Name: Frank

Age: 29

City: New York

Please introduce yourself. What’s your name? Age? What do you do?

Ah, so many sensitive questions to start with. My name is Wang Ye Feng. Wang is my family name, Ye means career, Feng means harvest. My parents wish I could have a harvest for my career. And then, age: I was born in 1984, so how old is it? 29? Right. 29. And my gender is male.

How long have you been in New York?

I’m always in and out of New York, I come here quite often, whenever needed. I had a solo show here earlier this year so I came for that. This time I’m here for a 3-month artist residency program. They sponsor artists, give them studios to work in. You can have a studio here and make your work, or start to build connections with people. They will arrange some people for you to meet. It’s quite good.

How do you describe what you do?

What do I do? Well, let’s first describe it by major, that might be easier. So, major-wise, I studied sculpture for my undergrad. And my MFA in Chicago was New Media, Art and Technology. They are all fine art studio practice anyway. As for now, it’s mainly New Media Art. But you can’t really call them New Media anymore. For the general public, it's still New Media. I mainly use software to make stuff. People usually consider computer software as a relatively commercial medium, but now we are using it for artistic expression, and to see if this kind of work can be included and discussed in art history. So, mainly I’ve been making museum products.

Museum Products?

Yeah. Right, it may sound a little strange. It is a product. But an art product, not a product in a commercial sense, it’s more about the concept. Yeah, museum product, how come you don’t understand once I change the name? Work, alright. Artwork.

So after graduation you are now working as a professional artist?

Well, I also have other money jobs. Doesn’t matter what you do. You can even work at McDonald’s or KFC, as long as you have a steady income. But of course the majority of your time, you should still spend on making your own work. That’s for sure.

Between balancing art creation and make a living, what kind of other jobs have you had before?

I really wish I had the experience of driving a taxi or washing dishes. Simply put, to work at some tough jobs. But sadly, I have none of those experiences. I really dislike this about my life. I would really love to have that kind of experience.

That’s easy, why don’t you just go and do it?

It’s easy to say that. But now it’s already impossible for me. First, because I don’t have enough time, you know? And then you already have this day job. So the remaining time you have, for sure you will be immersively working in your studio on your artwork. That kind of experience is no longer appropriate at my age now. You can have it in your 20s, but I’m 29 now and turning 30 soon. I no longer have time to do that kind of job. I really wish in my early 20s, when I first came to the US in 2007, I really wish I had done things like that. It will give you a lot of inspiration and can become important material for your art creation.

I think, one’s life shouldn’t be too perfect. To me, my life is relatively… of course I also have encountered many failures. But objectively speaking, it’s not that bad. A lot of the time, I wish I could see different sides of life. You know what I mean? No need to plan everything so well. In fact, if you go wash dishes or drive a taxi, those sorts of things will totally break the rhythm of your life. And your conversations with people, as well as your experiences will be completely different. Could be quite interesting. A friend of mine was doing delivery in Chicago. Once he drove to the black neighborhood, and as soon as he took out the delivery box, his ass was pointed with a gun. His car, wallet and phone were all robbed.

Does he make art?

He now works as a curator and manager of an institution. He’s doing pretty well.

And then? After this experience…

That’s it. He got robbed, and then continued to do food delivery. Personally, I would yearn for this kind of experience. But I don’t have it. This is a shortcoming. These kind of things, people usually only consider the downside of it, no one wants these kind of things to happen to themselves. But actually it can be quite interesting, you know?

Did you work any kind of job when you were back in China?

Back in China, in order to make money, I made many industrial public sculptures. We call it “Veggie Sculpture”, because artists make those kinds of sculpture to earn money and then buy veggies and food. But artwork creation is something else. If you ask me about a job, then that’s mainly it. But it’s not art.

What is your everyday life like?

Nothing special. It’s of no use even if you make a schedule because things will come up and you have to adjust accordingly. Then if you don’t have much business to do outside, you come to the studio, because you have to keep the rhythm of art-making.

What difference do you see between the Chinese art world and the American art world here?

I think it’s not bad in China. Every time I go back, I find it quite lively, since the system there hasn’t quite established yet. But the downside of it is it’s kind of messy. While at the same time, there are a lot of opportunities. A lot of friction, but friction creates heat, you know. So friction creates many interesting things.

