SOFT-POWER-MANIA.  A Dialog with Tommy Xie |

To converse of vulnerability as gentle energy is to come across its double. Hidden company, naked want, and quiet possession take type in Chaozhou- born, London-based artist Tommy Xie’s figurative creativeness. His work permit ambiguities to exist in stillness but retain their full affective energy. In melancholic hues, Xie builds a queer relationality the place every physique, directly tender and self-possessed, inhabits a close to soft-power-mania. He constructs the psychic structure of his internal worlds via a story that’s each sensual and surreal. The silent eroticism of his figures evades sexualization, as their intentions, feelings, and environments stay imbued with contradiction.  

I first encountered Xie’s work in an exhibition at an artist-run studio house in South London again in 2021. Xie’s presence within the room stood out. Much like in his work, he has an attuned, radiant, and emotionally vivid strategy to each artwork and life. Ever since, our conversations have by no means actually stopped. This time round, we met up shortly after his return to London from his most up-to-date solo present “The Chasing Game” (2025) at Tureen in Dallas, Texas. Marking the so-called “darker turn” in his work, we unpack the dualities of soppy energy, the idea of “mother” in his work, the potential of melancholy in queer world-building, and his meticulous, extremely expert strategy to portray. 

Moa Jegnell: I’m curious in regards to the title of your most up-to-date present, “The Chasing Game.” It has a playful ingredient that creates a distinction with a few of the extra melancholic tones of the present.  

Tommy Xie: Since the motives of the present had been already leaning into the deeper psychological facet of issues, I wished the title to be lighter and, actually, only a bit extra enjoyable. The present is about playfulness, but in addition violence in energy dynamics and the way the actions in chasing and being chased complicate questions of company.  

What has been described as a “darker turn” in my work is just not a few demonic evil, however about this interaction of want and its residues. I used to be attempting to just accept, or embrace, internal psychological tensions that I’ve all the time tried to reject. It connects to what you would possibly name the self- damaging nature of queer coping mechanisms, or survival ways: methods to quickly exist in areas or conditions the place morals, ethics, or legitimacy are blurred. I used to be exploring the alternative ways violence can present itself quietly in day-to-day life. The violence I’m speaking about is usually psychological. The work within the present come from a spot of introspection targeted on exploring “violent residues.” 

MJ: There’s a way on this present that the ache isn’t simply inner, slightly, it’s relational. Were you pondering of how these internal tensions play out between individuals, or inside intimacy itself?

TX: My work should not indulging within the cute- harm, sad-boy-room sort of sentimentality. The exploration of darker psychic components, the place legitimacy is blurred and melancholy is current, is supposed to provide fuller quantity to queerness. Not seeing self-destructive behaviors merely as trauma responses to be rejected, however to know them as coping mechanisms, survival ways, and generally as types of company in hostile environments. These gestures, nonetheless messy, can reveal how want, disgrace, energy, and intimacy are negotiated within the personal sphere. By acknowledging these contradictions, queerness is allowed to exist in unruly and unresolved methods. That’s essential to me: to blur the boundaries, to indicate that softness can be energy. 

MJ: The figures all have an intense vulnerability, but they’re filled with contradictions.  

TX: Totally, their vulnerabilities should not passive; they’re strategic. I discover this within the curves and postures of the figures, looking for that steadiness between energy and vulnerability. But it’s additionally why I deal with the facial features; to create these subtleties. Some of the figures is perhaps smiling, some scheming, others extra withdrawn, unsure, even relaxed. The figures are largely primarily based on myself, however I alter them to construct completely different eventualities. It was after I learn theorist Amber Musser, when she described one thing like plural selfhood, that it gave me the language to clarify why. For instance, in The Possession (2025), each the determine within the terrarium and the one beneath it, are extensions of myself. The concept of the plural self is about creating capability inside your self for contradiction and letting many various components of you coexist. 

MJ: As my “homework” for our dialog, you gave me the guide Closer (1990) by American novelist Dennis Cooper. It’s a fragmented novel from 1990, a part of his collection drawing from his good friend and later lover George Miles. In this guide, you observe a gaggle of youngsters drifting via fantasies of want and destruction. You’ve usually referenced Cooper, and I can actually sense his manner of depicting psychological pressure in your work. How does his writing translate into your visible language?  

TX: I feel after I was studying Closer and the opposite novels in Cooper’s “George Miles Cycle” (1989– 2000), it gave me the language to explain a few of the emotions that I can’t specific. Obviously, there are lots of obvious acts of hurt in his work. But I’m drawn to the imaginative connections and delusions; the push and pull across the act of violence. There’s a craving in all of the characters; they only don’t know the precise approach to strategy it. And after they see potentialities, in addition they reject themselves from having them. I really feel like violence on this context, whether or not on receiving or giving finish, comes from the failure of affection. I additionally love his manner of depicting the bounds of our bodies. There’s this quote from his different guide Frisk (1991) that I all the time come again to: “I want him, specifically his skin, because skin’s the only thing that’s available. But I’ve had enough sex in my life with enough guys to recognize how little skin can explain about anyone. So I start getting into this rage about how stingy skin is.” 1 

MJ: Is this what you are attempting to know via your portray?  

