VOID IF ALTERED (2020)
archival pigment print, LED panels framed as lightboxes
60 x 60 cm and 120 x 60 cm
2020
There is an authority in a printed page of text, where words and numbers are trusted as static containers of meaning. Sex on a birth record; ethnicity on a census form; registration numbers on an application. In these works VOID IF ALTERED, gaps are created in records, voids are forced into the flat surface of paper. Scanned records are combined with impressionistic lines of text, creating bendable markers of identity.
In the work ‘void if altered (white)’ a line of text reads: “who would ever think you’re not white.” The paper pulls away from the scanner bed, and in its new position the words lose fidelity and take on a new tone. Recent renewed awareness around #BlackLivesMatter and #StopAsianHate reminds of the violence done to bodies of colour, based on a perceived sense of defined difference. I carry these discussions onto my own biracial body, which is one thing or another, White or Brown, or neither or both, based on its position in relation to my viewer.
