CREATOR to CREATOR I

INTERVIEW SERIES, PROJECT 40 COLLECTIVE | 2017

Creator to Creator developed out of my own interest in learning more about the processes and thoughts of the incredibly talented Asian. Canadian creators in the community. It also began with my realization at how intertwined the various artistic worlds are, as illustrators find inspirations from musicians, musicians collaborate with poets, and poets become performance artists.

Each month, I invited two Asian. Canadian creators to talk about their artistic process, and introduce us to their “favourite” Asian. Canadian creator who engages in a different artistic medium. For the latter, who they are asked to choose was intentional—if the month featured a musician and a writer, I would ask the musician to choose their “favourite” writer, and the writer, their “favourite” musician. I wanted to emphasize the ongoing exchange happening in the creative community. This portion was in a handwritten format, inspired by The Selby’s Q&A, which I adored during my fashion-obsession days. I had the pleasure of featuring 10 diverse group of artists.

Featured: Casey Mecija, Rudrapriya Rathore, Wenting Li, Haaris Qadri, Ness Lee, Christie Wong, Aaron Jan, Jennifer Hosein, Doyali Islam, Flora Shum

Click on each image to view the full interview.

“I want to think about what it would mean to step away from knowable and easily consumable representations. How do methods of abstraction (in music and visual art) forge intimacies with queer, diasporic experience?”

“You know that feeling after you watch a really good movie or finish a good book? The sense that you’re not sure exactly where you are, which world you’re in–or whether your reality will ever be the same again? That’s it.”

“Female is a broadly encompassing term, & I am drawn to women’s bodies both aesthetically and conceptually. I feel like women are full of stories, and so often we’re subjects of the gazes of others, not necessarily sympathetically.”

“As a filmmaker studying at York, I managed to make a short film that consisted of an all Asian cast, carrying themes and dialogue that only the South Asian community would fully understand. I’m happy I could make it how I wanted to without having to change certain elements of the film to please others.”

“I just found that the more feeling I had with these figures the more space they took up in the composition. Kind of as if your feelings were to take form into a figure—feeling heavy sadness might be something that takes up the whole canvas.”

“I see colour as different smells and tastes, but also as different stories and moments. I like to say that I paint with the intuition of my palette and paints; as if they are taking me on a magical and whimsical ride through the realms in my mind.”

“Painting, I can pull the pain out of me. Try to make sense of things. Try to fix things. Make people look and think and maybe act.“

“I write when something—such as lived experience, memory, or a global situation—feels urgent enough. In my body, this urgency can feel like things pressing in on me, at my heart.”

“I love my theatre dirty, filled with contradictions. I think I want to present the Asian Canadian body as flawed, and full of malice, hate, greed and sorrow as well as all of the positive attributes.”

“I think the biggest challenges I personally had to face in running a small studio is the mental energy to continue. We get asked all the time ‘Why do you do what you do? What’s the point?’ It feels like it’s your job to justify and convince people why the arts and culture matter and explain how it affects them personally.”