XIĀNG JIĀO

Xiāng Jiāo (香蕉/Banana) explores my cultural identity as British and Chinese and the constant construction and reconstruction of this identity that occurs due to my experiences with the world. For example, racism and the lack of representation of East Asian people in the UK. These experiences have caused an instability and precariousness to my identity, due to being between two cultures and the racism and shaming that can come from both sides. I symbolise this through the construction of still lifes, using banana skin and flesh to symbolise my own. The use of the banana is specifically used to question the notion of whether I am truly “white on the inside and yellow on the outside”. This is one of the many ways that people use to give me and others like me a sense of not belonging, not being fully a part of either British or Chinese culture. I use my work as a healing and reflective practice, looking back over my life experiences and examining how they have affected me and how I can move forward and heal from them. Colour plays a prominent role within my work with reference to the perceived queerness of bright colours and further the cultural significance of certain colours, such as red in both China and Britain.