Yukon's chapbook, ATOA: A Meditative Poem Through the Alphabet, is forthcoming from The Southeast Review.
Artist Statement
ATOA: A Meditative Poem Through the Alphabet
The Southeast Review’s Editors’ Choice Digital Chapbook Prize Winner
Sigils, symbols, uncharted magic, alchemy through language, transformation through shifting perspectives, and a longing for a world that does not reflect the present static—these utterances have not only found their way into this body of work, ATOA: A Meditative Poem Through the Alphabet, but are also responsible for the tilt in the axis of my own life. This desire for another form of communication arose from my inability to find a home for these fleeting impulses; for the anger that was living in my bones, the confrontation and the “not knowing” what to do about it “all-ness”, gave birth to symbols that in turn became a confrontation to what I was unable to articulate because of the unreliability of language. How I was taught to think held roots in a way of thinking, which still paid homage to definitions of words that relied on a framework that was born from a cruelty (colonialism), that has morphed into the monster that is capitalism. Maybe if there was a way to communicate underground, above ground, apart from what is familiar, I could break out of these patterns, and I could find another reflection that mirrors a different way to live. I hope to outrun by running through.
Chewy Hannah Yukon is a hybrid multi-genre artist from Singapore. Her work investigates the inherent failure of articulation, both as a linguistic mechanism as well as a by-product of transmission. She explores, through mathematical explorations and cartographic data collection, the mind-thought-feeling triangulation of capitalism, post-colonial desire, and astrological synchronicity. Her recent film 42@location was screen in August 2017 at Haque Center of Acting and Creativity in Singapore and was also a recent recipient of the Graduate Engagement Fund from Pratt Institute where she recently received her MFA in Writing. A footnote in her ongoing manuscript Principels*of Geometry was recently published in Chaleur Magazine. Chewy performs at City Bear in Brooklyn every Thursday where she reads a letter from ATOA: A Meditative Poem Through the Alphabet. Chewy was born in New Zealand. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her cat Micah. Check out her latest project at http://answersandquestionsproject.com/