The ontological distance between body and flow of data has become minimal for Lu Yang, whose recent videos can be said to be technologically sophisticated Buddhist agitprop. The artist’s exhibition at Amant, ‘DOKU! DOKU! DOKU!: samsara.exe’, presents three videos – made with motion capture, 3D animation, game engines and artificial intelligence – that stage various timelines, scenarios and scenographies for Lu Yang’s digital avatar, DOKU, who, after much indulgence, realizes that Buddhist truths lie beyond the world of appearances, and embodiment, even when assisted by advanced technology, is ultimately frivolous.
The single-channel videos DOKU the Self (2022) and DOKU the Flow (2024) play on LED wall panels installed in a deserted garden scene. The latter is flanked by Galsang Aspiration Prayer (Dzogchen Pema Tashi Rinpoche) (2024): seven suspended strips of Xuan paper featuring prayers for the protection of all sentient beings, written in Tibetan calligraphy by Lu Yang’s spiritual teacher. DOKU the Self begins with a spell caster cursing human civilization from mountaintops formed by bodies that have passed through relentless cycles of reincarnation. As the world collapses under his incantation, DOKU, whose face crudely approximates the artist’s, races over corpses and architectural ruins – and then wakes up on a plane. Upon realizing the apocalypse was a dream, he contemplates the porous boundary between truth and fiction, subject and object, life and death, only to meet his demise as the plane crashes.
