DE SARTHE is pleased to present Everything is Unreal Until It’s Not, a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Lov-Lov debuting a piercing, semi-organic installation as well as a new body of videos and works on canvas. Within the exhibition, the artist initiates a dialogue via a stark contrast of the idyllic and the unsettling. A study of comforts and catastrophes in the technological era, the presented artworks not only speculate the authenticity of a virtual mirage but allude to the intricate illusions of reality, where everything is unreal until it is not. Lov-Lov’s exhibition opens on March 23rd and runs through April 27th 2024.

Lov-Lov is a fictitious artist identity developed by Lin Jingjing, as an amorphous vessel of art creation. Inspired by the versatility and fluidity of artificial intelligence, Lov-Lov is a self-defined entity free of physical indicators and binary definitions such as age, gender, or ethnicity. An isolation of the transhumanist capabilities enabled by contemporary technology, Lov-Lov aims to be a noumenal mimesis of consciousness that peeks behind the veil of empirical reality.

In the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), German philosopher Immanuel Kant proposed the doctrine of “transcendental idealism,” which suggests that all perceptions of objects and reality are not of the subjects themselves, but only the way they appear to us under the influence of our sensibilities. In other words, reality is but a phenomenon authenticated by subjective feeling. However, this notion has grown far more complex in the contemporary era. With the permeated aid of technology, every aspect of living is rendered a bit sweeter, brighter, and more palatable. Everyone and everything are more beautiful when experienced through the layered bias meticulously manipulated to please, comfort, and impress – and Lov-Lov asks, is this the new reality? Is this what we as a collective have subscribed to believe?  

In the exhibition, Lov-Lov’s works on canvas and video artworks posit a world that embodies the abovementioned philosophy. Within the videos, different humanoids with flawless features and perfectly symmetrical faces appear one after the other in a continuous montage. Less than 60 seconds a pop, adhering to today’s rule of thumb for consuming media, each clip comprises an ambiguous sermon, preaching a vaguely familiar truth. The faces, toying with the effect of ‘The Uncanny Valley,’ are hauntingly seductive yet inexplicably alarming.

The imagery of each video was crafted using modern software and AI, while the scripts were composed using a blend of varied existing materials, mimicking AI generative methods. Targeting the pathos, the words are guided by rhetoric, as if written as a love song. Equivocal yet evocative, the videos are reminiscent of artificial sweetener, and Lov-Lov raises another question: Does it matter if it’s sugar as long as the taste is sweet? In a world of unrealities, is rational discourse still relevant if the empirical narrative is convincing?

An extension of the video works, Lov-Lov’s paintings portray a generic artificial environment that is both fantastical and tranquilizing. Between the strangely scaled architecture and polyhedral trees, solitary figures wander mindlessly as if a gamer’s digital avatar. Offering an alternative landscape to real life, the artworks speak to the evolving trend of technological escapism, where virtual worlds have become not only a temporary getaway, but an immersive oasis that has been embraced as a part of real life. From personal devices to entire cityscapes, there is seemingly a simulated reality masked over the life in which we live, a candy-coating that thickens with every digitally enhanced image and curated feed. Yet, when the blue pill promises hope and indulgence, when sweet lies coddle our need for control, and when illusion distracts our fear of the unknown, we will willing accept because why not? Afterall, everything is only unreal until our minds accept that it is not. 

However, until the day that humanity forfeits the physical body for psychological pleasure, there will be certain events of monumental scale that will crack the mirage. Lov-Lov’s final artwork in the exhibition is an installation that responds to the consequence of living in a prolonged fantasy. In drastic contrast with the video and canvas artworks, the installation artwork “Everything is Unreal Until It’s Not” (2024),  titled same as the exhibition, is composed of an array of knifes and blades suspendedatop a reflective surface centered in the space. Thorny vines appear to vegetate from the handles, reaching toward the ceiling like a spreading nightmare. As if a scene inspired by classic fairytales, the installation conveys a certain banality in its representation of harm and hostility that speaks to our disbelief in utter disasters. In an existence where idealism is perpetually reaffirmed, traumatic events such as war and widespread disease almost register as fiction in our subconscious minds. As catastrophe occurs, we observe from a distance through filtered information that keep the illusion intact. It is only when adversity lands between our faces and our screens, forcing immediate confrontation, that we finally see and say, “Wow, this is unreal.”