Unlike her previous works, which duel more on the internal, surrealistic human conditions, this new seven-channel work elevates the individual relationship with its socio-political environment to a more recognizable and appealing set of behavioral actions of self-awareness and self-inflicted anguish. Cinema, as a “portrait”, is staged in the fashion of creating a self-image in the politically guarded societal arena of surveillance and social networks. In this media oriented process of constructing a self-image, one experiences over time the loss of one’s, authentic, identity. In that sense Cinema is a “melancholic” portrait.

The video shadows the actions of a woman as she applies make-up in a private dressing room, then enters an empty theater where she is given the freedom to act how she sees suitable and to use the microphone set up for her if she is so inclined. Her behavior becomes more cautious as she leaves the comfort of the dressing table and becomes more aware of the multiple lenses focusing on her. In the middle of the theater, she is facing a large projection screen; four cameras shoot at her simultaneously while she edits and controls what is displayed on the large screen. Is it the nature of the theater as a performance space, the duality of the actress’ role as both the performer and the observer, or the sense of the being watched by an unknown factor, that predetermined the actress’ uneasy and slightly posed movements and behavior? The theater itself as an environment of surveillance reflects upon the socio-political circumstances of contemporary society, especially under the local conditions in China. Is there then a Panopticon effect of control and self-censorship instated? That is all up to the spectator in the role of voyeur or critic to decide…

(From press release of exhibition “Lost Seconds – Fang Lu, at Boers-li Gallery, Beijing, Oct 2013)

Performer: Li Lulu

Live sound performance: Ding Xin, Xue Ting
Post sound design: Ding Xin
Director of Photography: Bai Yuxia
Production Designer: Bai Yuxia
Director Assistance: Li Lisha
Continuity Clerk: Liu Chunye
Photographer Assistance: Zhang Yu
Grip: Liu Cheng Fu, Wang Zhen Fu, Rang Chao Xun
Lighting: Zhang Yinsheng
Gaffer: Wang Wu, Hou Zi, Peng Wenyu
Production Photographer: Wang Jin Ye
Stage Setting: Liang Xiao, Shen Yinan