Nicole Chui Disrupting Perfection

We have always been drawn to the immediacy of Nicole Chui’s raw embroidery style, threading emotional responses on to photography, magazines and textiles, imbuing new layers to existing images or items. There is an energy that emanates from her artwork, and the physicality of the thread lends itself perfectly to exploring her passion for football, music and fashion, as well as her Hong Kong and Malaysian-Chinese heritage and identity.

Nicole’s work is disruptive and challenges expectations of an art form traditionally associated with neatness, order and feminine craft, disrupting perfection and challenging stereotypes. As well as her creative practice Nicole is also the co-founder and goalkeeper of Baesianz FC, a London based football club for women, trans and non-binary people of Asian heritage. We caught up with Nicole to delve a little deeper in to her creative practice and find out what she has been up to.

Did you always feel that embroidery was a creative outlet for you?

Not when I first started learning embroidery because it was about following a pattern and sticking to a grid. I think I started to see embroidery in a more creative way when I started to apply it in a way that I felt like I could make it my own, like drawing freehand illustrations except with thread.

How do you feel your creative work connects you to your family and heritage?

I think every part of my work opens up a new conversation or idea that leads to either collaborating with my siblings and understanding my family history more, especially my inclusion of football in recent works. My dad now whatsapps random nostalgic pictures of me and my sisters in our family chat, including us playing football which make me reflect on how this space in my childhood has influenced my work and life now.

In terms of my heritage, I tend to apply the meaning behind certain colours in my culture to express my identity.

And how does it let you explore your identity?

It drives me creatively to express my individual and shared experiences in life through my work. It also opens up collaboration with people who are doing the same for their own identity or community which is great because I love learning about other people’s expression of identity whilst I am sharing my own. So far I’ve learnt that a lot of my own identity is shaped by community, sisterhood, and being the eldest daughter.

Your work has a real energy to it and you’ve stated that you want to embrace raw emotions through your embroidery, do you work/stitch unconsciously or is it more purposeful?

It’s a bit of both. Everything has a purpose but it’s not necessarily planned. My art is a space for me to explore the side of myself that isn’t dictated by plans and truly lets intuition guide me. I’m trying to apply this method of trusting my gut more in my personal life… so in a way I am using my art to develop my personal growth.

Can it be a cathartic process?

Yes but it can also be frustrating because I sometimes just want to finish my work as fast as possible.

You have also said you want your work to inspire others to embrace raw emotions, what is the importance of this for you?

Yes! I think it’s important because growing up I felt a lot of shame expressing how I truly felt. I was constantly taught to compress my real feelings to fit someone else’s needs and my work actually encourages people to do the opposite. This is quite deep rooted in the Chinese culture I was brought up in, and being a girl in general.

Your work often explores one of your big passions, football, and your team Baesianz FC frequently features. It feels like really fertile creative ground for you, how does football and your team inspire you?

I see the Baes all the time so I feel inspired whenever we hang out on/off the pitch, whether it’s being inspired by a whatsapp group picture, or talking about where to eat before or after a match. Playing football is also inspiring because it’s super intuitive just like the way I embroider and it gives me an adrenaline rush.

As well as commercial and editorial commissions you have a more fine art practice. How do these differ and how do they align?

Commercial and editorial commissions require a lot more planning in terms of the artwork itself and logistics around it. My fine art practice is really driven by making work that is personal to who I am and that can take days, months or years… it’s ongoing. My creative process for creating art is to fully immerse myself in the making process and not plan too much ahead. I tend to revisit pieces that I pause working on after a while so that can cause a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the final outcome or the timing of making a piece.

What are some of your favourite pieces you have created?

I’ve really been loving the exploration of text based pieces on paper and exploring embroidery on wearable football jerseys. I think what I’ve been doing a lot of lately is visible mending and there’s something really interesting about that technique being applied to both fabrics and paper.

What are you manifesting for this year?

A solo show! More projects! I’d love to work with more football clients (Spurs, Champions League, Women’s Super League, Washington Spirit) and more sports like the Olympics. I’d love to wrk with a brand that intersects sport and fashion. Ray Ban, Oakley or Ace & Tate would be cool. Cathay Pacific would also be amazing.

Redesigning my studio desk also 🙂

And anything you want to leave behind?

Bad energy and shame.

Check out Nicole’s inspiring portfolio here.