Super Sad True Love Story: Ex-Factor
There’s nothing wrong with her except she’s completely fucked up.
— Gary Shteyngart, "Super Sad True Love Story"
Cole Lu’s SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY is just that: taking its title from Gary Shteyngart’s 2010 sci-fi novel — composed primarily of an email exchange between its protagonist and his Asian love-object — Lu’s exhibition sees the dissolution of a past relationship as the embodiment of his star-crossed dystopic future. Here, we find ourselves already and firmly in a world where relationships are experienced less in person than via exchange: of words and commodities, through Googlechat, IKEA order forms, and text-able brand slogans. Meaning is bought and ordered but rarely received, and one’s sense of self is a scripted and curated projection. The most significant loss of all is undoubtably that of true emotion, as we cry through song lyrics and get lost in the pricey mess of too much stuff. Super-sad, indeed: Lu perceives our insatiable desire for contact as a series of misapprehensions, where feelings are best confirmed through accumulations in inboxes, storage facilities and virtual accounts.
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Cole LuDirector
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Cole LuWriter
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Cole LuProducer
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Catalina OuyangKey Cast
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Project Type:Experimental, Short, Web / New Media
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Runtime:15 minutes 52 seconds
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Completion Date:December 5, 2014
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Production Budget:1,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Cole Lu: Super Sad True Love Story (Solo exhibition)fort gondo compound for the arts, St. Louis, MO
December 6, 2014
Cole Lu received her MFA from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis. She received her bachelor's degree in linguistics from Ming Chuan University (Taipei, Taiwan) and associate's degree in Japanese from Jinwen University (Taipei, Taiwan).
Throughout her career, Lu has worked simultaneously as artist and curator. She is known for her varied, multimedia practice, which articulates the subject of a contemporary, fragmented identity. She uses text, photography, sculpture, and video to explore the complex layers of what is lost in the era of digital communication. Her work has been included in exhibitions throughout US, UK, Brazil, Mexico and Taiwan.
Lu's work has been exhibited at CAM Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Pulitzer Arts Foundation; UICA Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; CENTRAL BOOKING ART SPACE, New York, NY; Museo De Arte De Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, and The 2nd annual New Digital Art Biennale- The Wrong (Again).
Her artist book “Smells Like Content” (Endless Edition, NY) is in the collection of MoMA The Museum of Modern Art Library.
She is the Assistant Director at the 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts forum fort gondo compound for the arts