2025 「暮鼓晨钟 · 四方」SUNSET DRUM SUNRISE BELL: IV Quadrate
Sunset Drum Sunrise Bell·IV Quadrate
TANK Shanghai, Shanghai, China 2025
My creative practice has long been shaped by elements of modern civilisation: industry, digital art, and electronic music. After spending many years in the United Kingdom, I returned to my homeland and relocated to Shanghai. This decision unexpectedly led to a renewed encounter with traditional Chinese culture. With a sense of estrangement—finding both the familiar and strange—I found my vision and spirit profoundly altered.
In the latest chapter of "SUNSET DRUM SUNRISE BELL", titled "IV Quadrate", I returned to the most fundamental way of gathering inspiration: traveling to factories and to deserted ancient temples, using my camera and recording equipment to engage with these spaces, attuning to the energy of religious iconography. The remnants of the old electronics industry, abandoned components, obsolete blueprints, the mechanical rhythms of automated production, converge with the aesthetics, sounds, and ritual instruments of Buddhism and Daoism. Sound gives shape to form; brushstrokes summon melody. I seek to explore a "figurative abstraction rooted in Chinese tradition" —where collisions of media activate sensory instinct and create an immersive field of experience. Rather than a finished work, this project is better understood as a personal baptism or an introspective journey articulated through the act of making.
This is a quiet offering.
Temples visited and filmed:
Wuyue Temple, Taifu Guan, Zishou Temple, Zhenguo Temple, Shuanglin Temple, Xiaoxitian, Guangsheng Temple, Fusheng Temple, Baitai Temple, Longxing Temple, Sanguan Temple, Huguo Shanqing Temple, Tiefo Temple, Chongqing Temple, Qinglian Temple, Yuhuang Temple, Guandi Temple, Tiantai An, Guanyin Tang, Xiahuo Huguo Lingkuang Wang Temple.
Factories featured:
NIO Hefei New Energy Vehicle Factory
Foshan Nanhai Anfeng Technology Co., Ltd.
Sunset Drum Sunrise Bell·IV Quadrate ｜Special Presentation
Guang’er Warehouse, Shanghai, China 2025
In Lu Sisi’s 「SUNSET DRUM SUNRISE BELL」 series, he sustains his exploration of the path integrating traditional culture and contemporary industrial elements. Fascinated by ancient divine statues and the precision of contemporary industry, Lu does not view these two as opposites. Just as ancient craftsmen created statues with rulers as aids, he seeks a balance between extreme control and individual inspiration, conveying the inquiry into the essence of culture and creation in the digital age.
The core video works in this exhibition largely present the eyes of ancient statues, using gaze to guide the audience into an "inside-out" inward exploration. The three installation works exhibited alongside bring the spiritual connotations embodied by ancient divine statues into collision with the rational measurements symbolised by the standardised tool "ruler," building a bridge between concrete symbols and abstract perceptions.
Lu Sisi has collaborated with Delta Group to custom-design an 8K ultra-high definition projection solution specifically for this exhibition. Through ultra-high-definition resolution projection, it presents the balance between technology and art, pursuing the ultimate experience of visual art.
