mother’s gaze by cat zauner
Can you tell Mx a little bit about yourself and your work?
I’m 22 years old, originally from Hong Kong. I moved to London to pursue an education in Fine Art, and since graduating in 2020 I’ve worked mainly on a freelance basis as a photographer.
My earlier work has been an extension of lived experiences, reflected through a process of representing groups of minorities in ways that are not usually shown. At university, I displayed responses to my investigation into racial, cultural, and geographical displacement. These responses were usually a direct reflection on traumatic events that I’ve experienced.
In these current tumultuous times, I find that my interests naturally fluctuate – and so does the style of my work. I’m now more focused on portraiture and exploring different narratives through editorial photography, though I sometimes still dabble in image distortion and collage-type work – in fact I recently did a piece featuring a collection of images as a montage for my family’s new home in Singapore called ‘Home-Bound’, which can be found under ‘commission’ on my website.
How have your experiences informed your work as an artist?
Growing up in a place like Hong Kong can really narrowly shape the way you view and understand the rest of the world. It’s a tight bubble and you’re sheltered from a lot of the realities as a child, so when you grow into a young adult, you have an almost closed-minded way of thinking.
That meant that when it came to moving to the UK, it was like having constant growing pains, I had to rewire and relearn things about the world and the people in it. Ultimately, this became something of a rebirth. I was presented with the harsh realities and the complexities of life that I never really had to worry about or endure in HK. This then also progressed into an understanding of my place as an ethnic minority in “the white space”. Something that, again, I’d never had to consciously consider.
As someone who’s mixed (half white, half Asian) in Hong Kong, your lifestyle is often one of privilege. I attended a British International School – separate from “the locals”. Whilst you could argue that this brings a mixture of cultures into one space (a positive), to some degree it actually ends up segregating groups from one another. Moving away from what I now understand as a toxic environment was definitely something that drove my work as an artist. I suddenly had all this room and time to question my upbringing, to question my family dynamics, my education, the people/friends I surrounded myself with. It became an investigation into racial, cultural, and geographical displacement which fed into my earlier works exploring the Asian Womxn’s body under the “white influence”. I touched upon subjects of yellow face, fetishism, the white male gaze, media representations of the Asian Womxn, and even delved into how my parents’ interracial relationship has shaped my own choice in men.
What do you hope to communicate through your work [or this particular photo essay]?
At this point in time I hope to portray the ways in which people may fit into a specific narrative. In this particular photo essay, I’m interested in showcasing these three Asian Womxn in harmony with each other, but with distinct differences in their physical attributes. I think for this photoshoot it was important for me to present them as they are in their differences. But I still wanted a fluidity to the images, so body placements and angles were really important in this series. Stereotypically, there is an idea of what the Asian Womxn looks like – demure, fair skin, soft slanted eyes, small pouty lips, slender or fragile figure, long black hair.
Here, we have Alya, a tall plus sized model with a tanned complexion and full lips, from Malaysia. Rebecca is from Hong Kong, she has fair skin, large eyes, full dark eyebrows, and long hair that goes auburn in the sun. Jen, from Thailand but raised in London, is as much as a fire cracker in the images as she is in her character! She has short dyed blonde/black hair, a tanned complexion, full lips painted red (by her own choice), with multiple piercings. I wanted to portray what these Womxn exude – they are sensual, sexy, playful, gentle, soft, powerful, stern. Not just in their looks but in their demeanour.
You mentioned that much of your work looks to represent minorities in ways that are not usually shown – can you elaborate on this?
Another clear example of this can be seen in the various stylised images of my partner who is of mixed heritage; British Caucasian and Ghanaian.
As a society, we aren’t used to perceiving grown men as gentle or playful – particularly black men, who are consistently represented by the media as the precise opposite. However, the playfulness in these images was not a concept that was forced, it’s very much in-tune with his character, and how he acts towards me in our personal relationship. In person he’s often labelled as “camp” or feminine, but in reality, he’s just comfortable enough in himself to explore all of his complexities and to show them off.
Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?
I think the main thing that I’ve learnt about my own artistic process is that it’s not always certain. It can change, your interests can fluctuate, and at times you may feel stuck. I think it’s important that we remember to not panic or feel restless if we’re not consistent enough. Remember to take time for yourself, separate from your work, make room for other pleasures if you’re able to, and you might actually see your practice develop in ways you would never have seen coming.
