women artists

Art Gab with Lisa Enxing

Fyeahwomenartists: My first question was just what is your artistic background?
Lisa Enxing: You mean like where did I go to school?

FY: Yeah or what did you study?
LE: Painting.

FY: Is that what you started out doing?
LE: Yeah. In college I had a minor in printmaking.

FY: Okay so how did you move from that to working in the streets?
LE: Oh God. Well, I’ve only been working in the streets this last full year. Before that I was in New Mexico working. So, pretty much, a lot of stuff I’ve done. I did this for a few years. Just painting on old Japanese paper. So, I’ve done tons of this and I guess it’s just been a slow migration. Then, I switched into glitter and I did some stuff with the Toronto takeover.

FY: I don’t know about that.
LE: I did big pieces incorporating glitter and Japanese, I always use a lot of Japanese stuff, cutouts. So, that was like last year. Then, now, I guess I just put shit into the street.

FY: Okay. So do you only do legal walls? I mean since you go by your own name.
LE: I’ve done no legal walls. The only one I did was in Basel last year.

FY: Well, I guess Commes de Garcon. I saw your work over there. That’s considered a legal wall.
LE: Oh wait which one?

FY: The store in Chelsea.
LE: You know what I’ve done…and I haven’t always. I think that. I don’t know. I don’t worry about it too much.

FY: That’s funny. Cake said the same thing. She finally linked her street art and her personal website.
LE: I think it’s the act of putting it up in the street. Like, that’s you and there you are, but I’ve had other graff writers and stuff say that they’ll get a warrant and come into your home and blah blah blah. So, I don’t know. I guess that can happen, but my thing is I really like to go off the path anyways. I really like abandoned things. Like, I love things that are abandoned.

FY: See Cake does that too. Maybe it’s some sort of parallel.
LE: Yeah.

FY: Like real names and abandoned buildings.
LE: Yeah. Well, I mean they are temporary. Except, this abandoned building I did in Red Hook could be a little iffy, but it’s also way in the back towards the water. And if you have a false name, or not false but go by a street name, you’re going to be able to find anybody online. So, I don’t worry about it too much. I mean I worry about it when I’m on the street. I get nervous, believe me.

FY: Cool. So do you only work with the geisha image when you’re getting up in the streets?
LE: Yes and animals because that’s all I ever paint. I don’t know. I guess the last girl I put up is another kimono girl.

FY: So, where do these images come from? Or why do you choose them?
LE: I don’t know. Like this one. This is about putting lobsters back into the sea because I don’t think we should eat them. So, usually my work is definitely about species. And I get crazy with scientists doing these experiments [on animals]. I go insane and I don’t understand it and I don’t know why we’re doing it. Like, my friend just sent me an article and they’re like these scientists have figured out that octopus are intelligent. Of course they are, but what does that mean? Like now they’re at a human level so we’re not going to hurt them or eat them? Which I wish we wouldn’t. I really love octopus. Like they have three hearts and they’re shy and they like to hide.

[And then my phone rang, which fyi iPhone users means your recording stops. It’s the most annoying thing ever.]

FY: Okay so what were we talking about?
LE: The crazy scientists. See I believe everything is equal. I don’t differentiate species. I mean rats are hard to live with, but I don’t think that….this idea of killing everything makes me crazy. A lot of my work is about that. Trying to bring some balance into that.

FY: So you do a lot of work with animals and animal rights. Was this something you were always interested in?
LE: Always. Always always. Like I was really crazy in college. All of my work was about slaughterhouses. I was one of those angry vegetarian people?

FY: Like those scary PETA people?
LE: Yeah, which I love them. I mean I’m not like that anymore, but I love them and I love vegans even though I’m not one anymore. I fucking love vegans. I think they’re insane half the time and totally radical and I think it’s awesome. I would rather half the world be like that, I mean even though they’re not half the world, than not.

FY: Than everyone just killing everything?
LE: Well you know what it is. It’s just this idea. So much of my work is about this idea, that people almost laugh at it, like what do you mean an octopus is intelligent? There is a very big disconnect and that’s what my work’s about because they are such incredible creatures. Like rats are incredible creatures, but if you ask most people [they say], “Oh my gosh they are full of disease and so dirty.” Well, humans are full of disease and so dirty. We are the worst species on the planet. So, what we hate them for, we are ourselves.

