“An Irresistible Force” is a meditation on the idea of the ecstatic landscape, an animated photographic work inspired by science fiction and the planet we inhabit.

A motif of light oscillates above surreal rock formations as night descends in a remote wilderness in New Mexico, USA. The flickering neon glow casts dramatic shadows across the scene, merging light and land in a way which enables new perspectives for the viewer, while speaking to the artist's unique experience within it.

In the signature style of in-camera lighting, time lapse photography, and music, this multilayered and complex video art pushes the scene further towards an otherworldly but wholly possible version of reality.

An Irresistible Force

Reuben Wu

"Time present and time past, are both perhaps present in time future"  (Feb 7, 2018)

Lux Noctis is an acclaimed body of work based on the simple idea of attaching a powerful light to a drone to illuminate remote landscapes at night. 

It depicts places unbound by time and space, influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, chiaroscuro painting, and science fiction. We are overwhelmed everyday by beautiful images of the familiar. I imagine these scenes transformed into undiscovered landscapes which renew our perceptions of our world. 

The Lux Noctis book (2018) is held in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MoMA.

Zero Trace (LN0309)

Lux Noctis is an ongoing project depicting landscapes unbound by time and space, influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, chiaroscuro painting, and science fiction.

We are overwhelmed everyday by beautiful images of the familiar. I imagine these scenes transformed into undiscovered landscapes which renew our perceptions of our world.

Lux Noctis is an acclaimed series of photographs held in the permanent collections of The Guggenheim, the Met Museum, and the MoMA, and has been published in Time Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, and Wired.


Origin (LN1975)

"They all go into the dark, the vacant interstellar spaces," T.S. Eliot

This piece represents the essence, or a distillation of my visual language. It also symbolises me and my journey as an artist in the digital space, and where I might be headed next. 

This open edition holds possibilities for projects and collaborations in the future, but for now, I hope you collect the piece because you like the art or wish to show support.

Abandon Normal Instruments

Lux Noctis is an ongoing project depicting landscapes unbound by time and space, influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, chiaroscuro painting, and science fiction. We are overwhelmed everyday by beautiful images of the familiar. I imagine these scenes transformed into undiscovered landscapes which renew our perceptions of our world. Lux Noctis is an acclaimed series of photographs held in the permanent collections of The Guggenheim, the Met Museum, and the MoMA, and has been published in Time Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, and Wired.

Somewhere, Something Incredible Is Waiting To Be Known (LN2938)

Fourteenth Century Series, 201 1/1 Artworks

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke.

The Fourteenth Century Series comprises 201 unique images; still frames from an ancient and prophetic short film.

The artwork was created by capturing in-camera lighting effects that interact with the immediate surroundings. It is experienced using blockchain technology and augmented reality on the walls of your own home.

Maybe, magic is real.

Fourteenth Century Series #27

An interpretation of the Decal by Reuben Wu. A symbol of permissionless creativity. Series Seven.

Decal by Reuben Wu #57

Ex Stasis IV #10/100

Fourteenth Century Series #20

Fourteenth Century Series is 201 unique images; still frames from an ancient and prophetic short film.

The artwork was created by capturing in-camera lighting that interacts with the immediate landscape. 
It is experienced using blockchain technology and augmented reality on the walls of your own home.

Along with the digital artwork, owners will have the opportunity to acquire the physical print, 
augmented reality features, and membership into the Fourteenth Century Community.

Proceeds from this project (40%) will go towards creating The Fourteenth Century Fund, a fund focused on investing in blockchain projects that drive innovation, sustainability, and futurism.

As the Fourteenth Century Fund grows, owners of Reuben Wu artworks will be invited to join the #FCS community to help us shape the future by voting on the projects that the fund invests in.

Fourteenth Century Series

Lux Noctis is an acclaimed photography project depicting landscapes unbound by time and space, influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, chiaroscuro painting, and science fiction.

We are overwhelmed everyday by beautiful images of the familiar. I imagine these scenes transformed into undiscovered landscapes which renew our perceptions of our world.

This work is also part of the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MoMA, and has been published by National Geographic, Wired and Time Magazine.

Reuben Wu - Lux Noctis

Reuben Wu - Open Editions

Decal by Reuben Wu #25

Decal by Reuben Wu

Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico 
2667 × 4000

Longshore Drift

Lux Noctis is an ongoing project depicting landscapes unbound by time and space, influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, chiaroscuro painting, and science fiction.

We are overwhelmed everyday by beautiful images of the familiar. 
I imagine these scenes transformed into undiscovered landscapes which renew our perceptions of our world.

Lux Noctis is an acclaimed series of photographs held in the permanent collections of The Guggenheim Museum, the Met Museum, and the MoMA, and has been published in Time Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, and Wired.

Reuben Wu - Single Editions

Aeroglyphs & Other Nocturnes

Metamorphe is a body of work created by Jenni Pasanen and Reuben Wu.

The goal of this collaboration was to create artwork that is entirely new, using the medium of generative adversarial networks (GAN), combined with painting and photography to result in something unprecedented and fascinating.

Humans are emotional beings, their decisions led by their feelings. A machine has no such constraints, enabling it to conceive what human minds could never be capable of on their own.

This method spawns new unimaginable forms and explores undiscovered paths, leading to the creation of a medium which unifies human creativity with machine learning.

This project has produced six works of art over the course of six months’ remote collaboration. Some pieces began from Pasanen’s AI/GAN creations, while others evolved from Wu’s photography.

Through many iterations of passing back and forth, the artists refined and finessed the work intricately by hand. 

