Zadie Xa

Artist
Zadie Xa
Born in Vancouver in 1983

Title
The Word for Water Is Whale

Date
2021

Materials and dimensions
Oil on canvas
200 x 401.5 cm

Credits
Purchase, the Museum Campaign 1988-1993 Fund, W. Bruce C. Bailey Fête-champêtre Fund and the Appel family fund in memory of Bram and Bluma Appel

The daughter of Korean parents, Zadie Xa was born and raised in Vancouver and now lives and works in London. Her experience of the Korean diaspora and of Canadian West Coast culture and environment greatly informs her works, which include everything from performance art to painting, as well as installation, textile and video art.

The Word for Water Is Whale is inspired by Korean oral mythology, which was almost completely erased with the expansion of Confucianism. This painting centres on the mythical figure Grandmother Mago (or Magohalmi), a giant goddess in the likeness of a peasant who, according to Korean lore, is the creator of the world. She features often in Xa’s work, but here she takes the form of an orca. This is in reference to the Vancouver scientists who observed a group of orcas being led by a matriarch nicknamed Granny, estimated to be about a hundred years old. The artist was fascinated by the parallels between the grandmother figure and Granny, who was passing on survival techniques to her entire family.

Through this work, Xa incites us to reflect on our relationship with animals and nature, as well as on the grandmother figure, which represents the pinnacle of power, knowledge and protection.