In the studio with Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa Artist profile
At the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, hundreds of bronze shamanic bells – whose clanging resonance is believed, in other circumstances, to lift the veil to the underworld – hang in a seashell shape above a glossy, gold floor. The walls are rendered as traditional Korean patchwork and adorned with murals that have a feel of science fiction-meets-folklore, with human figures, octopuses and sea turtles. An ethereal soundscape emitting from shell-shaped speakers includes the calls of dolphins and orcas, the music of Salpuri (a Korean exorcism dance) and a poem by Alice Walker.
‘I world-build speculative fictions,’ explains Zadie Xa, of the extraordinary, multi-layered installation, entitled Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, And Earth Remembers Everything. Originally conceived for last year’s Sharjah Biennial 16, it saw Zadie nominated for the Turner Prize 2025 – hence its current location in West Yorkshire.
Canadian born and of South Korean heritage, Zadie moved to London in 2012 to do an MA at the Royal College of Art. Our conversation takes place in the 1960s former printworks in Bromley-by-Bow, E3, where, since 2015, she has had various studio spaces, including a period sharing with her husband, the artist Benito Mayor Vallejo. Zadie now occupies two rooms, situated opposite each other. One – for painting – is lined with primed canvases, by way of strips of coloured cloth stitched together. The other, her ‘clean studio’, is packed with intriguing component parts of her practice. There are books on myth, legend and religious practices, masks, furry toys, Christian Dior handbags (there has been a collaboration), more bells and hundreds upon thousands of shells.
