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De l'histoire, du collectif à la conscience de soi individuelle".

Liu Sichuan

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01. The Reform of History and Memory: The Individual Adrift in Time

Lu Hang, 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.

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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.

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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.

In Lu Hang's work, historical symbols and collective memory often appear in the form of blurred and symbolic images, both figurative and charged with an abstract emotional expression. Rather than focusing on specific historical events or ideologies, he addresses the relationship between the individual and historical memory. Through historical scenes and symbols, he explores the feelings of powerlessness and confusion that people experience when confronted with time and memory.

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For example, in Dogs History (2017), the dog—a creature known for its loyalty and ease of training—becomes a recurring symbol of humanity throughout history. By using such symbolic animal imagery, the artist reveals the passivity of the individual within the flow of history. The animal in this painting is simplified into a symbol, losing its specific face and individuality, as if it had become a piece in the gears of history. This treatment of blurred images reflects Lu Hang's vision of history: it is no longer a mere accumulation of events, but a process of the dissolution of 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, particularly through the simplified images of figures and animals. These symbols record historical events and reflect collective memory in human consciousness. His works convey a universal emotion—the powerlessness and sense of loss when facing memory. The symbolic images are treated in a blurry and abstract manner, as if to remind us that memory cannot be recorded with precision, and that history can never be fully restored. Humanity, in the passage of time, can only attempt to redefine itself, only to often find that memory has already been rewritten by the forces of society and time.

This representation of history is infused with the intense personal emotion of the artist. He is constantly seeking to express how people repeatedly lose their self-awareness in the course of history, becoming fragments of collective memory.

Influenced by Georg Baselitz, a major figure of Neo-Expressionism, Lu Hang also 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 explores the struggle of the individual through historical symbols, emphasizing human fragility and the ambiguity of self-awareness.

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For example, in works like Gymnastics (2023), the artist uses repetitive actions and uniform postures to depict the solitude and sense of loss individuals feel within a collective. His expressions in this series are more introspective, carrying a subtle touch of personal experience, which adds a strong symbolic sense to his work.

This creative approach, derived from Neo-Expressionism, retains the intense emotional expression of the style while developing a distinct artistic language through its focus on inner themes.

 

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02. 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 behaviors and group activities, he conveys the sense of isolation, loss, and identity anxiety that individuals experience in collective contexts. For example, in his work Gymnastics (2023), the figures are shown performing gymnastics movements in similar postures, with blurred faces and simplified, repetitive forms. This conveys an extremely uniform behavioral model where the individual's identity is completely lost within the collective.

The figures that Lu Hang represents in his works are always marked by a form of symbolic simplification. Faces are blurred, and shapes are often abstract, 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 generally focus on the emotional experience of the individual within the collective. Lüpertz tends to emphasize the relationship between form and color through 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 immerse themselves easily in the scene, feeling discomfort, confusion, and solitude.

In his work Blue Gloves (2021), the gloves symbolize the barriers between individuals and reflect the idea of "rational intrusion" as discussed by Zygmunt Bauman. The blurry imagery further intensifies the sense of individual loss and dehumanization within the collective. These symbols and images resonate with universal emotions, touching on humanity's inherent 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 socialization clashes with the desire for individuality. His works allow viewers to feel both the order and security of collective life while revealing the hidden solitude and anxiety that reside within it. This emotionally charged contradiction gives Lu Hang's works a broad emotional resonance, prompting viewers to reconsider the relationship between the self and the world.

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03. 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). Drawing inspiration from the metaphor of Pavlov's classical conditioning experiment, Lu explores how individuals gradually lose control of their self-perception in a social environment. In the painting, the figures are blurred and simplified, as if the perception and actions of the individual have become mechanical and passive under the influence of external stimuli.

This treatment encourages viewers to reflect: in the face of overwhelming societal and external forces, have people gradually lost control of their own self-awareness?

The distortion of perception reflects not only psychological struggles but also symbolizes the powerlessness and sense of loss of self that individuals experience in the face of external forces. Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage provides an important lens for understanding this work. Lacan argued that an individual's self-recognition forms during the “mirror stage” (a key period in infant development, usually between 6 and 18 months. During this phase, 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 continuously 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.

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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.

​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 limited to simple critiques or resistance to a particular ideology. Rather, through a varied visual language of symbols, figures, and colors, he highlights the emotional dilemmas and cognitive challenges individuals face when confronted with themselves, others, history, and the world. While it carries the intense emotional expression of Expressionism, Lu Hang chooses more inward, emotion-driven themes, rather than directly opposing external societal or historical forces.

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