Artist Spotlight: Gabby Widjaja, “Gentle Oriental”

Gabby Widjaja is truly unmissable. Her neon blue hair, shimmery pastel makeup, and tattoos trailing from her legs to her arms command undeniable attention. Before I even spoke to Gabby, I was already intimidated by her strong aesthetic and confident sense of self I gathered from Instagram posts. However, as soon as we began chatting, I realized that not only is Gabby incredibly talented and uniquely herself, but she is also truly earnest and humble with her craft. 

“Gentle Oriental” is the perfect self descriptor for Gabby, as she is as kind as she is sincere and exudes an unsuppressable fascination with Asian history, art, and identity. Through vibrant digital illustrations, printed zines, and hand-poked tattoos, Gabby seeks to dissect her Asian American experience, while encouraging others to ponder their own. 

Above all, Gabby’s work opposes the idea of art for art’s sake. She intentionally seeks to challenge Western notions of beauty and art and instigate difficult conversations about the spectrum of identity.

I was lucky enough to speak with Gabby over Zoom last week where we spoke about our mutual love for the color red, anticipation for the next live action Avatar the Last Airbender, and all things Gentle Oriental in between. 

Tell us about who you are and what you do!

I’m Gabby, and I am Chinese-Indonesian. Well, I identify as Chinese, because my family immigrated from the Fujian province of China to Indonesia centuries ago. We’ve adopted Indonesian culture, so my last name is Indonesian; I think we changed it a couple generations back. 

That’s my heritage, but I was born and raised in the Bay Area in California before I moved here [New York City]. I went to RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) for my BFA in graphic design, and I graduated last June and then I moved here to work for a company called Airtable, which is a small tech company. In my free time, I just do all of this Gentle Oriental stuff–design, illustration, booklets, tattoos–which is my true passion. That's me!

Who is Gentle Oriental? 

I thought of Gentle Oriental as a handle when I was a junior in college, and I just thought it was so funny that it rhymed. I thought, “This is genius!” It also describes me: I'm gently Oriental. Honestly, I think all Asian Americans are gentle Orientals.

My practice is about reclaiming Orientalism, which is a term used in Western society that refers to the othering and exoticizing of the East.

I think it's interesting that us Asian Americans, or really any Asian from the Diaspora, look at our own culture from another perspective, because we didn’t grow up where our ancestors originated. For example, I didn't grow up in China, so it's almost as if I'm rediscovering my own heritage from a Western perspective through my Gentle Oriental practice. I ask myself, ‘How much claim do I actually have to Asian culture?’ I think sometimes I feel imposter syndrome within my own culture. At the same time, I feel like it's our birthright to know more about where we came from.

What does being Asian American mean to you, and how does that identity drive your art?

I feel like all Asian Americans have different relationships to our culture. It's definitely a spectrum, and wherever you fall, it’s totally valid. Some Asian Americans might not even care about their original culture, while some really want to be connected but have difficulty finding those threads. Then there are others who are still fully engaged, because their families reinforce that connection. 

I use Gentle Oriental as a way to learn about and engage with my heritage. For personal projects, I dig into certain interesting topics. For example I'm currently learning about Traditional Chinese Medicine, and I just think it's fascinating. COVID really makes me think about health and wellness and I thought it’d be interesting to approach health from a non-Western perspective.

When I use Chinese words in my art, I try to memorize them or commit them to memory. In college I went through a phase of worrying that I would lose any semblance of culture I have in my life if I don’t start trying to learn it now. So my work sort of becomes a vehicle for learning Chinese in a way that’s more engaging.

What are you working on right now?

I just recently made a parody of the Birth of Venus, but the lady wears a Chinese traditional robe (Hanfu).

Another one of my most popular pieces so far has been my rendition of “The Danse” by Matisse in which five ladies wearing Qipao dance in a circle. It's just taking something that we're familiar with through an American lens and making other people see it through a different one. I plan on making more Asian renditions of Western art and subverting the Western Canon one masterpiece at a time.

How has being Asian American in the time of Covid and BLM influenced your work, and how has it changed your perspective on American society?

Asian identity during COVID and Black Lives Matter certainly go hand in hand.

The rise of Anti-Asian sentiments brought on by Coronavirus proves that just as white supremacy gives us that support when it’s convenient, they can easily rip the rug from underneath our feet when it no longer serves them. Just like that, we're back to being the Yellow Peril.

As it relates to BLM, Asians only seem to care about race when we are under attack; many of us never showed up for other minority communities but expected them to come running to our defense. How can we expect solidarity from other minorities if we don’t give it in the first place?

My friend Jex Wang (@asiangirlfriend) shared that quote with me, and she inspired me to create my Asians Unite for Black Power poster.

The protests made us aware that Asian Americans have been painfully complicit in the Anti-Black culture of America from cultural appropriation to colorism, so we have a duty to care and to fight for Black lives.

All that to say, I started dabbling in making art for social justice for the first time during the protests, because I realized that design can be an incredibly powerful tool for social change and resistance. We can make beautiful protest signs and slogans as well as infographics to spread information clearly and concisely.

