Interview & Article by Anastasia Biselli
Xaivier Ringer is a U.S. born muralist, who has spent many years living in the Dominican Republic. She blazed her own trail in creating what she defines as “artist-led development that is community owned”. Xaivier is currently collaborating with NewComm as part of our latest initiative and merch line titled, “SomethingBLACK”. In this interview, Xaivier shares what being a Black, female entrepreneur means to her, and dives into key concepts such as “beautifying” our spaces and the significance of being “limitless”.
Thanks for having this conversation, Xaivier! Tell us about who you are, what your professional background is & what you do.
My name is Xaivier Ringer, I went to school for Government, and I happened to minor in Studio Art and Spanish. I've lived abroad in the Dominican Republic, and I accumulated about nine years of experience there. I started by working in development consulting after graduating from college and I happened to do a project for UNDP.
What first inspired you to move to the Dominican Republic?
I had a roommate in college, and she was grappling with her own identity, in connection to not being with other fellow Latinos, and actually being closer to the Black community. Her experience in relation to her identity - and her constantly showing me photos of the Dominican Republic – each time made me think, “that looks like my cousin, or my friend, or someone I just grew up with”. Eventually, I decided to go study abroad there and I immediately felt at home with the country, thus my decision to then move back after college.
Can you tell us more about what your experience was like in the Dominican Republic, as an African American woman?
Similar to the U.S., living in a Caribbean country, exposed me once again to the reality that despite the population being very much Brown and Black, there was a lack of visibility, specifically in the media. This was one of the reasons I started being very intentional about putting dark or brown skin people in my work. My experience in the Dominican Republic has certainly directly influenced why I focus on women and men of color in everything that I do.
How did your experience abroad impact your art & entrepreneurship journey?
I like to highlight and provide a platform for marginalized communities and so [my experience abroad] definitely directly impacted my approach and work. A lot of the work I do has to do with my own experience of dealing with my own identity as a black woman in the United States.
Moving to a foreign country that has its own challenges and opportunities with Black identity, allowed me to truly start focusing on community development work, specifically with youth and women of color, who happened to look a lot like me. In the Dominican Republic, I started focusing on murals and “Beautification” projects, in addition to running an all-girls camp to empower young women.
In 2015, I started an illustration project as a response to my own journey and womanhood of accepting and affirming who I am, and with time, my work started to fully reflect those ideas through depicting women in powerful poses and silhouettes accompanied by affirmations.
Today, I have about a decade of experience working with young people and engaging them in “Beautifying” their communities and thinking about who they are and how they can make an impact.
What does it mean to you to “create artist-led development” that is community-centered?
I am really passionate about speaking life into who we are and I am a firm believer in really highlighting our power to change the world. I think the more we stop our negative talk, the more we can love ourselves and the more we can love others.
I love engaging communities and allowing them to take hold of what we're creating. I do that in the mural making process by including everyone in developing the design, painting the mural and encouraging people to take ownership of the piece. So, that's pretty much what's behind my work.
You previously spoke about this idea of “Beautification”. What does this mean to you? I would love it if you could expand on that.
I think “Beautification” means to take a space that has, for example, ordinary community, or industrial, or city planning functions and install some sort of art or experience in it for whoever passes by to enjoy.
From an art standpoint, “Beautification” to me means to create an art experience that is not just about something looking pretty but something being thoughtful and allowing people to think about who they are and the world around them. In other words, I think it means to expand a space from its ordinary use by putting art into it.
If you had to list a few traits or attributes that are pivotal to your art, what would they be & can you explain them?
A lot of my work represents silhouettes that are faceless. The idea is that this can allow one to see themselves in the painting. So maybe there's this sense of “Beautifying” and affirming who you already are, have always been, and can evolve to be.
For example, the [NewComm] design has a couple of elements: it has a representation of nature and growth, represented through the leaves. It has a 3D triangle and a woman silhouette, which appears to be particularly strong and bold, yet modern - if you look at the short hair, for example. And then, I always put triangles - or often - put triangles in the faces of my illustrations. I feel like this draws you in and speaks to our soul, our essence. In this case, the pattern of triangles in the background represents the challenges that we continue to face, the patterns in our society.
Finally, the word “Limitless” is there to speak that very idea into our existence. We are limitless, we are unbound. I truly want that power to always be felt in my art.
Can you dive into how this collaboration with NewComm first came about, and what inspired the work?
