Listen (2020)
Listen (2020)
This is for the quiet kids
Who couldn’t speak up in class,
This is for the kids who slipped under the radar,
The weird kids nobody talks to,
The kids who were heckled
“I can’t hear you”
This is for the queer kids,
The trans kids
Scared to be themselves
The kids who weren’t cool:
The punk kids,
The emo kids,
The scene kids,
The art kids,
This is for the kids who don’t want to fit in a box,
For the kids whose voices have been silenced.
Your time is now
Speak up
Shout out
Scream the place down
Until the people listen
We will stand together
Stand tall
This is our generation
This is a marriage of tradition and modernity
This is our voice.
by Jamie O’Donnell (He/Him)
Video, 6:10 mins
I am a conceptual artist based in Edinburgh and Dundee whose practice explores the topics of mental health and the trans experience. In my work, I use poetry, which I have written myself, as my starting point. These poems are extremely personal to me as they are about my experience with anxiety, depression, and gender dysphoria – as well as growing up. It is very healing for me to share my experience through my practice in the hope of someone else recognising themselves in my work.
I often use found objects/sound clips/film clips in my work as I have always been interested in collecting things, due to my upbringing living in Bangladesh. I have travelled to many different countries with my family and we have collected items from each country we have been to.
My practice spans many different mediums and is always changing. I am interested in making my work all-immersive for the audience and making them feel a certain emotion. By doing intimate performances of my poetry, I have begun to really strip back my practice. I believe there is something really special about how we can bring people together by the power of one voice.
“Listen” (2020) is part of the 3rd movement in my “This Is My Voice” series of works. This part is about living in the now and how art connects us. I think it expresses how I’m feeling mentally at the moment, because I feel like my life is moving forward, and slowly getting to where I want to be. This is like me “passing the baton” so that other voices can be heard.