Cole Lu/ Augusta Prima
November 17, 2018 - January 14, 2019
77 Mulberry
77 Mulberry St. #12
(4th floor)
New York, NY 10013
New York, NY 10013
you said it’s just a glance behind, swallowing grunt, the heap an
ark afloat in short-breathed staircase (Time Machine Modulus), 2018. Amprobe recorder, lumber,
metal, birch, helmet, binoculars, lightbox, transparent sheet, blind embossment. 35 x 24 x 38 in/ 88.9 x 60.96 x 96.52 cm
Below the map was written a single sentence (Der Hängende Garten
von Babylon), 2018. Aqua Resin, fiberglass. 30 x 26 in/ 76.2 x 66.04 cm
Augusta Prima
by Cole Lu
Augusta opened the bundle and looked at the little locket. Some
images appeared in her mind: Her first croquet game. The corpse in the grey
suit. The watch. The page who told her about time. A thirst to know how it
worked. What is time? she wrote under the first note. Is it here?
—Karin Tidbeck, Augusta Prima1
—Karin Tidbeck, Augusta Prima1
77 Mulberry is pleased to present Augusta Prima, a solo exhibition
by Cole Lu. Taking its title from Karin Tidbeck’s short story, which appears in
Weird Tales2, Lu has
constructed decisive moments for the possibility of time travel. Intending to
coagulate this speculation of the unknown, the exhibition presents an
installation that delves into metaphorical and literal darkness.
Comprised of a darkroom’s adumbration, the installation consists
of a time machine that is activated by the act of reading, and it is made with
a wired modular, a welded seat, a light box, a helmet, a pair of binoculars,
and a book stand with braille embossment. The mundane dialogue composed by the
erasure on the light box creates a time and/or place not present, which carries
the consistent mark of Lu’s natural affection for earnestness and satire.
Alongside the installation is a bas-relief that renders an imaginary scene of
the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the only one of the Seven Wonders whose
location has not been established, because there are no reference texts or
definitive archaeological evidences of its site. Like a pair of solid objects
on a fictional table, the sculptures are ceaselessly attempting to measure the
distance between reality and representation.
An artist book will also be launching during the exhibition,
printed and published by Endless Editions, New York. The risograph publication
consists of digital sketches and a poem of erasure by Cole Lu from Inferno, the
first part of Dante Alighieri's Divine
Comedy (1320), translated by Mary Jo Bang (2013)3.
__________
1 Karin Tidbeck, “Augusta Prima”, Weird Tales, #357, February
2011
2 Karin Tidbeck, “Augusta Prima”, Weird Tales, #357, February
2011
3 Dante Alighieri (Author), Henrik Drescher (Illustrator), Mary Jo Bang (Translator), Inferno: A New Translation, Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2013
3 Dante Alighieri (Author), Henrik Drescher (Illustrator), Mary Jo Bang (Translator), Inferno: A New Translation, Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2013