Medusas

Jakčev dom
opening: tuesday, 23rd of July, @ 19.30

www.99medusas.com
www.dolmuzej.com/si/muzej/jakac

Medusa - A jellyfish, otherwise known as a cnidarian, a radially symmetrical invertebrate animal. Beneath its deceivingly simple and seductive exterior lies a remarkably sophisticated collection of genes, including many that give rise to humans' complex anatomy. This mysterious sea creature has become a model for studying evolution in recent years.
In 2006, giant medusas called Nomura's jellyfish, with diameters up to 2 meters and weighing up to 200 kg, invaded the fishing waters of Japan and created much havoc for the fishing industry. Not only did these giants compete with the fishermen for fish in the sea, they were also poisoning the fish and entangling themselves in fishing nets. This extraordinary phenomenon has prompted authorities to find ways to get rid of these destructive animals by turning them into food and fertilizer. Some scientists are convinced that warmer and less oxygenated waters due to pollution have helped increase the jellyfish's population boom. Further studies have revealed that this mysterious sea creature may hold one of the keys to successful evolution during these drastic environmental changes.
Similar to the medusa and its remarkable mutation, I find my identity being transformed in many ways through my transient existence. In the last 30 years, I have moved and lived in three different continents for economic and political reasons. I have developed a heightened sense of "rootlessness" and loss of my origins and traditional values. Like me, other individuals of this age of globalization are also going through this feeling of "paranoia"; of having "no place to call home". Born into this nomadic existence, this growing "hybrid generation" of "new nomads" have transformed themselves to meet their own individual needs and the needs of the world's sociopolitical economy. We have become very "complex and complexed" super-individuals; flexible, mobile, fast, multicultural, multitask oriented, multitalented, multilingual ... Some of us have also become insecure, confused, negative, cynical, nihilistic, depressive ...
There are even others who have not adapted at all to such a fast- paced world. In this case these individuals become schizophrenic, destructive and even suicidal. Globalism being advantageous for some individuals and disadvantageous for others have also affected the environment. While Medusa the jellyfish has flourished as a species in hostile conditions like global-warming and polluted seas, many other species have suffered and been threatened to extinction.
My series, "Medusas", is a study of the last 20 years made on individuals and how they have adapted to this world's recent changes. In photographing myself and others, I am seeking to re-discover roots and origins for this hybrid generation. Furthermore, beyond these roots and origins which we call our family, social, racial, political, cultural, religious, and economic history, there exists something deeper and unchanging: the very "essence of our being". This "essential root" links our destinies together and may possibly be the first step to conquering our "spiritual lostness".
Ultimately, "Medusas" is about the miraculous and tragic aspect of evolution. Whether it is provoked by man or nature, we continue to transform for the better and worse simultaneously. Whether by individual or global actions, we are in a constant state of change for the stronger or the weaker. In this constant duality which leads more often than not to confusion, I hope to find the "essential" that ends this contradiction.
Medusa the jellyfish has become a metaphor for the trials, errors, and growing pains of mankind. Seen as an omen predicting the future of our planet, the stinging carnivorous jellyfish may hold the "key" to understanding evolution and alert us to the earth's environmental problems. Similarly, our super-individuals' medusa-like transformations signify the "loss of self" in the struggle to keep up with this early 21st century's erratic economic flux. Our "Medusas" are courageous beings surviving brilliantly, except when they don't.
Diana Lui

about author:
Malaysian of Chinese origin, artist-photographer-filmmaker Diana Lui has been living in Paris for the last 15 years. A graduate of the famous Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, she moved to Europe in 1993 after spending 12 years in the United States.
Diana Lui has been working between Europe, North Africa, the United States and Asia for the last 20 years. A master with the 8x10 inch view camera, Diana Lui develops long term photographic and artistic projects over several years. Intimate Portraits, a project on today's »hybrid generation of new nomads who have lost their roots and origins due to the onslaught of globalism« was initiated 20 years ago and continues to develop to this day.
Her latest project explores the veil and its universal semantics in North Africa. She is currently preparing a project on Tunisia which will be exhibited at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris in 2014. Lui's monumental portraits of people, landscapes and trees have been shown in some of the most prestigious museums in the world - Guangdong Museum of Art, Shanghai Art Museum, Fototeca de Monterrey in Mexico, Museo de Bellas Artes Caracas in Venezuela, Musée de la Photographie de Charleroi, etc.
Diana Lui is winner of several awards: Bourse du Talent and Kodak Critic's Award in Paris, winner of Prix National Photographie Ouverte du Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi in Belgium and finalist for the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie in Paris.

Diana Lui's work is present in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions such as:
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
Guangdong Museum of Art, China
Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi, Belgium
Fototeca de Monterrey, Mexico
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela

opening times:
23rd of July - 17th of August: tue - sat: 9.00 - 17.00