5700 x 5700

50/50 artist split

Metamorphe #04: Taste

Metamorphe #05: Smell

METAMORPHE: Jenni Pasanen X Reuben Wu

A circling robot above the altiplano sand dunes of Siloli. This vignette is from my series "Lux Noctis", an ongoing project depicting landscapes unbound by time and space, influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, chiaroscuro painting, and science fiction. By attaching a light to a drone, and tracing precise geometric shapes above remote landscapes at night, my work offers a new perspective, showing familiar places but under an unfamiliar light. The series was shortlisted at the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards and the eponymous book of the project has since been acquired by the Guggenheim, the Met Museum, and the MoMA.

Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas (XT1586)

2700 x 2160px 
sound and visuals by the artist  

Light-Space Modulator (Aeroglyph AE1460)

SuperRare

The slick, neon glow of sci-fi aesthetics
The cryptic symbolic language of ancient petroglyphs
Somewhere between the mythic and the surreal
Between dream and memory, with an undulating sense of temporality slipping between the ancient past and the imagined future. 

(Excerpt from "Aeroglyphs & other Nocturnes" exhibition catalogue with Kris Graves Projects/photo-eye Gallery)

Aeroglyphs 137

Foundation

Metamorphe is a body of work created by Jenni Pasanen and Reuben Wu.

The goal of this collaboration was to create artwork that is entirely new, using the medium of generative adversarial networks (GAN), combined with painting and photography to result in something unprecedented and fascinating.

Humans are emotional beings, their decisions led by their feelings. A machine has no such constraints, enabling it to conceive what human minds could never be capable of on their own. 

This method spawns new unimaginable forms and explores undiscovered paths, leading to the creation of a medium which unifies human creativity with machine learning.

This project has produced six works of art over the course of six months’ remote collaboration. Some pieces began from Pasanen’s AI/GAN creations, while others evolved from Wu’s photography. 

Through many iterations of passing back and forth, the artists refined and finessed the work intricately by hand. 

5700 x 5700

Metamorphe #01: Touch

METAMORPHE Jenni Pasanen X Reuben Wu V2

The Slow Blade

Field of Infinity

Ex Stasis IV #47/100

I’m pleased to present my new series EX STASIS: a collection of four audiovisual art pieces which speak to my ecstatic experience of creation; a unique feeling which excites and motivates me to keep creating and exploring in the field of photography and visual art. A development from my Lux Noctis (drone lighting) project, this series focuses more on the intimate landscape, using practical in-camera lighting effects to interact with the immediate surroundings. As it gets dark, my surroundings cease to be an exterior experience and become a subliminal space, and that’s when I feel most connected and aware of my sense of being. This dynamic terrestrial chiaroscuro synchronises with my sound design and music to form singular looping pieces which draws the viewer in.

Expired Polaroid Time Zero photograph of my guide standing on the frozen ice of Tempelfjorden, Svalbard Archipelago, 2011.

Part of my first photo series of Svalbard, a trip that motivated me to dedicate my artistic practice to photography, as my time as a full-time musician drew to a close.

Tempelfjord

Aeroglyph Variations #43 by Reuben Wu

Aeroglyph Variations is a collection evolved from my Aeroglyphs body of work, created exclusively for Obscura Curated. 

Aeroglyphs explores my method of intervention in landscape photography. By using light carrying drones and long exposure, I’m able to play a larger role in artistic expression all without leaving a trace on the scene.

This series was captured over the course of 20 hours in New Mexico, USA on Dec 12-13 2021. It shows the iterative processes and decisions I typically encounter during the creation of a final image, presented as a collection of 55 images. Compositionally, every image is the same, yet in attributes, every image is different. Time of day, light formations (glyphs) and other traits vary within the series to result in a spectrum of unique possibilities.

Taking inspiration from generative art and groundbreaking photo projects such as Carpoolers (Alejandro Cartagena), this project examines the notion of the photographer as algorithm; the code that creates and which ultimately derives from our unique programming of life experiences.
Reuben Wu's OpenSea: https://opensea.io/itsreuben?tab=created

Edition: 1 of 1

Commissioned by Obscura

Aeroglyph Variations #43 by Reuben Wu

Aeroglyph Variations #6 by Reuben Wu

Aeroglyph Variations is a collection evolved from my Aeroglyphs body of work, created exclusively for Obscura Curated. 

Aeroglyphs explores my method of intervention in landscape photography. By using light carrying drones and long exposure, I’m able to play a larger role in artistic expression all without leaving a trace on the scene.

This series was captured over the course of 20 hours in New Mexico, USA on Dec 12-13 2021. It shows the iterative processes and decisions I typically encounter during the creation of a final image, presented as a collection of 55 images. Compositionally, every image is the same, yet in attributes, every image is different. Time of day, light formations (glyphs) and other traits vary within the series to result in a spectrum of unique possibilities.

Taking inspiration from generative art and groundbreaking photo projects such as Carpoolers (Alejandro Cartagena), this project examines the notion of the photographer as algorithm; the code that creates and which ultimately derives from our unique programming of life experiences.
Reuben Wu's OpenSea: https://opensea.io/itsreuben?tab=created

Edition: 1 of 1

Commissioned by Obscura

Aeroglyph Variations #6 by Reuben Wu

Aeroglyph Variations

I’m excited to release one of my strongest images THE JETTY as a timed print drop today, Thursday JULY 11 at 12pm CST. 

The drop will be open for 5 days but it's likely to sell out within the next few hours as very few prints now remain.

If you’d like to secure a print of this very special image, head to the link.

Thank you,

Reuben

However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
Stanley Kubrick



Reuben Wu (Reuben)

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