YASMINA GILLIES
Aotearoa / Artist and mother of a baby
Social Distancing
I am interested in the world of plants and fungi. I look forward to dreaming each night. I wish to live in magic
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I was in St Lukes mall with Lewis and two other people. We were looking at some clothes and talking about seeing my friend Lydia's dance layer on. I realised that I didn't have my baby with me.
I checked in Kmart as I thought I may have left her on the couch in there and asked people in the store if they had seen her but she was nowhere to be found.
I thought I better check if I had left her in the car.
Before I managed to leave armed SWAT police stormed into the building and opened fire on the people in the mall. People ran into shops, hiding behind checkouts and in changing rooms.
I kept imagining what it would be like being shot, but it didn't happen.
Then I ran into a changing room and found a fire exit. I burst through the door, only to find a fire exit stairwell made entirely of mirrors, much like a mirror maze.
At that point I realised I was dreaming and exclaimed out loud ‘I am dreaming and these mirrors represent that I am actually seeing myself for the first time’.
I hurried down the stairs and opened the door to a flowing river. I knew that if I jumped in I would find my way back home to my baby.
So I jumped in, and it turned out to be a hot water river.
I flowed down the lovely hot water while eating fresh figs until I woke up next to my baby.
(27/4/2020)
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I was in a plane with my family, going to France (where my mother is from).
There was a man holding my baby. He was touching the crown of her head. We don't do this in our family because we believe this part of the body to be sacred.
I said ‘if it's alright, please don't touch the top of her head’.
Then I remembered about COVID-19 and said ‘actually, if you don't mind, please don't hold her or touch her at all’.
The man said ‘well I do mind’ but passed her back anyway.
I realised that we we had a 24 hour flight ahead of us, without nappies for the baby or face masks for protection against the pandemic.
Later on we were in France and walked passed a small lake. There was a black stone statue of a naked woman kneeling down by the lake.
(9/4/2020)
My partner's neice had just given birth to her baby girl. She was in the bathtub and asked me to make her a smoothie. I went to my fridge to get ingredients but my fridge was in a massive department store. When I got there, the fridge was nowhere to be seen. No one knew where it had gone. Then I got very angry at a young blonde lady who had done nothing do deserve it. I realised after that I had become a very angry person. I asked my partner if he thought I could do something about my anger problem. "we'll just have to wait and see" he said.
(9/4/2020)
I checked in Kmart as I thought I may have left her on the couch in there and asked people in the store if they had seen her but she was nowhere to be found.
I thought I better check if I had left her in the car.
Before I managed to leave armed SWAT police stormed into the building and opened fire on the people in the mall. People ran into shops, hiding behind checkouts and in changing rooms.
I kept imagining what it would be like being shot, but it didn't happen.
Then I ran into a changing room and found a fire exit. I burst through the door, only to find a fire exit stairwell made entirely of mirrors, much like a mirror maze.
At that point I realised I was dreaming and exclaimed out loud ‘I am dreaming and these mirrors represent that I am actually seeing myself for the first time’.
I hurried down the stairs and opened the door to a flowing river. I knew that if I jumped in I would find my way back home to my baby.
So I jumped in, and it turned out to be a hot water river.
I flowed down the lovely hot water while eating fresh figs until I woke up next to my baby.
(27/4/2020)
I was in a plane with my family, going to France (where my mother is from).
There was a man holding my baby. He was touching the crown of her head. We don't do this in our family because we believe this part of the body to be sacred.
I said ‘if it's alright, please don't touch the top of her head’.
Then I remembered about COVID-19 and said ‘actually, if you don't mind, please don't hold her or touch her at all’.
The man said ‘well I do mind’ but passed her back anyway.
I realised that we we had a 24 hour flight ahead of us, without nappies for the baby or face masks for protection against the pandemic.
Later on we were in France and walked passed a small lake. There was a black stone statue of a naked woman kneeling down by the lake.
(9/4/2020)
My partner's neice had just given birth to her baby girl. She was in the bathtub and asked me to make her a smoothie. I went to my fridge to get ingredients but my fridge was in a massive department store. When I got there, the fridge was nowhere to be seen. No one knew where it had gone. Then I got very angry at a young blonde lady who had done nothing do deserve it. I realised after that I had become a very angry person. I asked my partner if he thought I could do something about my anger problem. "we'll just have to wait and see" he said.
(9/4/2020)