Reuben Wu

Reuben Wu is a multidisciplinary artist who uses technology and the concept of time and space to help tell compelling stories about the world we inhabit. Reuben is also a National Geographic Photographer, and has work held in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the MoMA.

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He is founding member of the band Ladytron, a Global Bran Ambassador for Phase One, and a leading artist in the cryptoart space. His work belongs in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the MoMA. In this interview, we discuss Wu’s series Aeorglyphs, his rockstar roots, and his Earthly art. Please note, this conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

 

Q: How did your casual travel diary photography escalate into becoming your premiere art form?

 

REUBEN WU: As we continued to travel extensively, I began to experiment more and more with my photography– using different cameras, different film, different lenses. When everyone was using DSLRs, I was one of the very few who chose to shoot on film. I started out on digital but got into film because I just loved how weird and kind of ritualistic it was in terms of setting up your camera, loading film, sending the film off, and then scanning negatives. I started thinking about photography as a craft, more than simply photos. I felt that doing photography tapped into the visual art side of me that I felt I needed to revisit. In a way, photography became my new art outlet. I was posting a lot of this stuff online but kind of anonymously because I felt that I needed to keep the two worlds separate – photography and music. It was really great, it was quite refreshing doing it this way. The band then got to a point, about 10 years down the line, where we decided to take a break. One side of me was. thinking, do I go into music and do a solo project? Or do I pursue this dream of mine, this hobby of mine, this passion of mine, and to try and make a living out of photography? I’m not a Plan B kind of guy. So music eventually went out of the window. I realized that my passion to continue music alone wasn’t there, but my passion for photography was.

 

Q: How did you find your way from that decision to shooting commercial photography?

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REUBEN WU: I just continued shooting. I embraced digital photography with all of the new technology that came with it, like video and time lapse. At a point, film photography became limiting to me. It felt like, “Oh, just because this photo was taken on film, it’s got to be good.” Which was kind of a false assumption in my head. Photography is always about the picture. It’s not about the camera, it’s not about the film, it’s not about the process, it’s not even about the journey. When it comes down to it, and what the viewer sees, it’s about the picture– and whether the picture moves you. So I decided to go to digital. For the next few years it was a pretty rocky road of trying to find work and trying to make a living. I had just moved to the States and basically started with nothing. I had a network of friends who I met while I was in the band. Fortunately, some of them were doing cool stuff in advertising.

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Q: Creating art without altering the natural landscape is a novel concept. Can you tell me a bit more about that? How is that possible?

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REUBEN WU: Yes, I go back to the word of this idea of Zero Trace where I’m able to create these interventions without altering, without touching the landscape. It’s kind of like this new form of Land Art. I started using the drone as this kind of flying light beam where the navigation systems enable me to create these geometric shapes in the air. So the circles that you see, that’s actually a semiautomatic maneuver that the drone does, where it orbits around the subject matter. I’m using it to paint a light circle around my subject matter. The idea with Aeroglyphs was to create these very clean geometric shapes and lines above the obscure and chaotic landscapes underneath. It creates a tension. This has been an aesthetic that I’ve been experimenting a lot with. Not just using drones, but also using other methods of light painting. It’s definitely in alignment with my values when I’m in these places. It has been a really cool aesthetic to work with, and it’s something that opens up opportunities for many different things.