One of the biggest problems with the art world here is that its system is too well-developed. A lot of the stuff is systemized. You can’t escape from it whatever you do. If you go to see Cindy Sherman’s solo show at MoMA, you will find she’s a very standardized artist, a very standard contemporary artist. She had done everything that’s supposed to be done, and did it right. From her concept, technique, her way of presentation for the exhibition, her way of expression, the way her work communicates with the audience. What she presents to you is in fact what’s needed in this system. At the same time, if you ask her, she will definitely say that she doesn’t belong to the system. This is a very important rule of the game in contemporary art. But it’s a system. In the US, in the west, this system is very established now. And too many artists know how to play by the rules of the game.

I think the system itself has the ability to self-reflect and realize its problem, but it’s not so easy to break through and make progress. The previous MFA graduation shows here didn’t receive many good reviews and people criticized them a lot. The biggest criticism was that people thought all the students’ work in the show had a quite obvious tendency of seeking gallery representation. Because they all know too well what the gallery wants. So this is a problem. Which means once the system is too established, and all the things are already there at your disposal without effort, then you won’t have much fresh vitality.

Meanwhile, there are many non-western artists, they won’t talk to you about the system or theory. He is just having fun by himself. Pleasure, aggressiveness, right? So it’s quite interesting, this kind of stuff has to come with context.

How do you look at the relationship between art and business?

I think to some extent, art is also a kind of business. If you want to be a successful artist, in fact you also have to be a good businessman, knowing how to market yourself and how to handle relationships with people. Of course that’s kind of an extreme way of thinking. But actually there is nothing wrong about being good at business. People would easily equate it with shallowness, superficiality. But in fact the most superficial thing is also the richest in content. This is quite interesting. But the question is why I didn’t go to do business or something. Because I believe one has only got the time to do one thing well.

It may be possible to manage multiple projects in different fields at the same time, but it is very very difficult be good at all of them. You have to be some sort of genius. It’s unlikely that you can successfully run a big company while at the same time being a successful artist. Even if you turn into an artist through fame brought from other fields, I have to doubt if your work will be any good. Just think about George W. Bush, he’s now painting, will you say his painting is good? So for me, since I’m already making art, I’d better keep on going and focus on this one thing. Meanwhile, maybe go drive a taxi or wash dishes as extra ingredients.  

So now you are living in Bushwick, I heard that it’s the area for young artists who just arrived and wants to make it in New York?

Not necessarily. For sure it’s more experimental or underground over there. Mostly it’s young struggling artists who are living there. But it’s precisely this pain and struggle that gives you fresh feelings about life. It’s less commercial than Chelsea. But it’s a relatively new area. Can’t tell quite yet if it’s going to do well. In fact, it feels almost a bit depressed in recent years.

Do you think young artists in America have less opportunities to get noticed than artists in China?

That’s for sure. It’s definitely hard to come out as an artist in the US. One of the biggest reasons is because the artist population is too intense here. Too many artists, too saturated. The system is very complete, every single category is filled. Although I think this could also be sort of training for the artists. Living in such a mature and saturated environment, you will have to ask yourself everyday how much do you really believe in your art. Your confidence will very easily collapse. That will be the end of it. And I also believe if you are willing to face challenges, then your work definitely shouldn’t be so easily taken by the system. You should constantly attack the system, or make it clueless. Which means you will need extremely strong confidence and patience. In contrast, needless to say, there are relatively many more opportunities in China. We are still fulfilling the gaps and vacancies there to date.

But these opportunities if viewed from an international standard, do you think…?

What is an international standard? International standard is Western discourse. Strong-willed Chinese artists probably don’t care about it at all. Yet many Chinese artists are making contemporary ink painting these days, fuck. I’m not saying there is nothing good in it, but many are using their cultural identity to cater to Western standards.

Many people say contemporary art is from the west, and in recent years the Chinese art system is also developing towards a western system model, don’t you think?

Right, that’s the appearance. This is its whole functioning method. But what’s the essence? When westerners are frowning and thinking about how to surmount the problems of contemporary art, we are still thinking about what indeed is Chinese contemporary art, whether there is contemporary art in China. There are many discussions around it. In fact, if you are powerful enough, no one wants to follow another culture.

But the current situation in China is that the whole contemporary art world is following the direction of western discourse. You have no other way around, right? Who doesn’t want to have solo show at MoMA? Who doesn’t want to show at Guggenheim? If you ask around, one hundred people will say yes. If you let them choose having a solo show at the Shanghai Art Museum or Guggenheim, fuck, these one hundred people, if they vote, all of them will say they want to show at the Guggenheim. Such is culture, and reality also. A very cruel cultural reality.

Interviewed at Sunset Park, Brooklyn. August 14th, 2013