Bruce and Naomi Talk Art 5
Bruce Wang Citizen Wang Studio
Article By Bruce Wang @ citizenwangstudio.com
Bruce
Shall we speak about the state of the art market?
Naomi
I really don't know a lot about the state of the art market. Do you?
Bruce
Some artists seem to make a fortune whereas young artists have to struggle to be seen.
Naomi
I'm gonna be controversial. I went to Hockney exhibition about a month ago. And I know he's a national treasure. I get that. But he's churning this stuff out. And it no longer interests me. His old stuff was exciting and interesting. The LA stuff. The swimming pools and coming out. The gay scene. This stuff just feels like, okay, you've got a lovely house in France. And the pictures all looked pretty similar. He did them on his iPad. And I thought come on move over and give someone else a chance.
Bruce
Then there is Rodin, who was hugely successful and pioneering in his approach. But later on he would just be paid a fortune by individual wealthy people to make busts of them.
Naomi
And so then you become…
Bruce
A parody of yourself. Yeah.
Naomi
Yeah. He had some very interesting and radical ideas and ways of working and that's what you want to remember. I'm sure that's what he would want us to remember him for.
Bruce
Bruce
Yeah.
Naomi
I guess it's hard to say no to these rich people that want to offer you lots of money. How do you stop yourself from selling out?
Bruce
All I have ever tried to do is take good pictures. I discovered the quality of the picture comes from the expressiveness of the person. Where the subject may be slightly on edge and apprehensive.
Naomi
Well, that's a good description of me.
Bruce
Yeah.
Naomi
I have been given this diagnosis which I thought was excellent. It was about my heart. I've got a faulty valve. And it said I have a bicuspid aortic valve with mild eccentric turbulence. And I thought well, that's my state of mind. Sometimes less mild. It's just thought it was brilliant. I need to create some kind of artwork and call it eccentric turbulence. It's a congenital it's all right at the moment. It could get bad in future. I get checked every year, I think radiographers are artists, I love watching or looking at the images of what’s going on inside.
Bruce
This vape seems to cause me to get dripping into my throat at night. It keeps me awake.
Naomi
Sounds like acid reflux. I suffer with it too. Do you take Gaviscon pills? Yes. Take a couple of those last thing don't have a drink after just take those and go to sleep. Your medication may be causing it.
Bruce
I had a conversation with my friend Sean up in Glasgow. And he said not to let death take over my thinking. That’s what has happened and that’s half way to death. It made complete sense so I snapped out of it. I'm thinking I could live another 30 odd years.
Naomi
I'd say it's fair enough that it was taking up a lot of your thinking. It's good that you've been able to switch to thinking about life. I think it's about balance isn't it? Yeah, I read a book which talked about death becoming more prominent in our minds as we get older. It was called Every Third Thought.
Bruce
Once you get past 60 year olds these adverts on Facebook for cheap funerals.
Naomi
That would piss me off so much. I would change your age on Facebook.
Bruce
Oh yes.
Naomi
Put yourself down as 30
Bruce
Oh, good idea.
Naomi
A friend of mine has got herself down as a 1000 years old.
Bruce
There’s also these Bitcoin emails, wanting to make you into a millionaire. If they are millionaires, why are they troubling themselves to contact individuals? Doesn’t make sense.