5 Questions with Mimi Leung
Mimi Leung was born in Hong Kong, grew up in England and now lives in regional Australia. Her work explores identity, belonging and uses art to understand and transcend the mundanity of daily life.
Her body of work for Submerged is about growing up as a ‘yellow’ woman, and coming to terms with her lived experiences that have been constantly denied or rejected within a predominantly white context. A central theme of this work is motherhood, and the way her thinking has shifted through seeing her own children move through similar spaces.
No.1
How did the Submerged exhibition come about?
Anita from MAV asked if I would be interested in creating work centred around women for an online exhibition during COVID-19. She linked me up with Ree and we started just chatting about things we wanted to explore with this work which inevitably involved race and our different experiences with being women of colour.
No.2
You live in the regional Victorian town of Shepparton. Can you tell us a little bit about how your identity have been formed as a result of living away from urban spaces?
I’ve grown up so much since moving away from big cities like London and Hong Kong that it’s hard to tell whether the changes are from living regionally or not, or whether it’s from moving to Australia, having kids or just plain ageing.
Initially, I definitely felt more chilled even just moving to Australia, since the first place I lived in Australia was a desert community in the Northern Territory. A stark change from hectic, always-on Hong Kong. The pace is slower here and people seem to take time to look after themselves and prioritise family and spend time outdoors. There are so many beautiful spots to take for granted. There are cows in a field next to the library offices and I love spotting miniature horses in people’s backyards. I really want one.
There’s less noise, less junk. I like it. I’ve been getting better at gardening and chilling. I’m better at switching off and not giving a shit about… stuff.
I guess it’s all tied to starting a family and having more space—mentally and physically. It’s been easier to focus on things that are actually important to me. Identity-wise, I guess I feel more ‘myself’ and less ‘other people’.
No.3
In the event description, your work ‘attempts to break free of expectations from self and society’. Perhaps you can briefly describe your artwork, and how it manages to do this.
I’ve always used drawing and writing as a way of exorcising thoughts and feelings from my head—I’d scribble them down in a notebook to get rid of them so I can move on. All the negative self-talk, fears, anger and just nasty crap my brain comes up with that build up with nowhere to go. These aren’t things I’d ever show anyone because they’re not really what I mean to say but when I look back at them sprawled out on paper, they have a physical shape and a form that I can examine objectively.
For this exhibition, I created a series of images alongside a corresponding piece of text that was developed from this type of brain-dump, word-vomit scribbles. It grew organically as I tried to create from a deeper layer of myself. I wanted to tap into the things that bothered me about the themes Ree and I had discussed: body issues, colourism and our individual experiences with others’ perceptions of us. I tried to start from a very soft, vulnerable space, to give form to the nervous little voice always questioning everything I do. As the work progressed that voice grew more confident, directing its attention to an array of things from my childhood that were tied to my personality and behaviour and rooted in race—from an old Chinese poem, to Jamie Oliver’s take on dumplings to more personal memories.
It was so good to have mentoring from Sophia [Cai] to help me pull these messages out from the initial disjointed ramblings. I didn’t want the work to have a rigid form, preferring to jump freely from one text to another, replicating the way my brain throws up these thoughts and memories in jarring ways. Sophia helped me maintain a narrative structure whilst also staying loose. I think the final work is effective in expressing a vague yearning for meaning which remains elusive and open to interpretation. It reflects my experience of being an immigrant belonging to two distinct cultures. The feeling of always being ‘in-between’ and unsure of yourself, with a shifting set of identities and behaviours you adopt according to surroundings.
No.4
What do you think intra-cultural solidarity between non-white people and communities looks like?
In a recent ABC news article it was stated that most Australians support multiculturalism but also want integration. The picture they used to go with this was a Chinese dragon being paraded through a disinterested crowd. The caption stated that 60 per cent of people thought ‘too many immigrants are not adopting Australian values’.
I think the Australian media really needs to examine the way it either deliberately or inadvertently pits communities against each other. I also object to this idea of integration where the responsibility lies solely with the immigrant to integrate. I picture integration as two hands clasped together with fingers interweaved but it’s often portrayed more like two fists with knuckles pushed together. I think solidarity, like integration, is a group endeavour. It takes conscious effort and commitment from all parties and a long time to develop.
No.5
What do you hope people will glean from Submerged?
I think Ree and I present two distinct voices with this work, informed by our individual lived experiences. I hope people are encouraged to find more stories from women of colour and realise that these voices are not as stereotyped and monotonous as they are often still portrayed in mainstream media.
I also hope it inspires others to find creative ways to tell their own stories, adding their own unique voices to the chorus. Even if it starts as a whisper.
Submerged is a new collaborative exhibition commissioned by Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV), featuring digital artworks by two women of colour living in the regional Victorian town of Shepparton, Mimi Leung and Ree. It explores themes of identity, representation, race, and acceptance through the lens of female body as subject. The artists’ depictions of the yellow, brown, and black body, challenge stereotypes and assert agency and power.
The Submerged Exhibition will launch on the MAV website on Thu 25 Feb 2021, 6pm.
The launch will include a first showing of the works and the artists Mimi Leung and Ree live in conversation with Sophia Cai.
This is an online live event and will be live streamed on Facebook and YouTube.
To watch the live stream on Facebook:
Please like and follow MAV on Facebook and you will be notified when the live stream starts on Facebook. Or you can visit our Facebook page on 25 Feb at 6pm.
To watch the live stream on YouTube:
Please visit MAV’s YouTube channel on 25 Feb at 6pm.