F2 gallery has transformed its Cao Changdi space into a stainless steel wonderland. For those who come out for the Cao Changdi Photo Festival, this exhibition provides an escape from the monotony since F2 is the only gallery in the area that is not showing photography. For this show, Zheng Lu has created large site specific works.

I have always been a fan of Zheng Lu and this exhibition shows his growth since his 2009 show Interpreting Nonexistance.

These works are much larger than the previous exhibition and play more with the concept of past and present. Many of these beautifully crafted works are created from texts of ancient scripts.

Copying and imitation has always held their importance in Chinese history. One would obtain one’s understanding of the classics through repetitive copying of the texts. In these works, Zheng Lu transforms the characters into positive and negative spaces, light and shadow.

The following piece is not inside the show but in F2’s office space. It is a large Mao Coin comprised of the characters used in a letter Mao wrote to his father.

F2 Gallery: Zheng Lu
Cao Changdi Photo Festival