CHELSIE COATES
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  • Artist Statement
A chronological spewage of my thoughts and feelings into poetry and writing.
Usually, my text will accompany work in the form of print, sculpture, sound or performance. All of these are vessels for a completely personal insight to my own experiences growing up and now as an adult. 
Feelings of displacement and anecdotal stories are the basis of my writing and a few specific stories outlined in "I am Not Chinese Enough to Actually be Chinese" are memories I recall often as dark moments in my life.​

FORTUNE COOKIE MESSAGES

1/30/2020

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 FINAL CHOICES:
​
when I was born, my family said to my mother she “just keeps making white babies” in reference to my sister and I.


when I was 8 I was told to go back to China by another child. I have never been to China, neither has my mother.


when I was always, I was asked where I was *really* from. The question always makes me panic.


when I was a teenager I was told by a boy he had a ‘thing’ for half Asians, I guess he meant mixed Eastern Asians ?


when I was now, I was told I don’t look Chinese enough, that I am not a real Asian. But yet I’m not white either ?


****
​

OTHER POSSIBILITIES :

oh but you don’t look Chinese ? are you sure you're half ?


yeah yeah but where are you REALLY from ?


but you don't even speak Chinese ?! you’re not a real Asian.


i've got a thing for orientals, they're so exotic.


(you look basically white though, you totally pass.)


you look exactly like [insert general Eastern Asian person that looks nothing alike]



****


reproduced into cheap satin



I am an ethnic nomad


they call it yellowfever


she just keeps making white babies


I am exotic

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  • Writing
  • Portfolio
  • ABOUT
  • Artist Statement