Nomi Chi premieres her latest body of work entitled "Shed Yr Skin" at Hot Art Wet City November 3rd. We caught up with the Vancouver tattooist, artist and all-around renaissance woman in an interview below.
Nomi Chi premieres her latest body of work entitled "Shed Yr Skin" at Hot Art Wet City November 3rd. We caught up with the Vancouver tattooist, artist and all-around renaissance woman in an interview below.
Lauren YS: What kind of music did you listen to/TV did you watch/habits did you have while making these works?
Nomi Chi: So, I am on my 3rd we-watch of Gilmore Girls (SO excited about the new season amirite?) and my second run through the entirety of Grey’s Anatomy, although - spoiler alert - there honestly isn’t much to look forward to after Yang peaces out.
Media consumption and making stuff requires a tenuous chemistry: it has to occupy space, but not be too distracting or involved. When trash TV feels too abrasive, podcasts sometimes do the trick for me - my current go-to is “My Favourite Murder” by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Failing that, I’ll queue up ambient music that accompanies whatever mood I am trying to evoke in my paintings. Genioh Yamashirogumi, the musical group that scored the Akira movie, has been scratching that itch for the past few weeks, I can’t get enough of them.
These works depict a lot of animal imagery; do you see particular animals as totems or symbolic of anything specific?
Usually I am not interested in specifics, I just enjoy the evocative potential of animal figures. They can be powerful and wild, or meek and submissive, and/or offer a baffling combination of energies. I don’t try to resist spiritual or mythological readings, but I myself am secular and can only experience the idea of animal-based spirituality as a curious objective observer.
That being said, the images I’m making for Shed yr Skin are populated by more serpents than in previous bodies of work. Although title of this exhibition of course reflects reptile characteristics, this was an organic and unintentional development! Serpent imagery is definitely catalyzed by my tattoo practice, and I want to explore the dualistic positioning of serpents in western lore - as ominous, sinister keepers of wisdom. And, honestly, purely from a design perspective they are really challenging wiggly-shaped-creatures! According to that Harry Potter test that’s been going around, my patronus is a king cobra... I’ll let you guess which house the sorting hat placed me in.
Your characters have a very unique femininity to them—rather than modelesque curves or plunging cheekbones, your characters are carved with many lines, creeping fingers, double-pairs of breasts, masks, and "chimeric, sometimes monstrous" attitudes—what is your mentality behind the representation of women in your own work?
Discussions re: women in media, how to represent The Body in the images we make, etc, are escalating in their ubiquity and accessibility, so there is a wealth of material that has given me pause to think about how I represent ‘female’ bodies and what to me defines femininity. You’re right in that I am making a conscientious effort to challenge tropes (obviously this doesn’t mean that I am uninterested or consider myself above tropes!) - and I want my figures to be multifaceted and have multiple, potentially conflicting readings.
Much of my previous work took interest in using female figures to examine the duality of beauty/ugliness, or cuteness/ugliness - an outlook that still underscores my work in a way. My current focus, however, leans more towards creating a feeling of unease and ambiguity: this probably stems from my gingerly stepping into an identity of a non-binary person (I’m OK with being read as a woman but I often feel like I am standing in a gender-void!) I see many other artists doing great working offering alternative ideas to what is desirable in female figures, like, in terms of physical appearance or outward way of being in the world. It is important work, but that’s not necessarily what I’m doing here with my monster-people. I really want to resist the idea of ‘real’, ‘natural’ or even ‘beautiful’ woman’s body, because a woman can really be anything, and anyway, I am kind of bored of beauty discussions as don’t think beauty is the end goal of being in a body. So I guess my aim is to open a space for ambiguity and fluidity.
