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Artist Statement – Chunbum Park
Elliot James Colby (he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Ankara, Turkey, they are what's known as a “Global Nomad,” growing up in Thailand, Mexico, Cambodia, and Israel. In 2018, they moved to the United States to attend Endicott College in Beverly, MA. where they earned their Bachelor's Degree in Performing Arts with a self-designed interdisciplinary concentration. He has also earned certificates from The Stella Adler Studio (Acting) and The New York Film Academy (Musical Theatre). In the past he has also received training at the prestigious Unison Dance Academy in Israel, and currently receives voice training from Broadway Vocal Coach Wysandria Woolsey.
Elliot’s practice explores themes of identity, queerness, and neurodivergancy, along with being a working actor, dancer, choreographer, and director among other things. At the age of 15, they directed their first independent piece of verbatim theater about LGBT themes which raised $500 for a Cambodian LGBT charity. In 2022, he debuted his first art show at Nomad Works in Times Square, New York, and debuted the role of Dick in the world premier of “Proud” by Judd-Lear Silverman off-off-Broadway with The Rising Sun Performance Company which received outstanding reviews from critics.
The Global Nomad: Artist Statement
Elliot James Colby
“Where are you from?” A question that is most simple for most, but for a select few this question leads to an identity crisis. The “Third Culture Kid” is a child who was raised in multiple parts of the world, often with multiple passports and speaking multiple languages. From a young age these children form a different concept of ‘home’ then other people, as more of an evolving and fluid concept, moving from place to place with them, or they can lack a sense of home altogether.
As a Third Culture Kid (now, as an adult, a “Global Nomad”) I’ve struggled with the sense of home. Am I doing a disservice to my unique upbringing by deciding on a place? Or am I needlessly torturing myself by trying to exsit in this in between place?
I was born to an English father and American mother in Ankara, Turkey in 2000. After three months we moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand where I spent the first eight years of my life confusing the difference between Thai and English, taking pictures with strangers who wanted to touch my white skin and blonde hair, and not understanding why. After eight years we moved to Guadalajara, Mexico where I quickly became my mother’s translator. After three years in Mexico we uprooted again and moved back to South East Asia, landing in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Familiar territory, the closest I could come to ‘home’ at the time, even though I once again stood out like a sore thumb. Four years there, then off to Even Yehuda, Israel where I graduated high school. I have retained pieces of each of these places. I celebrate Day of the Dead, I cried when the last king of Thailand died, I maintain the minute of silence on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the first thing I do when I stay in a new place is put out my buddha statue and hang an evil eye over the door.
My work “The Global Nomad” explores the blending of these cultures in both harmonious and conflicting ways, inviting viewers to reflect on their own upbringing and how that has shaped them, along with the chance to understand another type of upbringing. The complete work is eclectic and meant to be shown in a nonconventional way, with some larger pieces (in particular Pride Scarf One and Mosaic Tiles) being propped up on blocks and leaned against the wall rather than hung, and the small sculpture to be placed flat on a table. This more unconventional way of presenting the work strengthens the theme being raised in a unique way and how that affects a person later in life.
Overall Artist Statement
I am an multidisciplinary artist whose practice and projects explore themes of identity, culture, queerness, and neurodivergence, which are in constant states of flux. Using a mixture of disciplines such as dance, painting, theater, and photography, I investigate how these topics have impacted my own life. By incorporating my own lived experiences into my work, I invite the viewer into an intimate space where they can explore nuances within their own identities.
I strongly believe in the blending of different artistic mediums. Each art form can reach a different viewer and connect with them in a way that another may not, I also use different mediums as an invitation for expanding one's artistic vocabulary and uniting artists of all disciplines to come together.