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 ---
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.
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 - - -
Delighted to announce that Britishness will be screening at The Place Theatre in Bedford on 15th April, at 7pm. The film will be followed by an opportunity to discuss themes of race, identity and belonging facilitated by Power in Discussion. Tickets available here.
- - - PLEASE NOTE DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED - - -
Futurist Women has been selected to take part in this year's campaiging film festival, 16 Days 16 Films. Modern Films and Kering Foundation held an open call to female filmmakers in the UK, Ireland, France and Italy for submissions of short films inspired by 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, which runs from 25th November to 10th December. Each day a short film will go live on the project platforms to rasie awareness of and campiagn against gender based violence.
Futurist Women will mark the end of the campaign and go live at 4pm on the 10th December. Read more about 16 Days 16 Films in Screen International.
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
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 - - -
Futurist Women has been selected to screen at SheFest, a film festival celebrating womxn filmmakers of colour, at Sheffield University. Eelyn will be speaking on a panel following the screening.
- - - PLEASE NOTE DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED - - -
Eelyn Lee has been invited to speak at The Artist's Journey #3, a two-day event of talks and presentations by artists and researchers on forging a career out of art. This year's theme is 'Improfessional Practices' - a provocation that sets out to challenge how higher education students are constantly being told to “professionalise” themselves for a competitive market. In her presentation, Eelyn will consider social practice as a mode of improfessional organising by looking at examples of practice and the work of Social Art Network. Eelyn says,
"By sitting outside of the art education, art market and gallery systems, social practice artists are forced to create their own means of organising to establish systems of support, validation and critical thinking. However, one of the most valuable skills a social practice artist has is the ability to create spaces conducive for building alternative modes of organising."
The event takes place in Sheffield on 13th & 14th February. Free tickets can be booked here.
The Artists Journey was founded through a partnership between Art and Design at Sheffield Hallam University and Yorkshire and Humber Visual Arts Network [YVAN].
Wednesday, 29 January 2025 Eelyn has been commissioned to make a new piece of moving image work, to be exhibited at the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival, 13-29 June, 2025; São Paulo Biennial, Sept, 2025, and the Karachi Biennial, Oct 2026. Building on her research and work made along the Thames Estuary in 2016, Eelyn will continue her exploration of the tidal Thames as a... Read More...
Thursday, 14 November 2024 An illustrated discussion with artist Eelyn Lee and writer-researcher, Dr Yen Ooi about their ongoing collaboration –a call and response creative dialogue between artist and writer. Drawing on migratory energies and ancestral stories, their work creates new orientations, shaped by East and Southeast Asian [ESEA] diasporic experiences. Book FREE... Read More...
Thursday, 15 August 2024 Ancestral Futures 源流之後 is a processional street performance in honour of the first recorded Chinese people in Sheffield –a group of magicians on tour from China who performed at the Whitsuntide Festival, 1855. On 31st May, 1855, the lead magician, Teh Kwei 德貴, buried his 5-week old baby in a Sheffield graveyard.... Read More...
