featured artist: mxogyny x mildred cheng

Pokgai - A popular stick snack “Pocky”, which sounds like the Cantonese swear word “仆街”, pronounced “pok gai”, meaning to fall on the street, usually used for name calling or to curse someone.

Introduction by Mildred 

I have always struggle to define myself exactly. I am a serial thinker, illustrator, reader, passionate, lover of learning, creative, insecure, unafraid, writer, often found staring into nothing and lost in thought.  

I am originally from Hong Kong and Singapore; now I live in London. I have learned to love my culture and background even more while being away, and now all I do is try to tap into it more.  

I took up illustration at university as the practical element of my course to try and find my style as an artist because I was always shit at it. I thought it would help me find new skills and hone an art I never had - and it did. We experimented with lots of different mediums and I somehow fell into a mixture of hand drawn line drawings and digital art, and realised I was kind of decent at it. P(possibly because I wasn’t very good at the other stuff like charcoal and painting). It’s become a hobby ever since, but I love the process of art making because of how much it sucks you in; it’s therapeutic and meditative, because you don’t think about anything else.  

I was initially inspired by artbabygirl who is known for changing the wording on packaging in a hand drawn fashion. That’s where my love for emulating traditional or well-known items, and changing it to make it my own, started. Humour is also an essential part of my art. I never take my work too seriously and I like to have fun with it. Most of my work now is a very specific style: - line drawings made digital, directly influenced by my culture and upbringing. 

Hi Diu - A Japanese candy named Hi-Chew that was popular in my childhood. “Chew” which sounds like the Cantonese swear word “ 𨳒” pronounced “diu”, meaning ‘fuck’.

Mx: Your work clearly has a focus on consumer products- does the role of capitalism, either in the UK, Hong Kong or Singapore, inspire your work?     

Mildred: When I first read this question my first thought was, “Oh shit, does it?”, which is kind of exactly the point because consumerism and capitalism are so deeply ingrained into our beings that we struggle to notice something so obvious.  

I’ve never actually thought about it consciously until now because the objects in my drawings are just drawn from familiarity and nostalgia. I guess the question then is how does capitalism/consumerism play a part in our/my childhood- specifically in terms of how it shapes our memories. There are familiar buildings, streets, and places, but none that generate very specific memories. My drawings are consumer products, but almost exclusively to do with food, occasionally other products. My drawing of Hi-Chews reminds me of school when someone would bring it to class and it felt like a luxury when they shared it with you.  

I think that capitalism to do with food can sometimes not feel like capitalism because of the sensory experience we derive from it. I think that’s why I never associated the role of capitalism with my memories of food from my childhood. Rather than think about the fact that I’m paying for what I’m about to put in my mouth, I think about what I’m actually eating, and in the scenario above, the act of sharing and friendship. I would say that the memories don’t link to consumerism, and to be honest, I think that’s fine. It’s a symptom of being young and unaware, but there is something very pure about the enjoyment of food without thinking about the systems we live in. 

Temperance

Mx: It is really interesting that you say your artistic practice grew out of being 'bad' at other forms of artistic expression. To what extent do you think the ability to produce visual art is about understanding and quality of expression, rather than 'talent' or traditional ideals of 'skill'? 

Mildred: I used to think that it was about talent or skill, which is why I never dared to venture, and also because of my lack of knowledge and never actively seeking out a medium that could potentially work for me. It was only through trying different things that I found something where I thought, oh, this actually looks okay!  

Art was never a compulsory subject in school after primary, and for a long time my medium was photography - and still is - but it has taken a bit of a backseat compared to illustration now. The contexts of each are different.  

Of course, I care about whether I think my art looks nice and is what I want it to be, but it’s really just an expression of who I am and what I believe in. It is more about the nature of the pun and how you understand it than the drawing itself. 

The Ordinary

Mx: What obstacles, if any, have you faced as a visual artist? And how have you overcome them?   

Mildred: I’m still in the very early stages of actually trying to take my illustration work a bit further, so there haven’t been that many obstacles so far. It’s still a side gig and a hobby, and I would definitely struggle to make a living out of only illustration work.  

Mx: What advice would you give to anyone who enjoys art, but struggles to find the right way to approach it as an outlet?  

Mildred: I believe that everyone has an artistic side and the potential to embrace an artistic outlet if they chose to pursue it or explore more. There are more mediums out there than the mainstream art we are used to - you just have to put in a little effort to find it. Try things out! You can literally learn anything from the internet right now if you really wanted. The biggest friction point I reckon could be that lots of people do have artistic outlets, but they don’t deem it as ‘good enough’, or consider it art at all. I was exactly the same. I often still consider myself an imposter because so much of my art is just copying things and making it my own - but that’s what art is! 

You can find more of Mildred’s work on Instagram or through her website.