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The Letters 

6-channel video installation / 03' 20", 03' 53", 03' 28", 03' 34", 02' 06", 03' 47" / 2013

All of the emails for this work were selected from my email spam folder. I then invited participants that matched the physical description (such as ethnicity and gender) of those letter senders to read the letters aloud sitting at a desk in front of a green backdrop with an image of the Earth. Reading aloud transforms the letters into oral accounts, and simulates a mutually imagined scam with the reading participants playing the roles of the imaginary letter writers, such as a dying Kuwaiti widow, one of Libyan prime minister's sons who is in need of help, an Asian woman affecting a British accent, an Irish salesman under an assumed name, and an African international banker inviting the reader to join an international financial crime. From these letters, viewers are inspired to imagine the other parts of the world and think further about the connections among people's appearances, linguistic accents and political reality.

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installation view at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2013 ©Taipei Fine Arts Museum
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installation view at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2013 ©Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Credits

Producer: Daisy Lin / Cameraman: Chen Chen / Editors: Yu Cheng-Ta

Commissioned by the exhibition True Illusion, Illusory Truth - Contemporary Art Beyond Ordinary Experience at Taipei Fine Arts Museum

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