Sabbatical Presentations - Min Sook Lee & Laura Millard

Min Sook Lee presents: 

There Are No Words

I spent my sabbatical making a personal film about imperfect memory, trauma and silence as a mode of social and political erasure.  Families inherit trauma. I am interested in the transgenerational trauma that haunts my life. Both my parents’ lives were shaped by stark, often dire moments of history.  My mother died by suicide when I was 12 years old. I’ve often thought of my life as being haunted by her.  Her death was sudden and shocking.  Without her, my family slowly moved apart. I want to explore social trauma in the closely guarded space of the family, using my personal experiences as a way to illuminate collective experiences.

My documentary THERE ARE NO WORDS, is a counter-story to the dominant one told in my family, a source of antithetical knowledge production. Knowledge is always contestable. Edward Said defined antithetical knowledge as a ‘kind of knowledge produced by people who quite consciously consider themselves to be writing in opposition to the prevailing orthodoxy’.

Laura Millard presents:

Full Circle

In August 2024, I joined an invited group of artists and scientists to circumnavigate the Svalbard archipelago, through the Arctic Circle Alumni Residency. Grappling with imagery that reflects the dramatic effects of the climate crisis, I have depicted places in Svalbard, -the fastest-heating place on earth. I worked onsite, combining drawing, painting, video, and photography. My work looks to grapple with and reframe how this place is presented. I have refurbished ‘motion lamps’ from the 1950’s and utilized salvaged lightboxes from Ontario Place to illuminate a melting world.