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News

Resilience and Radical Care - An Online Talk

changemakersshoot2 188 WEB

Following an invitation from CAMP, I will be presenting an online talk on Thurs 10th Dec 6.30 - 8.00pm GMT as part of their guest artist's programme. I'll be talking about Resilience and Radical Care in relation to my experiences of co-founding Social Art Network and subsequent involvement in other artist’s networks. The talk will cover network building as practice; solidarity; agency and mutual support; deep listening, and filmmaking and space holding.

Free for CAMP members, £3 for non members. Book here.

CAMP (Contemporary Art Membership Plymouth) – is a member-led network for the creative and visual arts community in Devon and Cornwall, including artists, producers, curators and arts writers.

Image:  A production still from Futurist Women film shoot, 2018. Photo Credit: Matthew Kaltenborn

 

Freedom - A Parallel State Event

7November Bristol PS CROP

I've been co-curating the upcoming Parallel State event around the theme of Freedom. The event will be broadcast from a virtual Bristol, a few days after the US elections.  Speakers include Dr Shawn Sobers, Zakiya McKenzie, Roseanna Dias and Tim Knowles.  We'll also be presenting new work commissioned by the Parallel State from artist Joyce Treasure and musician Lavz, together with poetry from Jon Dovey and music from Roney FM.

We asked the four speakers to respond to the following provocation,

- Referred to as the Land of the Free since the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner were penned in 1814, America is supposed to represent liberty and opportunity. What does freedom feel like in Bristol and how does it speak to the structural failures of the UK and other failed states? With these thoughts in mind, what could freedom mean in the Parallel State? -

The Parallel State is a breakaway state - a space to collectively imagine alternative solutions to life on earth. Free from the constraints of being in constant opposition to the failed states in which we live, it is a space to build knowledge, to organise and prepare new visions for better ways of living. This is the first of a series of online themed events that will lay the foundations for a Parallel State Summit.

FREE tickets can be booked here.

'Multiplicities in Flux' in Manchester

CFCCA homepage

Britishness (2019) will be featured in a new exhibition at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art [CFCCA] in Manchester [15th Oct 2020 - 31st Jan 2021].

Multiplicities in Flux  brings together works by Grace Lau and Eelyn Lee in a dialogue around identity, belonging, nationality and community in Britain. The curator of the exhibition, Marianna Tsionki writes,

" Lee’s film Britishness (2019) complicates the often indefinable notion of ‘Britishness’. Comprising spoken word poetry, interviews, and group discussions, the work follows young writers from Sheffield as they affirm, reject, and revise their visions of national identity and grapple with the consequences of Britain’s colonial history and their own personal experiences. The film posits ‘Britishness’ as a concept that is constantly in flux, moulded by ever-changing social, economic, political and historical narratives and carrying different significance for each individual. Through this lens, Lee invites viewers to question and re-evaluate their own definition of what it means to be British. "

There will be an online screening of Britishness as part of the accompanying Public Programme [date tbc].

CFCCA Revisioning
Eelyn Lee has recently been selected to be part of an Artist Working Group comprising seven artists of Chinese heritage, who will partner with CFCCA to co-design their Revisioning process. Eelyn would like to acknowledge and thank artist JJ Chan for articulating their concerns about the under representation  of Asian people/PoC within the staff team at CFCCA and for triggering this journey of structural change.  

Eelyn Lee Awarded New Film Commission

Boris Karloff web

Delighted to announce that Eelyn Lee has been awarded a commission from Chinese Art Now [CAN] to realise her new film project, Casting Fu Manchu.  Eelyn's project is one of six new CAN Digital Commissions that will premiere later this year in the lead up to the CAN Festival in February 2021.

Casting Fu Manchu is an exploration of Yellow Peril in light of COVID-19. In 1912, when Sax Rohmer invented his character Dr. Fu Manchu - the evil Chinese doctor set on world domination - Yellow Peril was rife. Often painted as a faceless existential threat to the ‘western world’, East Asians were seen as a force that needed to be suppressed. With successive white actors applying Yellow Face to play the fictional villain, including Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, Eelyn’s film will subvert these racist tropes through re-imagining Fu Manchu in 2021.

