At ART021, a Glimpse into the Ultra-Young Wave Shaping Art's Future
BANK presented Wenjue's solo project at ART2021, 2025
1. The exhibition title Choose Your Own Adventure: Inception sounds very RPG-inspired. Are you influenced by such games, and could you share some that have particularly shaped your creative approach?
Wenjue: The title actually comes from the children’s book series by Shannon Gilligan and R.A. Montgomery. Its structure resembles an RPG—you, as the protagonist, make choices that steer the plot into different storylines.
My creative process is like playing a game with the canvas: through the use and combination of materials, the visual outcome shifts completely.
A game that deeply influenced me was Team Fortress 2, which I played in middle school. I even created fan art to trade for in-game items. Though an FPS, it incorporates role-playing and thrives on player community creativity—to this day, items, cosmetics, maps, and promotional animations are often fan-made. A series of abstract animations made in Garry’s Mod, which exaggerate characters in surreal ways, left a strong impression. Looking back, they remind me of artists I admire—Bacon, Messerschmidt, Dana Schutz, and Peter Saul.
2. The three works on view—Artist, Red Dreamer (acg-001), La Révélation, and The Wyrm‘s Drool—draw inspiration from trading card games. Could you discuss, using Artist, Red Dreamer (acg-001) as an example, how the work’s themes connect with its pop-culture presentation?
Wenjue: I’ve always dreamed of creating my own cards. As kids, we’d draw our ideal cards and invent extravagant backstories. Each card would define the character’s world, race, lore, and abilities. This time, I built a system around the art environment I’m part of—an “Artist Card Game” (ACG).
Red Dreamer features two rules: “Once per turn: When a card is removed from the field, draw one card”—symbolizing the cyclical process of creation. “Once per turn during your turn: You may discard one card from the life area; all your characters gain +1000 power”—a metaphor for the “artist’s career,” and a tribute to manga artists I admire who pour their life into their work.
3. Are you familiar with classic tabletop games like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Magic: The Gathering? Do you play them?
Wenjue: I first encountered Yu-Gi-Oh! in elementary school through two anime CDs. The duel between Jonouchi and Yugi left a deep mark. Later, I collected cards with neighborhood kids and played by the anime’s brutal rule: the winner could take one card they wanted from the loser.
I’m fascinated by how trading cards blend text and image. Later, I got into Magic and other TCGs—their diverse art styles, UI designs, and textural effects mesmerize me. I still collect cards I like. As a huge One Piece fan, I now play the One Piece Card Game and recently competed in a Shanghai tournament with over a thousand participants.
4. In your video, you describe an emotional connection to accumulated paint layers, calling them “Baroque pearls.” Could you elaborate on that term and highlight other often-overlooked byproducts or details in your process?
Wenjue: “Baroque” originally described irregular, oddly shaped pearls. I use large amounts of paint, and over time, leftover layers on the palette dry into varied forms—some glossy, others shrunken and condensed. Each “pearl’s” color layers capture a moment from a past work. I collect and inlay them into new pieces.
During a residency, I once discovered heaps of discarded paint left by a previous artist—like mini-mountains waiting to be mined. I’ve also incorporated tin seals from paint tubes and leftover candy wrappers into paintings.
5. What does your typical creative process look like? Do you always start with a specific theme?
Wenjue: I begin with a broad theme, which later spawns smaller sub-themes. These can evolve during creation and sometimes converge into entirely new themes—like discovering side quests while doing a main quest in a game, which then unlock a new main storyline.
6. Let’s talk about The World. The painting brings together symbols from different cultures. Why did you choose this title?
Wenjue: The title comes from Dio’s Stand ability in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure—it stops time. The work depicts the most intense moment of a game unfolding in two parallel worlds, frozen in that instant. Characters from different worlds gaze at this suspended moment, while under the table, a mysterious foot is about to trigger a mechanism…
7. What are your hopes for your participation in ART021 Shanghai? What do you most wish to gain from it?
Wenjue: I want my works to become pathways for viewers into other worlds. When someone stands before a piece, I hope they step into the “game world” I’ve built—and feel that sense of play, openness, and invitation.
For me, ART021 is a vast field of energy. What I hope to gain most is connection and feedback—what associations my work sparks in others. Those responses will become invaluable energy for my next “expedition.”
