BANK is pleased to participate in the second edition of Paris+ par Art Basel with works by LuYang, Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year.
DOKU combines ancient Buddhist ideas about reincarnation with the latest motion capture technology and live animation. DOKU is LuYang’s latest nonbinary avatar named after the phrase, “Dokusho Dokushi”, meaning “We are born alone, and we die alone.” DOKU appears in six 3-D environments and subsequent films, each representing one of the six realms of rebirth in the Buddhist concept of reincarnation. The central question is whether our lives in the digital realm—made so acutely apparent during the pandemic—have undermined or replaced ancient religious ideologies. LuYang bypasses meditation or more conventional means of improving karma and goes directly to the assistance of scientists and technicians to find new ways to keep the cycle of life going in cyberspace. To create a life-like digital post-human, LuYang collaborates with a team of scientists, 3D animators, and digital technicians using motion capture, detailing the features of his face and facial expressions so that the avatar, DOKU, looks remarkably like its creator. Body movements are also generated through motion capture of dancers and musicians, providing DOKU with a perfect androgynous body. The artist is reborn repeatedly as anonbinary, androgynous, ever-present avatar, capable of talents beyond physical limitations. DOKU appears in six different settings that LuYang creates himself using 3D digital techniques. The same series is currently on view at MUDEC, Milan.
LuYang (b. Shanghai, China, lives in Tokyo, Japan) has held exhibitions at Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2023); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2023); Nxt Museum, Amsterdam (2023); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2023); the 59th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2022); Palais Populaire, Berlin (2022 - 23); ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark (2021–22); Asia Society Museum, New York (2021); San Francisco Art Institute, California (2018); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2011), and Fukuoka Museum of Asian Art, Fukuoka, Japan (2011), among others. In 2022 Lu Yang was selected as Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year; Lu also received the BMW Art Journey Prize (2019), the Asian Cultural Council Grant (2013), and the Focus on Talents Award, Today Art Museum (2011).