It was very exciting to come up with the [NewComm] design. When Chidi first started talking to me about the “pain points” - the things that can stand in the way of our progress - I started thinking about the number of times I have heard things like, “oh, I live in a food desert” or maybe “I don't have access to a B or C”. And when I think about my community - Black women in the United States - I think about how resilient the community is, and can be, [as a result of those “pain points”], despite the challenges that constantly stand in our way.
I often think about how there's so much creativity and beauty that is developed from what is seemingly a lack or challenge. For this reason, I wanted to do something that affirmed our power and resilience but also spoke to how those bounds and challenges can be broken. I wanted to speak about how we can beat the odds. How limitless we still are. But imagine how much more we could do if those challenges weren’t there, right? Imagine if we didn't have those bounds. If we could all reach our full potential.
Your art name is “The International Muralist”. Murals are of course a form of public art. Could you explain the difference between studio vs public art, and the importance the latter holds for you?
I will start by saying that I don’t do a lot of studio art, I only sometimes design the murals in my office. That certainly creates its own type of intimacy, especially when you’re by yourself, and your own thoughts. But I think that street – or public – art, allows you to put something in the public sphere and have an immediate interaction. There is a special relationship and communication that happens with the public. I really enjoy public art. I love having the public be involved in that way: I love when people walk by, and I can talk to them, I can interact.
You know, I usually don't own the wall, I don't own the neighborhood, it’s not even the neighborhood in which I live - that I'm usually painting in. This is to say that it's an opportunity for me, as an artist, to put my work in a place that – while not mine – gives the opportunity to people to be seen, while allowing me to tell a story that is shared. And you are right, another special thing about public art is that it is certainly more “accessible” than other forms of artistic expression. It allows for a genuine conversation about who we are to happen, no matter the context.
Sometimes entrepreneurship can be a hard and isolating journey. What are some of your goals for the future & what keeps you going?
I'm a mom and an entrepreneur, so my number one goal as of right now is to create more work that allows me to have more quality time with my son. I would also love to continue doing more mural projects that involve affirming the power of Black women. I also want to provide more of a toolkit for young communities that want to install their own murals, in their own neighborhoods.
In other words, I want to make more art and do more community engagement, and create even more interaction with young people. I also want to continue developing ways in which to engage young women, perhaps through art-based workshops.
What is a dream that you have for the future? I have heard you would love to start your own non-profit.
I do have the dream of one day having my own non-profit. It would be a non-profit that funds women’s own empowerment. I am thinking this could take the form of summer camps, all at the neighborhood level - in public gardens, for example. The camps would revolve around ideas of self-acceptance and self-love while doing activities that really highlight who we are. This could allow these women to come up with concepts that are speaking to the other young girls in their communities, for example.
What ideas do you live by when making your art?
Experiencing racism and discrimination in the United States and then going somewhere else and seeing how imperialism and colonialism have impacted us all is something that is truly relatable.
Maybe I've always had that eagerness to highlight and affirm our “assets”, but I think living in the Dominican Republic specifically – which is a very charming culture where people despite the challenges the country may face, are very jovial, and happy in spirit – I think, has indirectly impacted my perspective.
Because a lot of times whether I am painting here in the United States or there in the Dominican Republic, I paint in neighborhoods that aren't always necessarily given a positive connotation, I always think that it’s important to counter that narrative with something that highlights the good, the positives. I don't want to go into a place and put something negative into it. There are already a lot of challenges around us every day, so that’s my own way of responding to what's real – and what's sometimes ugly.
What are some of the aspects you love about the SomethingBLACK collaboration with NewComm?
I love the collaboration [with NewComm] because it allows me to communicate and talk about the things that I am passionate about improving in our communities. I believe that art can universally tell our stories.
Being passionate about creating real conversations about access and allowing others to understand how they can help or be of service to other communities, I love working with an organization that focuses a lot of its work around worldwide human challenges. It's a true pleasure to work with you all.
I am currently working on three more designs for [NewComm], and I'm really excited about that. I just love the opportunity to speak to our human experience, to use my perspective as a Black woman in the United States, which really informs much of how I think about - and experience - the world.
What is the importance & significance of putting out “beauty” into the world?
I'm very intentional about affirming and highlighting the positive aspects of our experience. I personally think that we both face and see enough negativity, so I often think that it’s important to respond to some of those challenges with some of the wonderful things that we do have.
So, I personally want to put out, you know, nothing fake or made-up, but still put out what I do see that is beautiful.