Kaixi Yang is an abstract enigma who pirouettes endlessly at the edge between reason and beauty. One day she conjures colored calligraphy across a canvas, and the next she eloquently sermonizes sustainable city planning at the World Economic Forum in Geneva. This relentlessly original thinker grew up in New Zealand, far from the world at large, the child of immigrant shopkeepers and blazed her way to Stanford’s design program. Only two New Zealanders are admitted to Stanford on average per year.
In this special preview episode of the Compose Yourself Podcast, Kaixi dives deeply into her artistic practice and life’s journey. We touch upon traditional energetic concepts like chi and mana, building creative relationships and community, the trap approach to music production, and much more.
Since recording this episode, Kaixi founded ENTITY, sustainable design studio which advises industrial clients on practices for running their businesses in a more environmentally safe manner. She proposed a framework for creating a more naturally harmonious future for Auckland City, based around the Doughnut Economic model – an economic theory that focuses on meeting all people’s needs without overly depleting the world’s natural resources. Kaixi received a grant from the World Economic Forum for her work and was invited to represent Auckland alongside youth leaders from 500 cities.
For Kaixi, life is about striking a balance between sustainable design and creative practice. Her calligraphy has graced the cover of Sinostories, a collection of writing about the Chinese diaspora, and additional paintings appear alongside each beautifully curated story. Recently, she was invited to do live painting accompanied by jazz at the grand opening of a New York gallery. Not long after that, she designed an augmented reality filter which reads brain activity and creates visuals based on a person’s mood – such as blooming flowers when a person is happy.
Learn more about this multi-media sensation by listening to the full Podcast interview here. You can find also keep up with Kaixi on Instagram at @kaixiyang.art
