Anonymous Cards

2016-2017

Statement:

My installation consists of 44 black business cards stuck on a white board. Each of them has different phrase that are typed with a typewriter and then hand traced with white ink. I was inspired by the conceptual artist - Joseph Kosuth, who created many artworks only using text. The reason I chose this form of art is because text is a direct and pure way to express the idea; it communicates with the audience easily. Moreover, text can be much more complex than the physical material of the work.

This work is dealing with identity and cultural problems that people suffered as international students or immigrants including myself, because my identity has been shifted many times which made me lost. On one hand, I want to make this work personal, so I typed and traced all the phrases with my own hands. While on the other hand, I don’t want this work to look too personal, so I used other people’s voices and comments that I found online. The reason I choose typewriter and ink over printing is because these two materials allow me to have a physical contact with the work, as well as they leave marks and traces on the paper which suggests the work has been humanized; the cards therefore carrying the identities.

The missing card symbolizes the gap I often feel about my life in Canada - the feeling of lost, being excluded, unable to adapt, and etc, so that it can be viewed as the absent artist myself. Furthermore, it leaves the conversation open for more interpretations.

The phrases I found are from different point of views, such as the preconceived ideas from people who never left their own country, the local bias towards Chinese, and the frustration suffered by international students and immigrants. Even though they are mainly negative comments, they have nothing to do with the discrimination. They are simply serve the purpose of releasing the anxiety, sadness, or anger. By displaying them together, they start to communicate with each other even though they are from different website, talking about different issues. Each one of them carries a unique personality, and each one is part of the whole that helps me to seek my final identity. By doing this heavy labour works, it can be considered as a healing process, and reveal some of the truth regarding this social phenomena that is current happening among us.