Lawrence Lek

AIDOL (Game Loading Screen), 2021

Single-channel 4K Video with stereo sound
Duration 01:00 (Looped)

Courtesy of the artist. Kindly lent by Left Gallery and TRANSFER Gallery.

AIDOL (Loading Screen) is derived from my CGI musical feature film AIDOL (2019). Set in the year 2065, the film revolves around Diva, a former superstar who enlists an AI to ghostwrite her comeback performance for the eSports Supershoot Olympics. The film was shown at numerous exhibitions and film festivals and the soundtrack was released on Hyperdub records in 2020, both exhibited in Radar Contemporary's Extension vol III exhibition at ARoS and online. The film features a musical video game in which the player assumes the role of Diva, the superstar singer herself; this artwork is a special widescreen edition of the loading screen.

Lawrence Lek, 2019

Lawrence Lek (Chinese: 陆明龙) is a London-based artist born in 1982. Drawing inspiration from his background in music and architecture, he constructs films, video games, and multimedia installations, inviting us to consider the impact of technology on society. Lek graduated in architecture from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and later the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, and the Cooper Union, New York.

Lek’s solo shows include the Center for Contemporary Arts Prague (CZ), HeK House of Electronic Arts (CH), Sadie Coles HQ (UK), and K11 art space (HK). He participated in group shows at the Nam June Paik Art Centre (KR), Whitechapel Gallery (UK), UCCA (CN), SeMA Biennale Mediacity (KR), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (DE) and ARoS (DK).

His work forms part of the collections at the Guggenheim Museums and Foundation (US), MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art (KR), Museum of London (UK), and the Rubell Family Collection (US). Lek was awarded the 2017 Jerwood/FVU Award, the 2015 Dazed Emerging Artist Award, as well as the Tenderflix/Tenderpixel Artist Video Award.