Interview with Zadie Xa by Olivia Sand
By Olivia Sand
Beyond having a diverse practice involving painting, performance, textiles, sculpture and video, Zadie Xa (b 1983, Vancouver) has built an innovative approach to conceiving her multidisciplinary exhibitions as immersive installations. Her work echoes aspects of her Korean heritage based on mythology, tales, fables, and a moral code from which our societies could learn. A keen observer of her surroundings, Zadie Xa relies on her practice to tell stories about the human condition, also highlighting the fate of the outcasts of society. In the following interview, she shares her journey towards becoming the artist that she is today.
Asian Art Newspaper: You work in two areas – painting and textiles – and previously maintained two studios, one for each discipline. Is that still the case?
Zadie Xa: Yes, I still do this, but now the two studios are in the same building and right across the hallway. So I basically only have one door in between, which is extremely convenient. It is good to keep the disciplines separate, if you do not have a large space for practical reasons. This way, I can
compartmentalise and organise my way of working.
AAN: The diversity of your practice is also reflected in your exhibitions. How do you connect these various disciplines of textiles, painting, sculpture, sound, and video?
ZX: I studied conventional painting in my undergraduate years and my masters, but as soon as I graduated, I veered into working with textiles and performance, which then led me into working with video and sound, and then came installation. Therefore, performance was almost like the gateway into expanding my practice as this kind of work encapsulates so many things. Through this experience, once I have been offered a physical exhibition, I would use this same methodology to conceive an installation or a live performance, all very much in 3D. For me, performance is important in order to engage with the viewer, who is also taking an active position. I try to keep the audience engaged and not bored. I am someone who gets bored very easily and initially, when I was making performance art, I was very conscious of wanting to bedazzle the audience, which is not always a positive thing. It is very important for people to realise that sometimes less is more, which is not always my strength, but that is the foundation on which I construct the show. In addition, when you have a smaller studio space, it is impossible to practise. Therefore, I have to rely very heavily on thinking about the exhibition and the space vis-à-vis 3D modelling. For every exhibition, I work very closely with my husband, Benito Mayor Vallejo, who is also an artist. He will often recreate the gallery space or the exhibition space in 3D. This is how I can start thinking about how things will work. The type of exhibition building and how each object or encounter will happen is very important to me. This is what I think about first, followed by the image or what each work will be like. I realise that if I had the physical space, and the privilege of being able to move things around, maybe I would be more willing to be experimental. However, because of my personality, I would never be able to do that during an installation period. It comes down to being practical and being shrewd about the logistics of making a show.
AAN: It must be very challenging to paint about intangible things, the mystery of death, fear, the underworlds, etc. In terms of influences, beyond Bosch, are there artists you admire, as they share your interest in bridging different worlds?
ZX: I love surrealist painters such as Dorothy Tanning (1910-2012), Max Ernst (1891-1976), with Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) being the one I probably like most. But I also enjoy the work of Leonor Fini (1907-1996), because of her relationship with her household pets. My own pets are also often featured in my work, not only because I have affection for them, but because I feel they do populate a certain type of personhood in my life. When talking about something to do with a supernatural spirit, like the figure of Princess Bari, I am intrigued by this idea of transmutation, that the spirit can also transfer their image into a different animal and you are neverquite sure who that is. There is this malleability with identity, and in my work, I use the fox a lot (...) There are many foxes in London, the city where I live, and they are probably similar to the way all city animals live – basically, we have been encroaching on their habitat. (...)
AAN: Beyond yin-yang, you started integrating various elements of Korea’s cultural legacy into your work. How was this perceived in Korea?
ZX: I had a lot of anxiety before showing in Korea, I felt very privileged that my first venture was with the Korean Thaddaeus Ropac gallery. Based on my own perceptions, Koreans are very tough. In addition, I recognise that I am an outsider, and people can be territorial about national heritage, mostly because there is such a remix in how I use things. I am not trying to lift very specific imagery and just copy it. On the contrary, it needs to undergo a transformation; to me, this is not cultural appropriation. Surprisingly, the reception turned out to be very positive. However, I was still a little apprehensive about my most recent show in Seoul, because of the things I am interested in, Korean shamanism, for example, which culturally is socially frowned upon. (...)
AAN: Based on what you mentioned earlier as to where you fit in compared to other artists, past and present, what would you like to contribute to contemporary art?
ZX: Through my practice, I want to encourage younger artists, artists of colour, or those outside of what the normal London scene is, to feel that the heritage of their family is something that would be an interesting source to use, parallel to other things we were taught in European art history. That is my goal. Without sounding narcissistic, I have this example of a young artist who had a portfolio of all these different Nigerian Yoruba traditional garments and performances and was thinking about how to translate that with her own work. Originally, the reference point was my work, which was very rewarding. It is encouraging that my work is somehow getting external attention and there is some type of validation, as it does not look like what is traditionally seen as successful. In London, it has been very positive to open up this perspective and widen the scope of different types of contemporary art. It is not just me, as I now see lots of different artists that are my contemporaries functioning in a similar way. With a generation of artists doing that, you set a precedent. Ultimately, that is the thing that I am most excited about trying to encourage and present.
