Talking to: Wingkei
Self Portrait © Wingkei
We recently caught up with Wingkei, who is an emerging digital artist based in South London with a love for storytelling through abstract shapes and witty text. Her accessible, on-trend, clever and aesthetically striking artwork always has much deeper layers to peel away, exploring beauty in women of all colours and identities, and is largely influenced by her personal stories and difficulties as an East Asian female living in the UK. On the side, currently Wingkei is working on her personal blog, combining satire and self-deprecating humour with her more vulnerable and darker side.
In her offline persona, she is also an avid reader of sci-fi novels and a proud owner of four (alive!) leafy plants. Despite her nihilistic moments, she tries to make each day count and support that which she knows is just. She hopes that her work can inspire the creatives in all of us.
Tell us more about yourself. Where are you now? What does life look like at the moment?
I’m a Chinese-British 24-year old person from Croydon, South London, which is where I live now after spending some time in Oxford. I recently rekindled my love for the visual arts after a 5 year creative rut. In that period, I was studying for a degree in civil engineering, which although was a creative degree in its own sense, didn’t leave much time for other creative exploration. I started up an arts Instagram account at the start of 2020; when lockdown began and the day job redundancy kicked in, that was when I took it more seriously and turned it into a small side business.
At the moment, I’m managing creating and marketing my art, writing blogs, day job applications, a part-time job, online courses, living, breathing, and making sure the creative juices flow consistently. It is truly a trying time for everybody, and I really believe that we will all come out of this stronger and more self-reflective.
Do you remember when you first got into visual art?
I was always creative as a child – I loved reading, making up my own stories, and drawing pictures to go with them. Then throughout primary and secondary school, I took every creative project and opportunity I could. I had always thoughts about the idea of becoming a full-time artist, but never truly entertained it, in part because of low self-confidence, and in part due to the stigma of the “starving artist”. Doing this now feels like a slap in the face (in a good way) to my younger self. I never thought this would all lead up to something that I can share with the world.
Pubey Glory © Wingkei
You say your work is largely influenced by your personal stories and difficulties as an East Asian female living in the UK - tell us a bit more about this....
My artwork focuses on supporting women, including but not limited to reclaiming nudity, mental health and systemic racism. This is all largely underpinned my experiences living in the UK as not only a POC (person of colour), but as a woman.
All my life, I’ve experienced overt and covert racism. When you grow up with something like this, you almost normalise it and just get on with your life. In fact, I didn’t even realise I was Asian until I was about 5 years old. I knew I was treated differently, by other kids and even teachers, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. Imagine getting treated differently was so normalised that I couldn’t even realise the negative effects it had on me until much older? Bullying like being told I was “yellow” or “ugly”, my packed lunch “smelt weird” or racist remarks aimed at my language, were pretty much second nature to me (as a child).
You encounter more and worse things as you get older and become more exposed to the world. Being a woman also automatically makes you a victim of catcalling. Mix that in with a healthy dose of racism and you get the perfect recipe for alienation and poor mental health. The increased hate crimes towards us Chinese as a result of the pandemic has exacerbated this even further, and it makes me sad to see how much racism is still present today.
Living between Eastern and Western culture has its difficulties, but also brings in a unique set of qualities. I am immensely proud of my Chinese identity, but I also relish the western values of freedom of speech, individualism, and there being less of a stigma around nudity and mental health.
Learning to love myself and my body is another part of my ongoing story. It is so important to BE HEARD and I love to share my experiences through art and writing. I hope they can be of value to someone else, as they are to myself. I am a very self-critical person, and to get encouragement and support from strangers and friends all over the world has been quite surreal to me.
The Tamil magic JUMPED OUT © Wingkei
Tell us more about your inspiration and visually representing women in particular.
I paint women to showcase the amount of strength, integrity, and resilience that they have demonstrated since the beginning of time. It is women who continue to inspire me to become a better person – my mother, my female friends, my supportive network of female creators. Without glamorising it, I do feel that there is some beauty in suffering, because of the learning experience that comes with it.
I focus on the word beauty because I really love the word. Beauty is SO much more than the aesthetics you see on the surface. The subjects of my artwork are generally of everyday women who I know, and/or find inspirational. Recently, I’ve been finding painting portraits of other artists extremely enjoyable. It makes for an organic and genuine collaboration, and the feeling of empowering another creative lights a fire up my butt.
Who are your biggest influences, both in visual art and other cultural influences - old and current?
I am nihilistic by nature, but also find joys in the everyday and the small things. I’m really proud to have such a diverse network of female friends of all ethnicities and personalities, and they all inspire me greatly. Sometimes I don’t even realise how much influence they have on my artwork until we get into hysterical conversations and I’m just like “okay, STOP I need to write this down”. I truly believe this is where most of my wit comes from.
In terms of artists, you just can’t beat David Shrigley. His work always reminds me that art doesn’t have to be perfect and can speak for itself in the simplest of ways. He really knows how to twist darker issues into humour, and it is something I also try to do in my own artwork. I also find a lot of inspiration in other emerging artists on Instagram, such as @gozitive and @magsmunroe, and Chinese photographers @luoyangggg and @renhangrenhang. Above all, my goddesses of all time have to be Elly Smallwood and Jenny Saville. They both portray women in such daring and vulgar ways, and inspire me to take more risks in my own artwork.
What are you most proud of in your work?
It’s mad to see how much my art style has changed within only a few months. One of the main things that stopped me from starting an art career was that I was worried about having to stick to a certain theme or style forever. It’s so unhealthy to think like that. Sometimes I forget that this isn’t GCSE Art anymore and I can do whatever I want because it’s not getting marked. I’m proud to see how far I have come, and how much substance and genuine narrative I can bring into the saturated art industry.
What do you think makes a good artist?
I define it as someone who makes work that is personal to them, but at the same time, not each piece of work has to have a deeply profound meaning. There are artists who are very good with their techniques, and that’s their main focus, and then there are others where the main focus is their context behind it. I think both can be good artists in a sense. That is my answer, if it is an answer.
Personally, I like to make sure that every single one of my pieces has an underlying message, even if not deeply profound. It does mean that it takes me longer to finish each one, which can make it hard to progress in a current culture of social media and short attention spans. I prefer quality over quantity though.
What is next for you?
I’m learning every single day, about myself, and my art. I’m keen to define a more signature style for myself, and embrace the creative process at the same time.
I would like to leave you with a beautiful quote by the Chinese-American actress Constance Wu (and one of my favourite people ever) which is: “What you create internally is something no one can take away from you”. It helps to remind me that self-worth is truly skin deep.
What you create internally, is something nobody can take away from you © Wingkei