Cole Lu SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY December 6, 2014 -‐ January 3, 2015 (Thursday & Saturday 12-‐4pm) Opening reception Saturday, December 6, 7-‐10 PM at beverly (3155 Cherokee Street, St. Louis, MO 63118) There’s nothing wrong with her except she’s completely fucked up. — Gary Shteyngart, "Super Sad True Love Story" Cole Lu’s SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY is just that: taking its title from Gary Shteyngart’s 2010 sci-‐fi novel — composed primarily of an email exchange between its protagonist and his Asian love-‐object — Lu’s exhibition sees the dissolution of a past relationship as the embodiment of his star-‐crossed dystopic future. Here, we find ourselves already and firmly in a world where relationships are experienced less in person than via exchange: of words and commodities, through Googlechat, IKEA order forms, and text-‐able brand slogans. Meaning is bought and ordered but rarely received, and one’s sense of self is a scripted and curated projection. The most significant loss of all is undoubtably that of true emotion, as we cry through song lyrics and get lost in the pricey mess of too much stuff. Super-‐sad, indeed: Lu perceives our insatiable desire for contact as a series of misapprehensions, where feelings are best confirmed through accumulations in inboxes, storage facilities and virtual accounts.
Checklist:
1. CURRENTLY UN-‐ABLE TO GIVE A FUCK, 2014 Light-‐box, C-‐print, 30” x 24”, dimensions may vary.
2. THIS IS WHERE YOU LEAVE YOUR ÄPPÄRÄT, WIRELESS, 2014 Add-‐on carrel, vinyl text, 24“ x 31.2“ x 45.8“.
3. SOLUTION 101: LOVE/FUCK (INTERCHANGEABLE), 2014 Vinyl wall text, dimensions may vary.
4. INTIMACY/ SUMMER AS VERB, NEW YORK, 2014 C-‐print, 16” x 20”, the last letter from Lulu in Jean-‐Paul Sartre’s “Intimacy” (1972), recite with brown crayon on letter size paper, folded and unfolded, 100 times. Composed at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, NYC. July 19, 2014.
5. CRYING HELMET, FULLY STOCKED, 2014 Head guard, tissue paper holder, tissue papers, kitchen cart.
6. IMPERCEPT-‐IBLE STATE THAT MAY OR MAY NOT RESOLVE OVER TIME, 2014 K-‐cup coffee maker, toy gun, silver paint, Ikea LACK coffee table.
7. EX-‐FACTOR, 2014 Skype video messages, single channel video, color sound, 15:53 minutes. iMessage extraction from L. Liu to Cole Lu, performed by Catalina Ouyang. Watch video here: http://vimeo.com/colelu/exfactor password: supersad
Super Sad True Love Story (2014) by Cole Lu www.cole-‐lu.com