THINKING ABOUT

Immortality & Kindness

Credit: Girl and toy, 2020 (detail) © Kuang Zai / 匡再 — Credit: *Girl and toy*, 2020 (detail) © Kuang Zai / 匡再

“I was too young to notice
how fear persists, and how
the anger that causes fear persists,
that its trajectory can’t be changed
or broken, only interrupted.”

— From the poem 'Immortality', by Lisel Mueller

'Immortality', by Lisel Mueller

Listen to the poem in English

'Immortality', Translated by Ouyang Yu

听中文诗

Featuring leading creatives of Asian-Australian cultural heritage, Thinking about Immortality & Kindness examines the issue of escalating racism in the wake of COVID-19 through the themes of immortality and kindness. It combines a virtual space for listening, looking and thinking with a poster exhibition, conceived and executed as a community act of solidarity and kindness.

Taking Lisel Mueller's poem above as the starting point, six creatives have written, spoken and made new works that reflect upon the themes in the context of our present socio-cultural circumstances. Following the end of the COVID-19 lockdown, our poster exhibition has now been installed throughout the City of Melbourne boundary, with the support of our community partners below.

In the corner of each poster is a website URL/QR code linking the viewer to the virtual exhibition space where our creatives’ works are exhibited. Alongside this is an invitation to the viewer to join in the making process, by sharing the news of their poster sighting via social media in a community act of kindness and solidarity. To mark the occasion of the poster exhibition opening, we released our videography of the poster exhibit featuring three of our community partners.

Read on to learn more about the project and our creatives, community partners and supporters, without whom this endeavour would not have been possible. Enter the virtual space below where the ‘Picture Map’ for the poster exhibit is accessible.

WATCH THE VIDEO

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Poster exhibit extended until 28/2/21!

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What was the starting point?

Recently, whilst going about her day responsibly during this period of isolation, our friend was spat at. Sadly, this has not been an isolated occurrence for our Chinese-Australian and Asian-Australian friends. In addition to horrific incidents such as this, we have also seen examples of racist graffiti in our streets.

Contemplating our response, we were reminded of the words of Lisel Mueller’s poem ‘Immortality’, presented above alongside a special reading in Chinese by acclaimed poet, novelist, editor and translator Ouyang Yu.

At first glance, Mueller’s poem is a startlingly simple observation. However, with closer reading, it is beautifully multilayered and intricate in its exploration of the human condition – how fleeting and precious life is, especially in the face of anger, fear and resentment.

Re-reading Immortality reminded us once more of the power of poetry – to make things plain in a way that injects just enough space for questioning in the search for deeper self-understanding. And, so it was the art of poetry that provided our starting point for Thinking about Immortality & Kindness.