Zadie Xa
Stepping into an exhibition by Zadie Xa (Korean name Cha Yu-mi), visitors cease to be passive observers viewing art merely with their eyes. Suspended from the ceiling is Ghost (2025), a chandelier-like sculpture crafted from over a thousand brass bells. Evoking the spiral form of a conch shell, the work draws inspiration from ritual brass bells (muryeong) used in Korean shamanism and coastal wind chimes, resonant and chiming in response to touch. Walking beneath it, one steps out of everyday perception and into an unfamiliar, dreamlike realm. Born in Vancouver, Canada in 1983 and based in London, the Korean-Canadian artist has garnered international acclaim for articulating her cultural roots, marine ecologies, and the diasporic experience through a distinct visual language. Her solo exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery and nomination as a finalist for the prestigious 2025 Turner Prize attest to her growing recognition within the global art world.
Her practice cannot easily be categorized into conventional mediums like painting or sculpture alone. Traversing two- and three-dimensional spaces, Xa combines sound, performance, textile art, and video to construct the entire exhibition space into a single narrative universe. This approach might well be called a "Multisensory Narrative Installation"—not a formal genre defined by the artist herself, but an apt descriptor of her evocative methodology. Images and stories break out of the canvas to fill the physical room, transforming viewers from external onlookers into participants within that world. The meaning of the work lies not just in visible forms, but emerges as audiences navigate the space, listen to sonic landscapes, and summon their own memories.