LuLu Meng

Untitled (Anomaly 1982-2021)

2021

11.5"x7.5"x4"

Vellum, LEDs, Arduino, wood

Fair market value: $1200

Meng transformed data from NASA GISS Surface Temperature Analysis to create a graph which illustrates the global temperature anomaly in the past forty years, compared to the average temperature from 1882-1982.

Data was turned into a digital graph. Each line represents the increase of temperature in the past 40 years with a 5 years interval, eg. 1980 (the lowest line), 1985..., 2020. The graph was drawn on the vellum. Then she tore the vellum to create the physical line. Nine layers of vellum with torn lines stacked up to create a landscape-like image. The programmed LEDs light turns on and off to backlit the vellum layers. When the light is off, some information is hidden. When light is on or during the fading in/out phase, information is blurrily revealed.

On the personal level in everyday life, Meng tries to reduce her carbon footprint as much as she can. At one point, she was shocked by how much waste she had created when she prepared an exhibition in 2019. Meng started to experiment with methods to make artwork with as minimal carbon footprints as possible considering her practice of making objects and installation.

With this particular work, she intends to make a visually attractive object which carries information of the unfortunate facts caused by human activities.

Lulu Meng questions what it is to be an individual living in modern society and what connects people. Switching career path from chemical engineering to costume design, having lived and worked in different cities and countries, Meng currently lives and works in New York City as an artist. Through her conceptual-based practice, Meng actualizes her reflection toward the push and pull between an individual's tendency to be unique and the coexisting longing to belong to a community.

Her recent exhibitions include Sentiment, SFA Projects, New York, NY (2021); Windows to the World, CADAF Art Fair (2020); Real Fairy Tale, Spring Break Art Show, New York, NY (2019); Urban Tribes- Urban Caravan, New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn, New York (2019); Real Fairy Tale, Gallery MoMo, Tokyo, Japan (2019); Totality, Bamboo Garden, New York, New York (2019); Tailbone, 47 Canal Gallery, New York, NY (2018); WUNDERKAMMER, Museo El Castillo, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia (2018); Bronx Calling: The fourth AIM Biennial, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2017). Her recent residencies and awards include Sculpture Space, Utica, NY (2022-upcoming); Anaba Project (2021); mhPROJECT nyc (2019); Curatorial Program for Research (CPR), New York, NY (2019). Meng holds a BA in Drama and Theater from National Taiwan University and an MFA in Photography, video and related media from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Meng is participating in Selects-@-CREATE, an exhibition curated by Daniel Aycock and Kathleen Vance. This exhibit is presented by Open Source Gallery in collaboration with CREATE. Selects-@-CREATE opens on November 20, 2021 and is on view in Catskill, NY through January 16, 2022