Artist in conversation: Weijing Xiao
Weijing Xiao (Parsons '22) is a fashion designer and creative technologist with a focus in post-human couture making and fabric research. They create nature-machine-inspired sculptural silhouettes and experiment with visceral hybrid materiality to investigate the relationship between body, technology, politics and gender. Recently their cyborgian couture garment was exhibited in Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa, Spain and was subsequently acquired to be in the museum’s permanent collection. Their thesis collection MOTHER has evolved into a fashion designer role commissioned by artist Yo-Yo Lin for her multimedia performance to be debuted at one of the largest and most prominent art venues in New York, the Shed, in July 2022.
Over the years, they have gained various fashion industry experiences in companies such as Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Dion Lee, Adam Lippes, Harper’s Bazaar, Fleur Du Mal, Ellen Christine Couture. They were selected as the finalist for 2021 CFDA Design Scholarship Award (1/7), 2021 CFDA x Swarovski Re: Generation Scholarship Award(1/5), 2021 CFDA x Coach Dream It Real Scholarship Award(1/12). Their collaborative live audio-visual installation Mirala was selected to present as the opening performance of Parsons Benefit 2021 at Pier 17.
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How would you introduce yourself to someone who doesn't know you?
I am Weijing Xiao, and my works reside at the intersection of visual arts and technology. I am most known for creating cyborg-themed fashion and theatre/film costume designs with futuristic and dystopian narratives. With backgrounds in fine art, moving images, and immersive technology, I am always intrigued by creating a world through different mediums, situating my fashion practice within a totality of artworks that compose a universe.
You are a fashion designer and a creative technologist with a focus in post-human couture making and fabric research. When did you decide to focus on this post-human approach and what sparked this idea of yours?
For me, the post-human approach is a way to speculate radically different ways of conducting human life and reflect on our own. I gravitated towards this theme three years ago when my eastern and western backgrounds came to a conflicting clash point. As I reevaluated how I saw the world, I started to examine these two distinctive cultural models through simile, metaphor, metonymy, allegory, and personification. These “what-ifs” become safe and staged experiments, which can lend themselves eventually to a utopia/dystopia.
The investigation of the relationship between body, technology, politics and gender through your nature-machine-inspired sculptural silhouettes is quite revolutionary. In what way is this concept applied in your video art “MOTHER” which you exhibited at the “OBLIQUITY” Digital Exhibition Show at The Holy Art Gallery in Athens?
The video piece “MOTHER” is a narrative of the story behind the namesake fashion collection. At first, you see the clothing pieces breathing and trembling like animals, operated on by specialists in a monitored room. Soon you are taken downstairs through an invisible elevator, witnessing the vast floating space used to store embryos from bio-experiments. Eventually, you reach the bottom level, where the successful prototypes live in glass displays. There are a lot of details in the complete narrative about who imposes the structure, what the technology in place is, and what the nature-vs-man-made society dynamics are. The overall arch represents this alternative path of obliquity and a particular, constructed condition that facilitates otherworldly lives.
What do you hope that the public takes away from your art?
I hope my works can be technically and conceptually stimulating for the audience. They are rooted in craftsmanship and tradition, infused with speculative twists to subvert the narratives across mediums. This fashion film is the entrance to a broader vision of mine. Even though there is a larger message at work, often political and provocative, I hope the viewers can find that little detail that resonates with them. Maybe it’s a text line, a composition, a gesture, or a color narrative that triggers intimate emotions.
Are there any projects you are currently working on and you would like to speak about?
I’m working on the concept development and costume side of a new AI opera film in collaboration with director George R. Miller, composer Calvin Hitchcock and Edward Saatchi of Culture DAO. The project is in its very early stage, centered around the new age myth-making, political celebrities, and technology’s role in society building. We aim to show a performance workshop at the upcoming Art Basel Miami this year. I’m thrilled to contribute to this original and innovative narrative and utilize my specialty in creating technology-embedded fashion pieces.
Finally, how would you describe your experience working with us and exhibiting in our physical, yet completely digital gallery, in Athens?
It has been a curious and exciting journey to work with the Holy Art Gallery. I have experienced care and collaborative energy during the process. The team is dedicated to perfecting the technical details and has offered great advice to the exhibition setup. I am honored to be selected to show at the Holy Art Gallery Athens, one of the first and best fully digital physical galleries.
