Book: The Art of Feminism
Edit by TATE
Published by TATE
Xiao Lu’s work “Sperm” on page 238
https://www.sanity.com.au/products/2689697/Art-Of-Feminism-Updated-And-Expanded?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADeX8jIzhItRA74EdNfJJ60rdrQOR&gclid=Cj0KCQiAy8K8BhCZARIsAKJ8sfQId313bKM3N-53h25uPkYtmqPKDsYeBbvExQrxPPQYaCJnQsR6bI0aAtMUEALw_wcB
Image information on this book
Bottom: Xiao Lu, Sperm, 2006
On February 5, 1989, Xiao Lu stood in front of her work Dialogue of opening of China Avant Garde, in Beijing, China. She drew out a gun, and shot life-size photographs of a male/female couple. The exhibition was closed immediately, and she was detained. Later, critics described this work in light of the Tiananmen Square protests of June that year; but Xiao Lu addresses the personal politics of it. Her partner self-aggrandized and betrayed her by claiming the shooting for himself; after they split, a key theme in works by Xiao Lu is a rejection of heteronormative structures. Working with a Western doctor because Chinese women can only get IVF if they are married, She set up a gallery space with clinical refrigeration units, and asked for men to donate sperm for her IVF, making it clear that she wanted no emotional, social, sexual, or other relationship. No one donated sperm. In 2009, she married herself in a performance, Wedding.
