Lotus Kang at the Venice Biennale

Lotus Kang’s installation at Bvlgari’s Venice Biennale pavilion explores themes of desire, liminality, and material transformation. She utilizes industrial materials like super joists, rubber, and tarp, alongside organic elements such as light-sensitive film and plaster casts of baby birds. The pavilion’s façade features 35mm unfixed film shot in Korean mudflats, creating a dynamic interplay of light and shadow that changes with the time of day. Inside, sculptures wrapped in industrial materials and cast-aluminum works serve as screens for the filtered light, embodying the fluidity and multiplicity inherent in desire. (theartnewspaper.com)

Kang’s exploration of liminality and the interplay between organic and industrial materials resonates with several digital artworks that delve into similar themes. For instance, “The Art of Light Touches” by Yuri_jjjj presents a dimly lit interior where diffused light streams through translucent blinds, casting elongated patterns of light and shadow. The room’s earthy tones and subtle highlights create a balanced yet subdued contrast, emphasizing the interplay between light and space. This mirrors Kang’s use of light-sensitive film to create dynamic visual experiences that change with natural light, highlighting the transient and permeable nature of both works.

Similarly, “Dream of Chill” by Ed_Marola features a bed placed outdoors amidst a lush forest, with a ghostly figure interacting with a computer. The pixel art style and GIF animation suggest dynamic elements, creating a surreal atmosphere that blurs the boundaries between technology and nature. This juxtaposition aligns with Kang’s combination of industrial materials and organic forms, both exploring the merging of disparate elements to evoke a sense of liminality and the unfixed nature of identity and space.

In “The Coal” by ratcloaksy, a surreal industrial machine is flanked by two figures, set against an expansive field and sky. The use of earth tones and the melting human forms suggest a critique of industrialization and its impact on human identity. Kang’s work similarly employs industrial materials to create organic forms, questioning the boundaries between the mechanical and the natural, and reflecting on the fragility and transformation inherent in both.

Lastly, “Forbidden Flowers” by Negin Ehtesabian Lichty presents a bulbous, organic form against a solid blue background, using luminous shades of gold and red to create a striking contrast. The glossy, reflective surface suggests themes of hidden beauty and personal acceptance, addressing the tension between societal constraints and self-acceptance. This aligns with Kang’s exploration of desire and loss, where the pursuit of something unattainable embodies both the intensity of longing and the inherent aspect of loss in that pursuit.

Through these comparisons, it becomes evident that both Kang’s installation and these digital artworks engage with themes of liminality, the merging of organic and industrial elements, and the exploration of desire and identity. They challenge fixed meanings and encourage viewers to contemplate the fluid and unfixed nature of existence, highlighting the multiplicity and permeability inherent in both the physical and digital realms.

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References

Source Article

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/07/lotus-kang-channels-desire-into-bvlgaris-venice-biennale-pavilion

Artworks

1. “The art of light touches” by Yuri_jjjj
   

   

   
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2. “Dream of chill” by Ed_Marola
   

   

   
   GIF, 2024

3. “The Coal” by ratcloaksy
   

   

   
   4000 x 3250 pxl digital brushes PhS

4. “Th3 Myth” by Daniel myth
   

   

   
   mito

5. “Forbidden Flowers” by Museum of Wild & Newfangled Art
   

   

   
   `Artist: Negin Ehtesabian Lichty

   Multidisciplinary artist & illustrator, born in Tehran/Iran. Exploring identity, storytelling, cultural archetypes, intercultural, social and political matters, human nature and psychology through various experimental techniques and disciplines. BA in Visual Communication, the University of Tehran (Fine art faculty, Pardis), Animation, the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, UK

   This series of work is to accept and celebrate the private part of the body that has been always suppressed by society norms and religions during the centuries. But it also refers to embrace our bodies as a symbol to embrace the whole of us as a person, with our good and bad, beautiful and ugly parts, as the society norms has described, otherwise it is all one coherent being, we should appreciate.

   This artwork was exhibited in the mowna x TS - Wild & Newfangled Techspressionism exhibition, from October 3, 2024 through January 26, 2025 at mowna.org. 70% of the sale will pay the artist for their work, with the remaining 30% funding the museum.`

6. “overflow” by BlotterNFT
   

   

   
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Keywords

liminal, porous, permeable, undulating, organic, industrial, fragile, desperate, overlapping, merging, multiplicity, unfixed, light-sensitive, tanned, crimson, pink, yellow, glistening, rippling, dark, light-absorbing, dense, alive, void-like, desire, loss