Page 144 - Flaunt 171 - Summer of Our Discontent - Lili

You have an affinity to the integra- tion of biology in your artworks. What is something you’ve learned in the process of experimenting with biology that has strongly influenced your worldview?
I’ve been ruminating a lot about the reluctance to wear face masks from Western countries in the beginning of the pandemic, and even until now. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that folks from developed countries, and especially predominantly the white folks from developed coun- tries, are foreign to the idea that white bodies are contaminants. The idea of whiteness is so interlinked with purity, it’s impossible to believe that they can contaminate other beings, but only capable of being polluted upon... The parallels al- most eerily mirrors the logic of Jim Crow laws.
The pandemic has reminded us how intricately connected our cul- tural systems are, but also illumi- nated stark difference from place to place. Do you think this time will classify as a sort of trauma, and if so, how will that be expressed culturally?
It will definitely be a form of trauma, sadly for a lot of people who have lost their loved ones, a really active trauma, and for some of us luckier ones, an unresolved trauma. There’s a lot of studies that demonstrates how trauma lodges in our body, down to our DNA.
Do you have any recurring dreams? Please describe. If not, please de- scribe a recurring dream you would like to have?
I dreamt that a bus was engaged in a protest, protecting the protester, but somehow to government managed to push the bus through a steamroll- er and everyone got shot through the sliver of metal of what’s left.
When do you feel the most confi- dent in our human species?
An ability to find a way out.
What’s next?
Gracing stillness.
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