2 Oil on Canvas 130 x 90 cm 2019
Cher enfant 2 Oil on Canvas 130 x 90 cm 2019
The Reshaping of History and Memory: The Individual Adrift in Time
In Lu Hang’s work, historical symbols and collective memory often appear in blurred, symbolic images that are both figurative and filled with abstract emotional expression. Rather than focusing on specific historical events or ideologies, he approaches the relationship between the individual and historical memory. Through historical scenes and symbols, he explores the feelings of helplessness and confusion people experience when confronted with time and memory.
For example, in Dogs History (2017), the dog—an animal known for loyalty and ease of training—becomes a recurring symbol of humanity in the course of history. By using such symbolic animal imagery, the artist reveals the passivity of the individual in the flow of history. The animal in this painting is simplified into a symbol, losing its specific face and individuality, as though it has become part of the gears of history. This treatment of blurred imagery reflects Lu Hang’s understanding of history: it is no longer a mere accumulation of events but a process of dissolving individual destiny and self-awareness.
History is a collective experience, but it is also deeply rooted in the hearts of individuals. In Lu Hang’s works, the weight of history is conveyed through metaphor and symbolism, especially in the simplified imagery of figures and animals. These symbols record historical events and reflect the collective memory within human consciousness. His works convey a universal emotion—the powerlessness and sense of loss when faced with memory. The symbolic images are treated in a way that is blurred and abstract, as if reminding us that memory cannot be accurately recorded, nor can history be fully restored. Humanity, in the passage of time, can only attempt to reshape itself, only to often find that memory has already been rewritten by the forces of society and time.
This depiction of history is filled with the artist’s intense personal emotion. He continuously tries to express how people repeatedly lose self-awareness in the course of history, ultimately becoming fragmented pieces of collective memory.
Influenced by Georg Baselitz, a leading figure of Neo-Expressionism, Lu Hang similarly uses bold colors, rough lines, and distorted human forms to express emotional tension and historical reflection. However, unlike Baselitz, who focuses on the crisis of national identity and collective trauma, Lu Hang tends to explore the individual’s struggle through historical symbols, emphasizing human fragility and the ambiguity of self-awareness.
For instance, in works like Gymnastique (2023), the artist uses repetitive actions and uniform postures to depict the loneliness and sense of loss that people feel within a collective. His expressions in this series are more introspective, carrying a subtle sense of personal experience, which adds strong symbolic meaning to his work.
This creative approach, drawing from Neo-Expressionism, retains the intense emotional expression of the style while developing a distinct artistic language through its shift toward inner themes.
Exploration of the Individual within the Collective and Society: The Dual Dilemma of Isolation and Identity
In many of Lu Hang’s works, the relationship between the collective and the individual is a recurring theme. By depicting collective behavior and group activities, he conveys the sense of isolation, loss, and anxiety over identity that individuals experience in collective settings. For instance, in his work Gymnastique (2023), the figures are shown performing gymnastics movements in similar postures, with blurred faces and simplified, repetitive forms. This conveys a highly uniform behavior pattern where the individual’s identity is completely lost within the collective.
Huile sur toile 425 x 400 cm 2023
Huile sur toile 425 x 400 cm 2023
Huile sur toile 425 x 400 cm 2023
Huile sur toile 150 x 110 cm 2021
Huile sur toile 150 x 110 cm 2021
The figures Lu Hang portrays in his works are always marked by a kind of symbolic simplification. Faces are blurred, and forms are often abstracted, creating a tension between “universality” and “individuality.”
Unlike some of his predecessors, such as Markus Lüpertz, who also used human figures and bold colors to express the tension between the collective and the individual, Lu Hang’s works typically focus on the emotional experience of the individual within the collective. Lüpertz tends to emphasize the relationship between form and color through more geometric and abstract human figures, while Lu Hang highlights the emotional state of individuals who lose their uniqueness and feel isolated within the collective. This approach allows viewers to easily place themselves into the scene, experiencing feelings of unease, confusion, and loneliness.
In his work Blue Gloves (2021), the gloves symbolize the barriers between individuals and reflect Zygmunt Bauman’s idea of rational “intrusion”. The blurred imagery further intensifies the sense of individual loss and dehumanization within the collective. These symbols and images resonate with universal emotions, touching on the inherent human struggle with isolation and the challenge of self-recognition.
Lu Hang’s depiction of collective behavior is not a direct critique of society but rather a deep exploration of the complexities of human nature. Humanity’s need for social belonging often conflicts with the desire for individuality. His works allow viewers to feel both the order and security of collective life, while also revealing the hidden loneliness and anxiety within. This emotionally charged contradiction imbues Lu Hang’s works with a broad emotional resonance, prompting viewers to reconsider the relationship between the self and the world.
The Expression of Perception and Inner Experience: The Struggle of the Individual and Self-Recognition
In addition to exploring history and the collective, Lu Hang’s work deeply examines personal perception and inner experience. This theme is skillfully presented in Pavlov’s Child (2022). Borrowing from the metaphor of Pavlov’s classical conditioning experiment, Lu explores how individuals gradually lose control over their self-perception in a social environment. In the painting, the figures are blurred and simplified, as if the individual’s perception and actions have become mechanical and passive under external stimuli.
This treatment prompts viewers to reflect: when faced with overwhelming societal and external forces, have people gradually lost control over their own self-awareness?
The distortion of perception not only reflects psychological struggles but also symbolizes the helplessness and sense of self-loss that individuals experience in the face of external forces. Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory provides an important lens through which to understand this work. Lacan argued that an individual’s self-recognition is formed during the “mirror stage” (It is a key period in early infant development, typically between 6 and 18 months. During this stage, the infant begins to realize that their body is a unified whole and can recognize their own reflection in a mirror as themselves). However, this self-awareness is continually distorted and reshaped by the external environment as the individual develops. The blurred figures in Lu Hang’s work reflect this crisis of self-recognition.
Huile sur toile 140 x 95 cm 2022
Huile sur toile 140 x 95 cm 2022
In Lu Hang’s visual language, the use of symbolic imagery and bold colors allows him to break free from the constraints of pure realism, creating an artistic expression that blends abstraction and figuration. This makes his work, within the context of modern art, a continuation of the core spirit of Expressionism, while also revealing the inner exploration of the contemporary individual in a complex society. This visual language, especially in its expression of human fragility and loneliness, adds deep emotional layers to his work and provides a more introspective perspective.
Through the three central themes of history, the collective, and individual perception, Lu Hang continuously explores the complexities of human nature in his works. His art is not confined to simple critiques or resistance to any particular ideology. Instead, through a diverse visual language of symbols, figures, and colors, he points to the emotional dilemmas and cognitive challenges individuals face when confronted with themselves, others, history, and the world. Although he carries forward Neo-Expressionism’s emphasis on intense emotional expression, he chooses more inward, emotion-driven themes, rather than directly opposing external societal or historical forces.
Focusing on the core of human nature, Lu Hang uses his explorative artistic language to invite viewers to rethink the role of the individual amidst the forces of time and society. Standing before his works, the symbolic imagery and striking colors immediately impact our senses, followed by an awakening of inner reflections on loneliness, loss, and the confusion of self-awareness.