Yao Lu: New Landscapes

Not many words from me lately. It has been a bit of a rough week, but here I am thinking about art again.
I stumbled upon this artist at the Bruce Silverstein gallery lately.
At first I did not make a note of this picture, from the distance you only think oh! well, another picturesque chinese landscape...
But as soon as you close in on it you feel hit by a wake up call to some scary reality.
The picture is like a dream that has fallen apart with a world full of trash. In the middle of the rubble you see a small pearl of a temple. It is the first you see and the last you leave with. Is there hope?
There was only one of his chromogenic prints on view at the Gallery, and his play on past and present made me crave more. The title is almost poetic;

"New Landscape Part 2 - YLO3 View of the autumn Mountains in the Distance" (2008)


The Bejing artist Yao Lu (born 1967)  is what I would call a real ARTECO artist.

I will end this little art spotlight with his own words:

"Today China is developing dramatically and many things are under constant construction. Meanwhile many things have disappeared and continue to disappear. The rubbish dumps covered with the 'shield', a green netting, are a ubiquitous phenomenon in China.”