You’ve been using your platform to spread awareness for Black issues and for Black Lives Matter, so I would also love it if you could talk a little bit about what #AsiansforBlackLives means.

I just want to say that I'm still super new to this social justice landscape. I am not perfect, and I'm still learning so much stuff. I've even made mistakes in the past couple weeks, and I have been guilty of complacency, which a lot of us (Asian Americans) are too. 

I’ve been working on my art as it relates to #AsiansForBlackLives for the past couple months, because I’m trying to allow the momentum of the movement to continue radicalizing myself. The idea of Asians for Black lives is contentious because some believe that it takes away the focus from Black Lives Matter by bringing Asians into it, but in my humble opinion I feel that there's strength in the specificity of the phrase: we're calling in/calling out our own community and doing the work at home to address the long standing issues such as colorism, and understand our complicated histories.

Can you tell us about your artistic career so far, and how did you develop your aesthetic to what it is now?

In school I learned about Swiss graphic design and the grid (the Western canon), and I always tried to conform. It was good to learn the basics, but I felt like I was always trying to fit myself into this “clean” box that Western standards had set, and I never really found my voice until my senior year of college when I was working on my degree project at RISD. So I was like ‘fuck that,’ and I just did illustrative design a lot during senior year and that's where I really found my voice.

I think once you learn the rules and then start to break them, you’ll start to find yourself. I think I've sort of found my way, but it is still very much evolving from day to day and week to week. Who knows what I’ll be making a year from now or what it’ll look like!

How is your approach to graphic design differently from any 3D projects you've done? And which medium do you prefer? 

Well, a lot of my graphic design stuff ends up manifesting as 3D or physical objects (books, posters, etc.), so they’re one and the same. I love the physicality of print so much. In terms of cross-disciplinary work, I think my background in graphic design translated well to my illustrations, because I keep my illustrations fairly simple. I feel like the one thing that really ties all my work together is my use of color. 

I fucking love color–vibrant blues greens and especially RED. I love the color red. I used to have all red hair for the longest time at RISD, but when I was little I used to hate it because I thought it was so obnoxious and loud. It’s also such a lucky color in Chinese culture. I just feel so connected to my culture and confident whenever I wear red.

Tell us about your tattoo practice! When did you start tattooing? And how is that an entirely different process in and of itself?

I'm still super new! I started in October or November of last year. I started because I made this little scribble sheet one time, and people were just asking me if they were flash drawings and I was like, no but that's like an interesting idea. 

I love making flash drawings, because they're my small ideas or moments that I never thought would become a fully realized project. Flash drawings are pre-made designs by artists for tattoos in lieu of custom designs. I think all tattoo artists are very attached to their flash drawings, because it's your art and it's very personal–it's not made specifically for anyone else. Otherwise, I like to prioritize custom projects that fit my voice and style.

Hand poking is really hard, and it requires a lot of precision obviously and takes a lot of time but I love the results and texture. It is very slow and meditative.

Two really good things came out of tattooing. The first was the community that I found through tattooing. I've made a lot of amazing friends on Instagram within the Queer/Trans and BIPOC communities who are also indie and self-taught. Secondly, it’s also how I meet new people post-graduation. A lot of my clients end up becoming new friends, and I meet other creatives in different fields!

Who are you inspired by who inspired you growing up? How do you think your inspirations have influenced your art career and where you are today? 

My parents are a big part of the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing now. They were always very supportive of my artistic passions, so I’m really grateful for that and they’re an inspiration for me in that sense.

I’m inspired by many other Asian Americans artists like Monyee Chau and Ada Chen, who also make work about Asian American existence. When I was at RISD, I looked up to them, and now I’ve actually exchanged messages with both of them. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can't believe I'm even talking to y’all right now. I referenced you in my degree project research!’ 

What advice would you give to younger artists looking to find their niche and style?

I would just say try everything, and don't be afraid to try something even though you know you’ll be shit at it. It's good to find out by process of elimination what you don't want to do. I tried painting for a while and then I was like, ‘You know what, I'm fucking bad at painting.’ I can’t mix colors even if my life depended on it. Also, when you see artists who you love or are inspired by, try to really analyze why you are drawn to that style. It's easy to think, ‘Oh, I like that,’ but then you have to ask yourself, ‘Why do I like that?’ This will really help you analyze what concrete qualities you aspire towards within art and design.

Oh, and learn outside of the Western Canon, damn it! Look into your own or other cultures and find inspiration from that! Decolonize design (and art); don’t hold the West as the gold standard.

What’s on the horizon for you?

I don't know because I'm in Tech from 9-5 right now and there are certainly parts of it I like, because I believe in my company’s mission. However, I love what I'm doing on the side. Right now my Gentle Oriental stuff is a little supplementary thing I do, but I just think about how much joy I get every weekend or after work hours when I’m working on personal projects. I just feel like I haven't worked at all, and I think to myself, ‘Wow, what if that was my whole life?’

You can find Gabby on Instagram @gentle.oriental and learn more about her on her website: https://www.gentleoriental.co.