Lu Jun is an artist who has long been living in Zhuhai, a coastal city in southern China. Although he has been in the field for years with camera as his artistic tool to express himself, we feel it really hard to identify him with photography because he has been, led by his unique concept of artistic viewpoint, working hard to showcase audiences an unusual vision of his works from a bizarre perspective. From the very beginning of his work, he just discarded the nature of photography which reflects what exactly exists. However, he has never been out touch with photography, so it is hard to categorize him anyway. When the photography world moved into top gear, he relentlessly held himself aloof from others by conducting his own experiment such as posing a peeled frog to make a visually horrified sensation. Later on, as photographic technique revolutionized, traditional photography was somehow replaced by digital photography which has dominated the arena, while only old-fashioned photographers still fiddled with films developed in chemical solutions.

Lu Jun in Exhibition

　　An inevitable consequence of digital photography is that it has become such as a commonplace to take photos. The techniques of traditional photography are no long regarded as a secret. Anyone can become a photographer at any time if he/she wishes. On the other hand, the true feelings that used to be evoked by the on-the-spot photography have all gone. Instead, the digital technology has taken in its place creating one after another life-like images, which has made using traditional photography embarrassing.

　　It is interesting that out of instinct, Lu Jun discovered that it was not only photography that had been toppled down, but also some other art forms, such as paintings, and especially ink & water paintings which were doomed. He happened to find the visual presentation render exactly the same effect as ink & water does when drops of ink spread and permeate under water, which has amazed him. Originally, it was such a perfect combination of paper, brush, ink and water conveying the essence of the traditional Chinese ink and water paintings. But through the physical technique, Lu Jun showed us the superficially fine quality of the same effect which is equivalent to the traditional one. He caught the images of real ink permeating in real water by digital photography thus, miraculously, creating an artistic style. The style is created, but not depicted, in the traditional way. Therefore, it is both a pioneer work undertaken and an unprecedented discovery as well. The subversion has become a style, with the substance of water and ink exerting an impact upon our vision, but not the vision itself.

　　I am wondering how far he may go along the path of digital ink & water paintings. However it is not important, what really counts is that Lu Jun’s experiment reminds us what digitalization means nowadays as it has become a major means of visual presentation. You may have more than one answer, but it doesn’t hurt to have his as one of the answers.

Yang Xiaoyan

Qi Fu Xin Cun, Guangzhou

Sept. 10th, 2010

作者：杨小彦