TX: Yes, it’s a contemplation on the multiplicity of ways in which love can exist in locations we don’t anticipate. 

MJ: For the Tureen present, Dennis Cooper was a giant inspiration, however how would you say that you just typically navigate a brand new part in your work. What helps you articulate its type? Where do you draw references for portray?  

TX: For me, discovering new language to explain issues which can be usually ineffable is sort of a ardour. Recently, I’ve been studying Robert Glück’s guide About Ed (2023). When studying, the invention of latest emotions turns into an try for me to strive new issues in my portray. Adjusting postures, including furnishings, or experimenting with textures on the wall and the ground. It’s related for movie and music. When I hearken to sure songs on repeat for a very long time, the picture will simply present up in my head. And then I’ll begin to attract it out. When I used to be making The Possession, I used to be obsessive about the album “Portishead” by Portishead. It’s very eerie, and dystopian, however has this dreamy dimension as properly. And so, listening to music interprets feelings and brings them into visuals in my portray.  

For principle, it’s extra in positioning myself and my follow on the planet. Like with theorist Amber Musser, who I maintain referencing in my work, it’s extra to assist me navigate and perceive my place as a POC queer individual in bigger political and social contexts. I assume it helps me really feel not solely legitimate, however braver in my emotions as I navigate my identification inside a bigger context. I really feel like principle is for me a sort of skeleton after which fiction and movies are like the guts. 

MJ: Besides textual content, your work additionally attracts from private reflections and broader cultural concepts round household, sexuality, nationality, and particularly masculinity out of your hometown of Chaozhou, China.  

TX: For positive, there’s a selected sort of masculinity that has all the time been a part of my work. In my hometown, males are emotional, however their expression is constrained by expectations and the Confucian patriarchal beliefs that form what they will or can’t be. Growing up queer on this setting, I realized to exist inside these restrictions, but in addition to acknowledge the bounds they impose. Moving to London and being in predominantly white areas made me extra conscious of how race intersects with these expectations. How stereotypes about Asian masculinity work together with my sense of submission and want, and the way that has formed my relationships and self-perception. Navigating that complexity has knowledgeable the emotional core of my work. 

MJ: I’m inquisitive about how this pertains to your attentive relationship together with your mom or the concept of “mothering.” The title of your present at Silke Lindner final 12 months in New York was even “M/other.” How has this advanced?  

TX: I’ve a posh relationship with my mom, through which ache and care, love and cruelty have usually blurred. So, “mother” kinds each as a determine and an concept in my portray the place I permit reverse feelings to co-exist. My first solo present at Ginny on Frederick in London was virtually an try to forgive her, or to know her flaws. My second solo final 12 months at Silke Lindner carried on exploring the connection to my mom, however “mother” additionally developed right into a verb for queer friendships primarily based on author Alexis Gumbs’s concept of “mothering” as a technique for sustaining life and queer collaboration. I spotted that each one the completely different conflicting feelings my mother launched me to, which I didn’t but have the language for, really constructed my resilience as a queer individual. It made me more durable, but in addition extra emotionally attuned.  

MJ: There’s usually a surreal high quality to the environments and objects in your work. Objects really feel virtually animate or imbued with power, the department engulfing the determine in The Possession, the brick hand in Risk (2025). There’s a quiet eeriness within the figures’ environment, a way that these environments are alive and responsive. Where does that sense come from?  

TX: The environments of my work usually act as an exterior projection of the figures’ interiority. I’m influenced by the non secular and cultural presence of Buddhism in my hometown and upbringing, the place each object has its personal spirituality. I all the time intention to make environments conscious of the figures, so even a single determine can really feel full. I’ve additionally been exploring “less is more,” with out it being a “cheat code,” specializing in experimenting with textures, extra fleshy aesthetics, and the way postures in relation to their environment can embody non secular dimensions. The rooms and environments in my work are for my viewers too. It’s an area for them to challenge their very own feelings onto the canvas. 

MJ: That sense of animation and quiet spirituality may be very particular to your work. You’re a really skillful and technical painter as properly, which in all probability provides to this livingness. You stated as soon as that you just view your means of portray extra like craftsmanship.  

TX: Yes, extra just lately I’ve been impressed by documentaries or movies on particular cultural craft practices in Japan or China, like ceramics or wooden carving. It takes ages and lots of dedication and energy to excellent an end result that’s so gorgeous and spectacular. And I do see my portray as craftsmanship as a result of I’m devoted, and I need to create one thing that isn’t solely emotionally efficient but in addition one thing individuals can admire for its skillfulness.  

MJ: Beyond technical talent, what do you hope individuals actually see after they have a look at your work?  

TX: One of my targets with portray is for individuals to face in entrance of it — there’s no motion, no audio — nevertheless it offers the same narrative depths as movie. I feel loads about how photos converse and work’ potential for world-building. It’s about creating a way of suspension, of what would possibly occur subsequent, or what has occurred earlier than. I need my work to exist throughout the continuity of a story.  

MJ: Lastly, what’s it in regards to the act of portray that retains you going?  

TX: It’s going to be fairly cringe.  

MJ: Just say it. 

TX: It makes me really feel much less lonely.