“.. With a spike in attacks towards east and S.E. Asian people, and Donald Trump calling COVID-19 the ‘Chinese Virus’, Casting Fu Manchu will speak to that racism. It’s a racism that’s entrenched - just ask any Chinese actor working in the ‘west’ how many roles they don’t get offered. So, I’m looking forward to working with actors of east and S.E. Asian heritage - young, old, male, female or non-binary - to reinvent the character of Fu Manchu..” - Eelyn Lee

Press Release here.

Image Credit: Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu, 1932

Eelyn to Talk at gal-dem x Kickstarer Event

EL Directing

Eelyn will be talking about 'Sustaining Your Creative Practice' at a special event organised by gal-dem and Kickstarter. Part of a tour of events aimed at equipping women and non-binary people of colour with the tools they need to turn ideas into a reality, it will take place at Site Gallery in Sheffield on 23rd April. More details here.

- - - PLEASE NOTE DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED - - -

Premiere of Casting Fu Manchu

Casting Fu Manchu Composite

My latest film, Casting Fu Manchu will premiere on 1st December at 7pm GMT.  Commissioned from an open call by Chinese Arts Now [CAN], the film explores Yellow Peril in light of COVID related racism towards 'Chinese looking' people. Working with Casting Director Nicci Topping, I invited actors of East and Southeast Asian heritage to send me audition tapes of themselves in role as Dr Fu Manchu - 'yellow peril incarnate'*. Over 50 actors responded to the call with their subverted takes on the evil Chinese genius, who on screen, has only ever been played by white men. Extracts from the audition tapes form the basis of the film.

The premiere will take place online. followed by a live Q&A with Eelyn Lee. Book FREE tickets via the CAN website.

* The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, Sax Rohmer, 1912

Film, Sound & Memory - A Creative Writing Workshop

06Creature of the Estuary by Eelyn Lee WEB

I've been invited by Write and Shine to facilitate an early morning creative writing workshop inspired by film.  The session that will explore the narrative of sound and takes inspiration from the close relationship between film and memory. Join me online between 7.30 - 9.00am GMT on Tues 3rd Nov.

Book via the Write and Shine website.

Solidarity - A Parallel State Event

Screenshot 2020 08 17 at 12.23.23

Parallel State Speakers

Eelyn Lee has curated the next online Parallel State event around the theme of Solidarity. Speakers include Désirée Reynolds [Sheffield], Chardine Taylor-Stone [London], Jade Montserrat [North Yorkshire] and Tiffany Diane Tso from the Asian American Feminist Collective [New York]. Eelyn has asked all four speakers to respond to the following provocation,

There’s a lot of talk about solidarity right now. What does it mean in this present context? Is it a genuine call to collectivism, mutual support or performative gesturing? What does solidarity mean to you and how could it apply to the Parallel State? 

The Parallel State is a notional breakaway state - a space to collectively imagine alternative solutions to life on earth. Free from the constraints of being in constant opposition to the failed states in which we live, it is a space to build knowledge, to organise and prepare new visions for better ways of living. This is the first of a series of online themed events that will lay the foundations for a Parallel State Summit in July 2021.

Speaker biographies and FREE tickets available here

--- UPDATE: LISTEN TO THE PRESENTATIONS ON SOUNDCLOUD ---

Talking Identity & Purpose at Creative Mornings, Sheffield

5 Heroes web image

Eelyn will be talking about her practice in relation to the themes of identity and purpose at this month's Creative Mornings Sheffield. Usually these breakfast events take place at different venues around the city but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this month it will happen online via Zoom. To attend the event at 8.30am on 24th April you will need to register and a link will be sent to you on the night before the talk. 

Britishness Screening at Festival of Debate

Warda Promo CU

Excited to annouce that Museums Sheffield will be holding a screening of Britishness on 21st April as part of this year's Festival of Debate. The film will be followed by a panel disucssion with filmmaker Eelyn Lee, hip hop artist and Poet Laureate of Sheffield Otis Mensah, author Desiree Reynolds and Education Consultant Muna Abdi amongst others. The conversation will explore race, identity and belonging and thoughts on de-colonising museums. Tickets available here.

- - - PLEASE NOTE DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED - - -

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