Bright colours, exaggerated features, high-frequency music, whimsical dances, and absurd landscapes—Lu Yang’s work is striking in every sense. Plunged into his digital realm, we are invited to rethink our very existence. Lu Yang's artworks and performances are always characterised by an undercurrent of magnetic tension, revealing an entanglement between science and Buddhism, with the search for the ultimate answer predicated on this erasure of the boundaries between them. Here, Lu Yang shares how he gets inspiration from Buddhism and neuroscience.
Q: Why do you use your own likeness in your works and performances?
A: In Buddhism, there is a practice called white bone meditation, which is the visualisation of your own body or corpse. I applied this practice to my work, so that I am not only creating art but also practising spirituality. In fact, while creating my work, I am also dismantling and destroying my own body in order to analyse it from different angles. In doing so, it allows me to objectively recognise the body as a tool.
Q: Are the frequent references to the body, pain, and death in your work also influenced by Buddhist culture?
A: Yes. The Four Noble Truths in Buddhism are dukkha (suffering), samudāya (the origin of suffering), nirodha (the cessation of suffering), and magga (the path to the cessation of suffering). The first is suffering, which comes from our belief that everything is real. At the same time, death and suffering are relatively taboo subjects in our society, even though there is no need to avoid these subjects. What I do is simply repackage these matters in a cool and flashy manner to draw people in, revealing issues that we must face as living beings. If you never present or discuss these topics, people won’t think about them, which is where I believe my work comes in.
Q: Why do you present seemingly opposing elements such as neuroscience and Buddhism together in your work?
A: To break boundaries. Many questions cannot be explained or understood from a single point of view, yet humans are so keen on categorising and separating everything. However, when you explore a subject, you must break all boundaries. You can take these questions of neuroscience and explore them alongside religious ideas, because they provide different perspectives and conclusions. To think, you must first abandon all labels, or you will be forever trapped in a cage.
‘LuYang Illusory World’ is part of M+’s inaugural Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival.
鮮亮的色彩、誇張的面貌、高頻的音樂、詼諧的舞姿、荒誕的場景⋯⋯這是陸揚引人注目的策略，而當進一步陷落於陸揚打造的數碼空間時，人們將開始思考自己的存在。陸揚的藝術作品和表演總是蘊蓄著一個張力十足的磁場——科學和佛學相互扭結，而探求終極答案的前提正是要抹除各個領域之間的邊界。以下是陸揚從佛教哲學文化與腦神經科學知識獲取創作靈感的分享。
問：為什麼選擇在作品和表演中使用自己本人的形象？
答：在佛教中有一種修行方式叫「白骨觀」，也就是觀想自己的身體或屍體。我把這個方式用了在作品裏面，所以說我不僅是在做作品，也是在修行。我其實是在一邊做作品，一邊拆解和摧毀自己的肉體去作多角度剖析。我覺得這樣能夠更客觀地認識到身體就是一個工具。
問：所以在作品中頻繁提及身體、痛苦和死亡，也有受到佛教文化的影響嗎？
答：有的，佛陀四諦為苦集滅道，第一個問題就是苦，而苦的原因是因為我們認為一切都是真實的。同時，死亡、痛苦這些在社會文化中是比較禁忌的，但其實沒有必要去迴避。我只是把它們包裝一下，使問題以一種酷炫的形式把人給勾進來。但實際上這些「禁忌」可以引申到很多作為一個生命體存在所要面對的事。如果說你一直不去展示、不去討論的話，大家都不會作更多思考，所以我覺得我的作品需要去做一些這樣的工作。
問：為什麼在作品中同時呈現腦科學、佛教這種看似對立的元素？
答：打破界限。因為很多問題無法從單一的角度去解釋，但人類又熱衷於劃分學科和界限。而當你要去探索一件事情時，你要打破所有界限。你可以把這些神經科學探索的問題和宗教裏面的主張放在一起去感受，因為它們的觀點和結論都是不一樣的。想要思考，就先要拋棄標簽，如果帶著標簽，你永遠都在籠子裏面。
《陸揚欺誑世界》為 M+首屆「亞洲前衛電影節」的節目之一。
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