Through performance, video, painting and textiles, Zadie Xa (Vancouver, 1983) interrogates the overlapping and conflation of cultures that inform self conceptualized identities, notions of self and her experience within the Asian diaspora. Her intricate hand sewn fabric work stitches together familiar symbols of yin-yangs, knives, lucky numbers and monolid eyes, all operating within a system of personalized semiotics. These exaggerated motifs are utilised by Xa to both combat and engage with Eurocentric perceptions of Asian identity and otherness and aspire to create new and alternative Asian identity narratives often fantastical and within the realm of the supernatural. Zadie Xa lives and works in London, UK.
Float, 2018
Machine stitched and hand sewn fabric, bleach and oil on canvas
165 x 193 cm (64.96 x 75.98 inches)
From left to right: Float (2018) and A Map, a Scroll, and a Lyric: Wet Silk (2018)
Installation view
Call Waiting, 2018
Machine stitched and hand sewn fabric, bleach and oil on canvas
165 x 193 cm (64.96 x 75.98 inches)
From left to right: A Map, a Scroll and a Lyric 2: Froth Foam (2018) and Epilogue: The Flight of Yung Yoomi (2018)
General view of the exhibition.
Epilogue: The Flight of Yung Yoomi, 2018
Machine stitched and hand sewn fabric, bleach and oil on canvas
165 x 193 cm (64.96 x 75.98 inches)
We Came Over Water, 2017
Hand sewn and machine stitched fabric, repurposed vintage leather, synthetic hair and hand carved wood
73 x 9.5 x 33 cm (28 3/4 x 3 3/4 x 13 inches)
A Sojourn Through Saturn and Across the Southern Sea, 2018
Audio work commissioned by Cold Protein for the London Underground.