GLASGOW.- An ambitious new multi-media installation from Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa is on display at Tramway Glasgow. With Child Of Magohalmi And The Echoes Of Creation, Xa has created an immersive, sub-aquatic and galactic realm in which Korean folkloric myths that centre around women and Korean shamanism are narrated through surround-sound, sculpture and video projection. Costumes and masks originally used by the artist during performances at ArtNight 2019 and the 58th Venice Biennale, are re-presented as sculptures at Tramway.

The installation brings together imagined and learned Korean folklore, transforming diasporic knowledge into new realities. Xa draws inspiration for her fantastical, marine environment from a Korean origin myth centred on the giant goddess Grandmother Mago (Magohalmi). Exploring the passing down of ancestral knowledge through the matrilineal social structures that are based on the separation of responsibilities between male and female deities in the creation of the universe, the work confronts the goddesses’ shift in cultural status over time, from central to marginal.

Throughout her practice, Xa uses water and marine ecologies as metaphors for exploring the unknown, whilst also alluding to abstract notions of homeland, having grown up on the west coast of Canada. Often referring to underwater realms, the exhibition features a large-scale, surround-sound video projection of the ocean, atmospheric lighting and a pod of orcas – a theme which is then revisited in a series of sculptures.

The work has been enhanced by performances featuring Iris Chan, Jia-Yu Corti, Mary Feliciano and Yumino Seki, which took place last month as part of the Dance International Glasgow festival.

Zadie Xa, Child of Magohalmi And The Echoes Of Creation, 2019 is commissioned by Art Night, London; Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku; Tramway, Glasgow and De La Warr Pavilion. Developed by Zadie Xa in collaboration with Benito Mayor Vallejo. Tramway iteration curated by Claire Jackson in partnership with Helen Nisbet, Artistic Director and Amy Budd, Associate Curator of ArtNight.

An ambitious new multi-media installation from Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa is on display at Tramway Glasgow. With Child Of Magohalmi And The Echoes Of Creation, Xa has created an immersive, sub-aquatic and galactic realm in which Korean folkloric myths that centre around women and Korean shamanism are narrated through surround-sound, sculpture and video projection. Costumes and masks originally used by the artist during performances at ArtNight 2019 and the 58th Venice Biennale, are re-presented as sculptures at Tramway.

The installation brings together imagined and learned Korean folklore, transforming diasporic knowledge into new realities. Xa draws inspiration for her fantastical, marine environment from a Korean origin myth centred on the giant goddess Grandmother Mago (Magohalmi). Exploring the passing down of ancestral knowledge through the matrilineal social structures that are based on the separation of responsibilities between male and female deities in the creation of the universe, the work confronts the goddesses’ shift in cultural status over time, from central to marginal.

Throughout her practice, Xa uses water and marine ecologies as metaphors for exploring the unknown, whilst also alluding to abstract notions of homeland, having grown up on the west coast of Canada. Often referring to underwater realms, the exhibition features a large-scale, surround-sound video projection of the ocean, atmospheric lighting and a pod of orcas – a theme which is then revisited in a series of sculptures.

The work has been enhanced by performances featuring Iris Chan, Jia-Yu Corti, Mary Feliciano and Yumino Seki, which took place last month as part of the Dance International Glasgow festival.

Zadie Xa, Child of Magohalmi And The Echoes Of Creation, 2019 is commissioned by Art Night, London; Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku; Tramway, Glasgow and De La Warr Pavilion. Developed by Zadie Xa in collaboration with Benito Mayor Vallejo. Tramway iteration curated by Claire Jackson in partnership with Helen Nisbet, Artistic Director and Amy Budd, Associate Curator of ArtNight.