Mad Woman's ESL Poetry [2016]

A short video piece made for Stranger in a Tenirjar at VIVO Media Arts Centre. Made in a day. Curated and hosted by Minah Lee.

direction + sound + video by Milton Lim
text + images by Minah Lee
operated by Sammy Chien
documentation images below by Brian Batchelor (York University)

Running time: 10 minutes

Dedicated to Minah Lee

Curator's notes:

The heart of the project comes from my ongoing struggles with systematic issues rooted in the current immigration program highly focused on Economic Security of Nation. 

My artistic language can be identified as an individual's ESL poetry that is an accidental creative product inevitably produced by global politics and power relations. I become she.

She utters fearlessly, not because her language is correct and direct but because her language is doomed to be corrected and redirected. She dares to speak in front of you- the natives of this land, in the face of you- the settlers in this land, and in the midst of you-the migrants on this land.

  • I Reflect on my life as an artist in this culture and I appreciate every single bit of it.

  • I Recognize the beauty of this land that brings people together and I also recognize austerity of the system that should be open to questions and changes.

  • I React to my struggles as an artist and I Declare the Freedom of my Being in the Face of systematic governance.

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