Elise Legal

Call Center

I did not learn English
through my mother’s voice

my name
l like lion e like elephant g like goal a like apple l like lion
repeating

my name

I forgot
Londoners
have mothers

tungsten tantalum mercury
mother body voice
on phone

Vivaldi is doing a good job

are you calling about yourself

they ask
with mom’s vowel

they walk
they hope
with mom’s vowel

tell me in a few words
what is the reason for your call

are you currently living in

do you need me
to repeat

anything

lithium nickel arsenic
mother

Car Radio

the bank has more than
400 000 bars enough to cover
the entire UK in gold leaf six times
radio says

I was driving in the forest

I could hear all
people slipping and rolling
and splitting and crying on gold leaf

lost on google map
expectant gaze

acceleration
music on

je lui dirai les mots bleus
ceux qui rendent les gens heureux

I will call him
without saying

off

my love for her
was gone for good

I am not crying I am driving
crossing

a couple of tories going for a walk

from my car
they look like snakes

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Elise Legal is a French artist and writer, recently graduated from a MFA in Fine Art shared between Sheffield Institute of Art and the Academy of Arts of Lyon. Her practice focuses on what bodies do to language, understood as an aesthetic and political gesture for re-claiming non-standard voice(s) positions.

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