But also, maybe in conflict with that previous point - and I apologize if I am disorganized with my thinking here - I utilize this kind of image-making to work through my own body anxieties, of ageing, the fear/embrace of sagging skin, wrinkles, weight gain/loss, and so on. There is a meditative aspect of rendering and emphasizing texture and the tactile experience of flesh - when painting or drawing these figures I am thinking about skin and the way it carries our experiences as human beings. In addition, I am also exploring the idea of woman as monster, and am drawn the stories of women as cruel and vengeful spirits. I find it interesting that, in many myths - in history as well as our contemporary myths - women who reject the idea of being natural caregivers or empathetic, nurturing beings, are often purveyed as monstrous.
There is a lot to unpack, and to be honest, my relationship with femininity and my position within the political framework of gender is constantly in flux, so, I’m still figuring out what my drawings mean while parsing how I feel!
You also recently curated an art show featuring women of half-asian descent entitled "Dirty Knees." Did the mission statement for that exhibition feed into "Shed yr skin?" How does your racial identity surface in these works?
Ah, I feel that most of my energy this *year* went into Dirty Knees (which you can read about in a few articles: Rice Paper Magazine, Juxtapoz, CBC ) and my immediate instinct was to switch gears as abruptly as possible for Shed yr Skin, so as to not be redundant. So, there is a decided attempt to steer away from overt readings of race in Shed yr Skin, although to be honest that discussion is probably impossible to avoid entirely due to the nature of my work!
I can’t say that there is a particular racial message in Shed yr Skin’s images, but with my newer work I am trying to be more honest about my incredibly dorky and embarrassing artistic roots in Anime, my interest in Japanese image-making practices, as well as my experience as a Japanese person who can only experience their/other cultures through the lens of North American media. I am also trying to educate myself on issues in contemporary asian art - especially intriguing is the Superflat movement spearheaded by Takashi Murakami. I and am curious to know if/how my work stands in relation to that genre.
You also recently completed your first large scale mural. How do these mediums compare -- tattooing, painting, murals -- and which is the most challenging?
I’m not at all familiar with large-scale painting, so I would say that planning and painting an enormous wall, with no previous experience, was pretty challenging. I cried real human tears and if it wasn’t for the wisdom, kindness and labour of a few experienced peers it wouldn’t have happened. Street art, illustrative painting, and tattoos often share common visual motifs, I see a lot of cross-pollination, and it is not uncommon, I think, for artists to have two of those three practices in their repertoire! But in my experience, the way surface, scale, audience, application, etc compares in each of these mediums is so radically different! I love the way public art plays with the attention and consideration of those who are lucky to encounter it. There is a lot of possibility to explore content that is specific to whatever social or geographical landscape the art is placed within, it’s super challenging as you must consider not only the client or building owner (if that applies!) but the public at large. It is something I definitely want to do more of!
What do you hope to achieve by moving your work into a more political arena (discussing gender, racial topics?)
Mostly I am just trying to stay true to my interests and integrate my personal research and concerns into my praxis. Social justice discussions, to me, offer structures that lend well to this and makes sense - especially concerning intersectional politics - although I am flexible and am open to other ways of thinking.
My success as an artist and tattooer has afforded me a soapbox of sorts, and an audience, social capital - hooray - and I now find myself in a position where I can support those with different experiences of marginalization than my own: I strongly feel that I am doing a disservice if I do not bolster their voices. If my work functions on more than an aesthetic level, perhaps allowing me to do some low-key activism while pursuing my practice, then I am happy.
As an addendum, I don’t want to seem like I am pandering. At the end of the day, being honest and genuine about where my interests lie, and conscientious about the impact of my work in a broader sense, is most important to me. I feel like a singular - for example, feminist - reading kind of flattens the work… if that makes sense? My intent is to make art that could have some political messages, but is ultimately more than the sum of my political interests.
Which of the X-Men characters would you be? Why?
Probably Wolverine. I can relate to being short, hairy and Canadian.
Anything more you'd like to share with us?
Yeah! I have a lot of prints, pins and other multiples available at landofzos.com and I also have temporary tattoos here.
That’s it. Cheers and thank you!!
"Shed Yr Skin" will run from November 3-26 at Hot Art Wet City in Vancouver, Canada.
Follow Nomi on Instagram | Website
Interview by Lauren YS
