Daily Inspiration: Meet Wenjue Lu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wenjue Lu.

Hi Wenjue, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Studio Wenjüe Lu is a multi-disciplinary venture co-founded by myself (Wenjue Lu) and Michael (Chufeng Fang) in 2020. The studio emerged as a response to the relentless pace of modern life, seeking to infuse a sense of “slowness” and authenticity into the creative realm.

I was born in Beijing, China, a fashion design graduate from Parsons School of Design. My partner, Chufeng Fang(b. 1998), was born in Jieyang, China, with a background in media, culture, and communication from NYU. With a deep-rooted desire for change, together, we initiated the studio in response to the wastefulness and unethical practices prevalent in the fashion industry as well as to the commercialization of creativity, elitism, and the prioritization of profit over artistic integrity in the world of art. An open exploration to slow down the world through artistic expression.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Studio Wenjüe Lu was birthed out of necessity when it landed in the contemporary creative landscape, navigating the uncharted territory between the worlds of fine art and fashion while deliberately shunning confinement within either. This audacious positioning arises from a keen awareness of the prevailing socio-political and economic currents that have infiltrated both realms with the contagion of materialism, consumerism, artificially generated trends, and power-driven aesthetics. In this age of vulnerability to post-capitalistic forces, Studio Wenjüe Lu finds its profound raison d’être—to carve out a space within the interstices, where the confines of convention and the restraints of the status quo can be questioned and ultimately transcended. The studio’s purpose is nothing short of crafting an alternative nexus, a liminal realm that stands in stark contrast to the dominating machine, a space where the relentless pursuit of hope intertwines with the tangible embodiment of a different, more deliberate reality. As Studio Wenjüe Lu boldly undertakes the journey of deconstruction and creation, it invites audiences to join them in exploring the potency of ‘NEITHER’—an assertion of nonconformity, integrity, and authenticity, unburdened by the limitations of traditional confines.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The studio functions as a dynamic platform that seamlessly weaves various artistic mediums into a cohesive narrative. It serves as a visual language, a platform to tell stories, convey statements, and reveal personal truths. Wenjüe Lu and Chufeng Fang envision art as a multisensory experience, where soft sculptures, garments, fiber art, poetry, and installations merge to create thought-provoking dialogues.

“The works produced through our bodies are a result of letting go. We’re repelled by a vision: A giant, constantly spinning wheel that we called world, fueled by lives strolling through a linear production of history, obsessed with acceleration and accumulation. Kaleidoscopic madnesses. As two human beings, like everyone else, we are inevitably governed by this unbearable thing called ego, so unbearable it dissolves all the desire for us to work as one entity but to work as none: the bodies as the vehicle and minds as the filter, we lend ourselves to poetry and dreamscapes, we work to carve out a space of Tao, where “Heaven’s Will and Human Affairs Are One”(天人合一). This alternative world, in which humans is no longer at the center, also possesses the mundane, the fragmentary, and a newfound slowness. This world can, at the same time but not all at once, be hopeful, dreadful, dreamy, haunting, mesmerizing, bleak, deceitful, or sobering”.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
The realness, the love, the sense of community.

Always accompanied by bitterness, hatred, anger, aggression, and misunderstandings.

Pricing:

• 30-200
• 200-400
• 500-2000

Contact Info:

• Website: wenjuelu.com
• Instagram: @wenjuelu

Image Credits
Stefy Lin @stefy.lin Vanessa Le @vnessavle