At ShanghART Gallery in Shanghai, Lu Yu turns art into a kind of epidemiological laboratory. The Chinese artist presents more than twenty works - including installations, sculptures, and wall pieces - that explore the “pathologies” of contemporary society. Borrowing methods from epidemiology, Lu Yu examines how discipline and power infiltrate everyday life, becoming internalized behaviors that spread and evolve collectively, generating symptoms, complications, and possible remedies. The four series on view - Discipline in the Name of Salvation, Gentian Violet, Unwitting Instruments, and Synesthesia - move between biology and culture, evoking both primal instinct and social intuition. Fragments of skin marked with red checks, sutured wounds, or slaughtered animal bodies coexist with familiar symbols such as red envelopes or lottery tickets, creating a visual language that unsettles and provokes reflection. Rather than offering simple answers, the exhibition proposes a conceptual framework that urges viewers to reconsider the relationship between individuals and rules, questioning how one can preserve awareness and independence within a present shaped by order and invisible control.
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