“SEEKING” by Florence Yee

a part of unpruned tomato vines presented with Tea Base

“SEEKING” is a series of playful advertisements in the physical and digital world that ask what individuals may be seeking from their communities. During a remote mentorship last summer with another emerging artist, Kiona Ligtvoet and I found a common interest in text and its ability to convey desires in a playful manner. Our project consisted of two independent series of posters that we would create and put into the physical world (on phone polls, park billboards, etc.), as well as adapted “real” ads on Kijiji. They would be short and succinct posters that allude to other discussions we’ve been having about seeking our community, seeking an old tradition, seeking a memory, seeking a feeling, seeking justice, etc. Without a means of response, they are left with their own agency in the matter, as to what should be done about this lack. My poster series is ongoing, evolving to respond to urgent issues, and exist as ephemera, on the margins of public space. As a project made during lockdown, the content is painfully aware of the seeming futility of reaching out and the hardship of maintaining connections. It highlights an impatient yearning at the intersection of loss and desire.

Join Florence Yee at unpruned tomato vines: A conversation on Friday, May 28th at 6:30PM.