On this episode I’m joined by Zadie Xa as we discuss her newly commissioned works presented for 16 edition of the Sharjah Biennial, elucidated through the curatorial theme, to carry. Asking questions such as what does it mean to carry a home, a history, a language, a legacy, and a lineage.

Zadie Xa was born in Vancouver, Canada on unceded, ancestral and continually asserted territories of several tribes of First Nations Peoples and is now based in London, UK. Her practice focuses on familial legacies, interspecies communication and diasporic worlding. Throughout her practice, Xa uses water and marine ecologies as metaphors for exploring the unknown whilst also alluding to abstract notions of homeland. She explores these themes through immersive installations that appeal to the sensory experience of the viewer, often incorporating painting, sculpture, textile, sound and performance elements. Zadie earned an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2014 and a BFA at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2007.

In the episode Xa, describes one of the key influences on her work being Korean shamanism, which she discovered accidentally through the 1977 film 'Ido Island.' She explains how this discovery has profoundly impacted her artistic exploration of marginalized perspectives and the supernatural, and the importance of collaboration in her practice, notably with her longtime collaborator and life partner Benito Mayor Vallejo. 

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