'I’m really interested in creating a character with the garments, but the inside would be hollow. Maybe that’s why I’m so interested in ghosts’ - Zadie Xa, Elephant Magazine On entry to Zadie Xa’s new commission for Whitechapel Gallery, 'House Gods, Animal Guides and ​Five Ways 2 Forgiveness', the visitor is welcomed by a brightly coloured cloak adorned with bells, knives, kimchi and flowers. This textile piece represents a Korean shamanic deity known as Princess Bari, or Bari Gong​ju, which translates as ‘throwaway’ or ‘abandoned princess’. Playing a pivotal role within shamanic and oral mythologies, the figure of Bari Gong​ju is one that guides souls from the living world into the underworld after death. Here she acts as the viewer’s first guide, a presence that accompanies visitors on a journey through the installation. In the exhibition Xa references folktales, oral histories and spiritual and religious rituals as systems of knowledge that are repressed within Western worldviews. Explore a world of deities, goddesses and animal spirits brought together in an immersive installation with choreographed lighiting and sound. Zadie Xa’s House Gods, Animal Guides, and Five Ways 2 Forgiveness is on until 30 April 2023. Find out more via the #linkinbio Zadie Xa: House Gods, Animal Guides and Five Ways 2 Forgiveness, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 20 September 2022 – 30 April 2023. Photo: Andy Keate