How Culture Breeds Creativity: Keavan Yazdani
*Keavan Yazdani has worked as the creative director of Daniel Caesar and is now trailblazing his own path producing work that will hopefully transcend his own lifetime*
As an artist myself I have often pondered the relationship between the culture I was raised in and the way it influences how I create. It is apparent whether consciously or subconsciously that our own unique positionalities, specifically our cultural backgrounds, manifests its way into our creative processes. To some, these influences go unnoticed but to others, it acts as a motivating factor to create not just for oneself but for the culture that bred them. I was fortunate enough to have had a conversation with visual artist Keavan Yazdani to discuss how culture has fostered concepts of creativity and influence how we generate art as a whole.
Born to a Persian father and Filipino mother, influence from both of these cultures were prevalent in his youth, the latter of these two left a lasting impact on how Keavan lives his life. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Keavan was not exempt from the typical filipino “famjams” flooded with drunk titos, karaoke and lumpia. This exposure to Filipino culture is evident in the recent work of Keavan. His Bahay Project aimed to “celebrate & showcase the beauty & culture of the Philippines as home, Filipino/Filipina creatives, and the contributions that have been made to popular culture today.” is a proud example of this. Products such as the Lola (Filipino for grandmother) frames, which are yet to be released, highlight one of the many traits innate to Keavan, an attention to detail.
Keavan
Keavan(K): “The most important thing to me is the beauty of it, not the vanity, not to look cool or be this or that… when you look at the colors and feel the shapes I want that to be innately beautiful.”
During a trip to Tulum, Mexico, Keavan found himself in the ocean after a few too many shots of tequila. He was wearing his prized pair of vintage frames which his friend warned him to be careful about due to the likelihood of them getting lost in the ocean. His response was typical for when your friend tries to act like your parent, a simple “Yo fuck you.” followed by reassurance that he wasn’t gonna lose them. One brawny wave later the shades were lost, swept away by the tide. Returning to Canada distraught by the loss and in the midst of the first wave of the pandemic, Keavan found himself feeling the effects of lockdown-shiftless and idle. “I was just sitting there and rotting…” he said but Keavan was too self aware to let this continue and so he turned to art as an outlet forming his “brand” Joaquina, named after his Lola. Keavan sought out to produce his own variation of the shades under his new brand. After collaborating with rendering artists and technical drawers he was able to find a manufacturer in Italy to actualize his vision.
What I was lucky enough to be shown was an intricately thought-out final product showcasing details that had me blown away. From the fictional airline ‘joaquina sky’ boarding pass cover to the passport packaging and my favorite part, the inscription inside the temple of the shades that read “DON’T LOSE IN SEA. 2020”, the Lola frames highlight some of the design skills Keavan has been able to hone over the past few years.
Lola Frames, Bahay Bag and “Ninong Kobe” sticker pack
William (W): How would you describe your creative process?
K: “It's an amalgamation of the experiences that lead the way when I create… it’s my version of a photo album, when I look at it, hold it, see other people wearing it… it brings back good feelings…. This is essentially why I create. All the love, the emotion it evokes in others, all the other stuff, that's just an added bonus, a byproduct of it.”
This is clear in the overt design language Keavan has instilled in his work. Although currently his biggest source of inspiration are the experiences and journey he has had relating with Filipino culture he alluded to a point in time in his career where this might pivot. For now, what we will continue to hopefully see is the product of an authentic Filipino experience with the complex and innovative design ethos of a seasoned artist. Keavan openly spoke about how he wanted to help provide the Philippines with a seat at the table as we discussed what seems to be a renaissance period for Philippine art with creatives part of the diaspora helping to lead the charge.
Keavan noted how he wants other artists to perceive the Philippines as a creative hub inviting them to participate in the culture and create whilst visiting. “Jamaica is one of the most influential countries in contemporary culture, I don’t see why another small island like ours can’t be there as well” he noted. Keavan listed the many similarities of the two countries ranging from the island landscapes, colorful towns, and even the font aesthetics used on hand painted signs hung around towns and beaches. As many patriotic artists have set out to do, Keavan hopes to be a piece in the puzzle that provides the Philippines with a pedestal highlighting its rich culture. He also noted how it would be easy for the Philippines to become this hub as “we are a very loving culture, we don’t care who you are, come vibe with us, come drink with us, we always welcome everybody.”
