caught in between

​by Mayumi Lashbrook (Canada), alumna of Multidisciplinary Residency, 2020 and Virtual Residency, 2021.

In my experience in every creation process I’ve been part of, there’s a cracking moment. A period of time where you know you’re digging deep. Excavating the emotional, charged, tense grit of the human experience. You dig down into the soil of the self hoping to find a gleaming thought to share that could offer profound change.

Each week of our online residency has felt this way. We’ve all said and felt in some way that this isn’t a topic that we alone could bear. Even though each of our practises are built on a foundation of seeking liberation. Through the group’s diverse experiences and camaraderie, we’ve found safe practises to look at the harrowing truths of movement of humans and commodities. I am deeply grateful for this.

I am pushed forward by these discoveries and many more…

The naming of borders I place on myself or have been placed on me.
The recognition of the borders others live within that don’t enclose me and never will. 
There is a fairness committee to cap earnings in sports yet no such regulations exist for the richest people in the world.
The subtle or not so subtle differences between forced and enforced migration. 
Language is the primary means to accessing power. 
Language exists because our senses alone are imperfect communicators, we utilize language to fill in the missing information.
Trees communicate to each other offering warnings and triggering mast fruiting; language used for communal generosity. 
The Queen may be the only person on the planet who requires no passport. 
​The Indigneous creation story of Skywoman tells that she, the original woman herself, was an immigrant.

I recognize we’ve picked a limitless topic. One that crosses over many areas, experiences and faultlines. 

It was brought up about the idea that change is like a boat going through water. It simultaneously moves forward and backwards, ripples emanating in two directions of opposing action. I expect our impact to be of the same nature. I move looking for both, a way of staying rooted in the past while looking ahead to the possible future. A sense of implosion and explosion, safety and danger, progression and regression. 

And yet we keep moving through. Together. 

Borders, Borderlands and Crossings

A work-in-progress showing exploring the movement of precious metals, seeds, and humans across borders, both imagined and real.
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Join in to share your thoughts and reflections as L'AiR Arts four international alumni: 
Kunji Mark Ikeda (Canada), Shireen Ikramullah Khan (Netherlands), Mayumi Lashbrook (Canada) and Eric Lawrence Taylor (USA) connect for a 7-week multi-disciplinary virtual residency, culminating in a public work-in-progress showing.

Date: Saturday August 7th
Time: 11:00am MT / 1:00pm ET / 7:00pm CEST
Location: Online through Zoom, FREE!
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For more information and to register click here.