Imogen Arate

Lives and works in USA

Artist statement

Imogen Arate is an Asian-American poet and multimedia artist in search of hope: that humanity will overcome our self-destructive tendencies to work together against the onslaught of the climate crisis. She's also the Executive Director of Poets and Muses (https://poetsandmuses.com/), an award-winning multimedia artist platform that has featured diverse contemporary poetic voices from around the globe, before persistent stalking and harassment forced Imogen to pause this work while relocating yet another time. She believes that we will only be able to value lives equally when we lend our ears and hearts to the life stories of those we don't readily recognize as our kin and stop requiring the presence of certain socioeconomic trappings to recognize their right to a dignified existence. Of her body of work, she says: I create multimedia artworks in order to highlight the human condition, whether they show that of diverse contemporary literary artists practicing poetry in disparate corners of the world or my own life, from my stalking- and harassment-induced need to wear both metaphorical and literal masks to living in isolation through the COVID_19 pandemic to documenting the various places my forced displacements have taken me. Because of my need to live in hiding and keep myself safe, apart from the sound and visual artworks of the Poets and Muses podcast (https://poetsandmuses.com/), I often cannot show my life to the people I've encountered. Therefore, my artworks tend to...

Artwork