Lynn Lu's "Being in Love is Like Feeling the Sun From Both Sides"
When: Performance 1:30-3:30 p.m., with an artist talk to follow
Where: Vanderbilt's Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy
Lynn Lu's "Being in Love is Like Feeling the Sun From Both Sides" might be the most compelling conceptual piece of the season. Lu has been collecting real-life love stories from students, and while she hasn't directly addressed how this specific performance will unfold, details about the piece as it was performed in Finland are captivating: She hired a local actor to assist her, and both of them committed each love story to memory. Then, standing between two sunlamps, both women simultaneously whispered the stories into the ears of individual audience members. "Each participant was bombarded with two different and equally captivating true love stories in each ear," said Lu, "whilst being roasted by the 'suns' from all sides."
For the romantics among us, the effects of such bombardment will likely be like rolling around in a field with an armful of kittens. But I'm more interested in how it will be received by the lonely and the cynical — will it melt their hearts through osmosis, or will the blazing sunlamps and gushing romance give them nausea? Either way, this simple idea is bound to get a profound reaction.