FY: Isn’t it even that they aren’t that dirty, they carried the bubonic plague so they got this reputation as being dirty.
LE: Yeah. That would be like the core of it, but now they are so prevalent and they’re in the garbage and people don’t like to see them in the garbage and the disease. Maybe they have rabies. So, I was much more angry then about my work. I mean I get angry about fur, that’s the one thing I get angry about.

FY: I feel there are two types of people in this camp. Are you one of the people who hate all fur and won’t wear any fur or people who only buy vintage fur because the animals have already died?
LE: That’s interesting. I can see that, but the problem probably is. I wish someone would come up with a way to tell what is vintage, new, and fake. I mean I guess you can really tell fake from real. Like someone that really knows fur could, but some of the newer fake furs are so real and I just with the vintage I don’t know that you can tell that it’s vintage so it makes it comparable for everyone to buy fur. That’s the thing.

FY: The whole thing I guess is that if you are buying vintage fur then are you still perpetuating the industry. Like if you go to a thrift store are you still perpetuating the need, or market, for fur?
LE: I mean leather is a byproduct of the industry. So it’s actually good for you to use. I guess….I do eat meat, but I don’t eat seafood. I could never ever ever eat fish.

FY: So, you work a lot with non-western cultures. Why did you pick Japan and India to work with so much?
LE: I am totally obsessed. I have lived in both places and I obsessively love Japan. I love the people, the design, all the furniture from years ago. Like I have this horsehair hat that people used to wear. Like, I’m stuck in this other world. I don’t live in 2011. Or, like I have these old Japanese screens, I make these stencils and I spray them. Or like I have these old papers from the 1900’s. So, what happened is my friend is an importer so when furniture comes over from Japan they get all this paper and stuff in them. I am kind of like a hoarder, an organized hoarder and so much of this stuff gets thrown out and I just take it all.

FY: So, what inspires these pieces for you? [Her works where she paints over old Japanese texts] What inspires what you put over it?
LE: Sometimes it’s like this photograph. This baby [elephant]. This is obviously back in the 1930’s, but he’s being brought to this zoo and he’s chained and he’s a baby and he’s on this fucked up shit with these stupid men. You can just see it in his face. So, I’m going to do something with this. So, it’s like that. I’ll see a source in photographs all the time and then I just create stories around them. ..So, it would be like honoring him. He was captured and lost in his lifetime. So, his life he probably never really got that. So, it’s always the animals.

FY: It’s not dependent on the paper then? Like what is actually said in there.
LE: Oh like what the writing is? No. I mean I like the design because I can’t read the characters and I love that the paper is really old. All the work is always based around some type of animal. Even with what I want to do on the street. Like, I always want to bring in more animals. Like, the one I just did in Red Hook is like more of what…I want to create a lot of these scenes and put them out into the street.

FY: So, what else inspires your work? Are there any artists that you see yourself working similarly to?
LE: Well, I love like the Date Farmers are my favorite for sure. I’ll tell you who inspires me the most is Paul Watson of Sea Shepherds. He basically runs Sea Shepherds and is one of the original members of Greenpeace. His whole thing is about saving whales and he gets in between the whaling ships with his boat. I mean by now he has been funded a lot. Oh like Shephard Fairey did something with them. Once a year they have a big auction with artists to raise money. A lot of artists work with them. His whole thing is he doesn’t care about humans at all. He’s like, “You can support us if you want.” To be part of it you have to be willing to die for the whale and it’s all volunteer work. So radical and they’re awesome. There are all these whaling laws in place, but no one is patrolling the high seas. Sea Shepherds are the only ones. So, basically, lots of whales are getting slaughtered that no one knows about because of the fishing industry. Who’s gonna be out on the high seas? And even though it’s in all the international laws and the waters are protected, it’s out the window. So, his intensity around it is so inspiring to me. I always try to bring that to my work. I love Kiki Smith. Man there are so many artists I love. Like miniature painters. Like I try to put that level into my work. To me they are the best. Like no one’s better on the planet. They are the ultimate.