Painting & Writing
Born in 1990, Jamie-May Minjie represents the millennial generation, often described as the "Me, Me, Me generation" (Times Staff, 2013). Millennials has been both celebrated and critiqued, epitomized by cultural references like Taylor Swift’s lyrics: “promise that you'll never find another like ME” (Swift, 2019) and “the problem, it’s ME” (Swift, 2023). Minjie explores this duality—the courage to embrace selfhood and the resilience to confront challenges to identity.
Millennials have redefined what it means to be self-aware. They embrace the ethos of self-care and independence, simultaneously rejecting restrictive labels while navigating a path toward collective awakening. They break generational cycles, reject guilt around pleasure, and pursue a freedom that transcends societal expectations. This ethos includes reclaiming and reshaping identity, as seen in their trend of de-emphasizing the ego by removing the capitalization of "I," symbolically decentralizing the self. Through this, they document, publish, incorporate, and celebrate their journeys.
This body of work, My Pronoun is I, is a reflection and celebration of this generational evolution. It captures the pursuit of authentic self-expression, questioning what selfhood truly means in an era where identity is both personal and communal. The work draws on the shared millennial experience of discovering the “true self,” influenced by literature such as Siddhartha and The Knight in Rusty Armor. This generation has championed the courage to uncover personal truths, challenge societal norms, and dismantle the cages of expectation.
My Pronoun is I invites viewers to reconsider individuality and selfhood. At its core, the project examines whether the journey to uncover the “I” also reveals a deeper connection to the collective. Minjie suggests that through the pursuit of individualism, we may ultimately discover a profound sense of togetherness and a greater calling for what it means to be “We.”
