Zadie Xa: Diaspora Pavilion 2 Artist in Conversation
5 Apr 2021
Artist Zadie Xa speaks with curator Jessica Taylor about her practice and participation in the exhibition ‘I am a heart beating in the world: Diaspora Pavilion 2, Sydney‘ presented by International Curators Forum in partnership with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.
Zadie Xa (b. Vancouver, Canada lives and works in London, United Kingdom) explores the overlapping and conflation of cultures that inform self-conceptualised identities and notions of self through performance, video, painting and textiles. Her layered textile works are sites for exploring contemporary identity construction and performance through cultural sampling, informed by her own experience within the Asian diaspora. Xa’s intricate, hand sewn wearable and performable garments stitch together a range of personally relevant imagery sourced from music, digital space, fashion, and art history. Xa has developed a system of personalised semiotics that propose entirely new images and objects, creating a personal visual language for articulating nuanced Asian identity narratives, which are frequently situated within fantastical or supernatural realms. Recent solo exhibitions include Meetings on Art performance program for the Venice Biennale open week (2019), Child of Magohalmi and the Echos of Creation, Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan (2019) and Soju Sipping on a Sojourn to Saturn, Galeria Agustina Ferreyra, Mexico (2018).
Jessica Taylor is the Head of Programmes at International Curators Forum.