Lu Yang: The Great Adventure of Material World
Museum of the Moving Image will present The Great Adventure of Material World (2019鈥2020) by Lu Yang, one of the artist鈥檚 most intricate and conceptually ambitious projects. This marks the work鈥檚 first presentation in a U.S. museum.
The work follows an androgynous protagonist, Material World Knight, through distinct episodes that move between conflict, transformation, and renewal, echoing samsara, the ceaseless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth across different planes of existence. The work brings together Buddhist cosmology with visual strategies drawn from video games, anime, and science fiction, reflecting Lu Yang鈥檚 ongoing interest in multiplicity, embodiment, and perceptual change.
At MoMI, visitors can experience the environment as either a projected single-channel film or through interactive gameplay, The Great Adventure of Material World-Game Film (2020), in which Material World Knight is continually confronted with trials that challenge attachment to desire and to the self. The protagonist embarks on a quest to find the Vajra, moving through six planes of the bardo, the transitional state between life, death, and rebirth, populated by characters and themes from Lu Yang鈥檚 earlier works between 2011 and 2019. Rather than offering linear progression or reward, the journey stages repeated patterns of destruction and renewal.
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Museum of the Moving Image will present The Great Adventure of Material World (2019鈥2020) by Lu Yang, one of the artist鈥檚 most intricate and conceptually ambitious projects. This marks the work鈥檚 first presentation in a U.S. museum.
The work follows an androgynous protagonist, Material World Knight, through distinct episodes that move between conflict, transformation, and renewal, echoing samsara, the ceaseless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth across different planes of existence. The work brings together Buddhist cosmology with visual strategies drawn from video games, anime, and science fiction, reflecting Lu Yang鈥檚 ongoing interest in multiplicity, embodiment, and perceptual change.
At MoMI, visitors can experience the environment as either a projected single-channel film or through interactive gameplay, The Great Adventure of Material World-Game Film (2020), in which Material World Knight is continually confronted with trials that challenge attachment to desire and to the self. The protagonist embarks on a quest to find the Vajra, moving through six planes of the bardo, the transitional state between life, death, and rebirth, populated by characters and themes from Lu Yang鈥檚 earlier works between 2011 and 2019. Rather than offering linear progression or reward, the journey stages repeated patterns of destruction and renewal.
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