With this being said what is surprising is that Keavan is a purely self-taught artist. Expressing that he wishes he had basic theoretical foundations in certain disciplines he explains that there is a duality to being self-taught as one of his strongest artistic traits is his “eye”. An eye that has been untouched and never been coached on what is right or what makes sense. “When I was younger it felt like a flex [having an eye without background]….everything [his work] has honestly just been organic moments''.
His story on how his directorial debut came about epitomizes an ‘organic moment’. Working with Daniel Caesar on his music videos, they found themselves unhappy with the attempted direction previous directors had taken on prior videos leading to them scrapping all the footage from their past projects. A friend asked why they didn’t just direct it themselves. After a few moments of deliberation Keavan exclaimed “fuck it lets do it” which empowered him to produce award winning music videos such as: Freudian, A Visual, CYANIDE: REMIX and Best Part, A Visual that are now a part of the cultural zeitgeist.
K: “For me and my homies music was the foot in the door but that is not the end all be all, the photography, the visuals….that's not the end we tryna to build cities, build communities, foster education of agriculture, technology….really use our talents to set up the avenues for creating generational knowledge and wealth and happiness”
Keavan’s holistic and grounded approach to his life and work is something to be admired. Throughout the many anecdotes and future plans shared during our conversation there was a recurring theme of helping others. Helping others through the medium Keavan knows best, creating.
“It starts with taking your talents, what you're good at and if you have foresight you take that and build it and then you keep going with it. You enter new places, if you're not knowledgeable with it and you don't know how to do certain things then you find the people that do know those things then it becomes a collaboration, it becomes bigger than yourself.”
This mentality is what I believe to have been a contributing factor to his success not just in his art but in how he has positioned himself as a renaissance man of sorts, dabbling in all disciplines, producing award winning visuals and conceptually loaded works.
W: Do you think that subconsciously your work is an act of giving back to the culture that seems to have helped foster you?
K: “100% it is an act of giving back, it is an innate act of kindness, this whole thing has given me so much joy and I want to give back in the one way I know how to, art and creativity”.
Keavan is not blinded to the ‘white savior complex’ associated with successful people giving back. “A lot of shit now is politicized so I think it [giving back] gets lost in that sometimes... that’s always been the plan though, to go back and showcase the beauty of the Philippines but lead it with people from the culture because ideally you want to see the money invested back, you wanna see the money go back into the communities to create more opportunities.” Last Christmas, during the launch of the Joquina.World virtual gallery, Keavan used the funds raised from selling art prints to put together Christmas packages for the children in the Sta. Niño barangay in Tarlac, his mother’s native city.
“I want to provide kids with a space to escape,'' he said when going over one of his many projects that involved building a basketball court in a barangay for kids to go and play in. “What makes people happy? What's the best way to foster a sense of community and acceptance?” he added when going over his methodology of giving back effectively. It is clear that as important as his art is to him this emphasis on giving back evinces how much Filipino culture has nurtured him into the artist he is today.
When speaking to Keavan about how this ties into his own legacy and how he wants to be remembered he admitted “there is a self centric aspect to it, you know creating legacy”, however, he brought up the dualism to this. “One thing I always tell my homies is two things can be true: it can be self serving, an act of self preservation but it can also be an opportunity to provide, an opportunity for so many people for generations to come….both of them that's the way I approach it”. Keavan stressed the importance of balance and equilibrium as many artists get caught up in the “fantasy” of it all and lose sight of the realities of life.
In September of this year Keavan held a pop-up shop titled OUT THE TRUNK where he sold some of his own products and flowers out the trunk of his car. This event hopefully serves as a prerequisite for a future project of Keavan’s titled Gloria’s Flower Shop modelled off his Tita (Filipino for aunt) Glo’s flower shop located in front of his ancestral home in Tarlac. What Keavan hopes to achieve with Gloria’s Flower Shop is to pay homage to his ancestral ties whilst redefining them through his own lens, presenting his version of his Tita’s shop in a more contemporary setting.
Keavan has recently moved into a new studio in Toronto, dubbed Toy Store Studio, that will soon be open for people to utilize for their own creative projects. This move was prompted by the rut Keavan found himself in and his desire to be surrounded by things that inspire him. He has meticulously curated a space that will hopefully help him achieve constant stimulation.
Toy Store Studio
Keavan was able to spill some of the many projects he is currently working on which I look forward to seeing being realized. Keep up with Keavan on his instagram @keavanx and follow his affiliate accounts, @toystorestudio and @joaquina.world to keep in touch with what he is working on.