Laurent Martin “Lo” is a visionary French artist known for his exquisite bamboo sculptures, which seem to float or balance in ethereal elegance. Lo trained as a visual artist in Paris and spent many years as creative director of advertising and fashion before starting his career in art. His passion for bamboo allowed him to travel across Asia, studying traditional techniques using his favorite materials. These experiences shape his unique artistic language, allowing him to turn bamboo into devices that explore the balance of light, form and materiality.
“I fell in love with bamboo when I first encountered it in 1998. Its aristocratic, balance, lightness, lustiness and energy immediately attracted me,” Lo told Observer. “I then spent five years studying it, and in 2004, before 2004 (in the advertising and fashion world) gave up my life to follow the “Ma Route du Bambou”. This route traveled through India, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos to find the origins of bamboo.
“Bamboo gave me the opportunity to respond to my artistic concerns, thus rediscovering balance and meaning in life. Since then, through the ongoing dialogue, I have become stronger and stronger with him.” He has allowed himself to be guided by its reliability and unlimited creative potential.
Apart from its material and spiritual virtues, bamboo is one of the most environmentally friendly plants, thanks to its ultra-fast growth and the way it absorbs carbon dioxide and discharges oxygen at a much faster rate than most trees. In the initial study of the first five years, he had to experiment alone and experience it with its qualities, because the Western world at that time had little cultural connection or interest in bamboo. Over the next 20 years, he traveled continuously around the world, meeting artisans, technicians, architects and great masters of bamboo, and as the materials gained wider recognition, he completed the apprenticeship and consolidated his expertise.
Bamboo embodies seven great virtues – balance, lightness, flexibility, strength, energy, sexiness, and spirituality – which also define humanity. “This is the source of Asian wisdom. It’s not just a material, it’s also a life companion,” Lu said. “In addition to the ancestral techniques I’ve learned and the techniques I’ve recently applied, the emotional and mental allegations of bamboo have completed the conversations I’ve maintained at the seminar every day.”
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“I always pay great attention to the characteristics of the spaces in which the works are installed. They themselves define their own spaces, which include emptiness and fullness, light and shadow, light, motion and stillness.” This interaction of complementary elements is their balance. lo, it is obvious that the space where the sculpture is installed plays a decisive role. More importantly, the shadow cast on the wall adds a fourth dimension – a “calligraphy” reading of his bamboo sculpture.
In his 2024 solo exhibition at Chancery Lane Gallery in Hong Kong, titled “Celestial Equilibrium”, the shadows of his work are projected to the gallery’s white walls in different shapes and occasionally intertwined with each other. This new layer of calligraphy shadow enhances the interaction of tension and movement in large white cube galleries.
Due to his training and artistic concerns, he usually considers himself the heir to mentors and masters rather than being strongly influenced by some individual or style. “I took the first step, without any cultural mention of bamboo. So I developed my own ‘style’ or rather ‘Modus operandi’. This is undoubtedly why my work seems to be interested in Asian audiences because they believe the fusion between Western culture and materials rooted in their own culture without imitating or copying it.” The overall aesthetic of his work stems from his use of a material whose characteristics produce forms naturally found in Asian art and architecture.
Since 2013, Lo has been developing a collection of livable sculptures that define architectural spaces. According to him, these works, called “Energy Domes,” are destined to “clean” the space around us and convert it into an empty area for meditation and relaxation. Lo’s title suggests his artistic intentions, but for these rather abstract sculptures, he leaves the interpretation to the audience. “My work involves senses, not intelligence. It’s kind of like music, and I don’t have to explain anything.”
Lo’s deep grasp of Bamboo’s natural properties, coupled with his exploration of tension, balance and movement, leads to visually striking and spatially profound works. Each sculpture in “Celestial Balance” invites the audience to take a sensory journey, bringing them into the subtle interaction of materials, light and air.
