曹思懿
“Art can help.”
(Robert Adams, 2017)
Sealed with Family Snaps (2023)
Fictional Archive Installation
Size can be changed
"Rewriting Family Albums"
In this work, I attempt to deal with the issues between personal and collective memory in the history of a family, explore the construction and loss of identity, fiction and reality, and the relationship between the author and the viewers.
"I" picked up a suitcase in the 1990s. Through the owner's personal belongings, letters, and her family photo inside the suitcase, "I" learned that her name was Sun Ting Lan, a successful female entrepreneur in the dragon boat-making industry. This woman, who came from a rural area in Guangzhou, China, grew up in a happy family and inherited the family business and traditional dragon boat-making skills as a carpenter.
"I" contacted her through her personal information in the suitcase, her phone number, and her home address, and was unable to reach her, "I" traveled to her place of work, but her employees thought "I" was Tinglan, and even her family all thought "I" was her.
So I became Tinglan, "I" thought "I" could profit from it.
"I" started to manage her wood factory as her.
After years, "I" organized her family photo albums, "I" got involved in Tinglan's past life, "I" slowly became Tinglan, and even died as her.
This is my storyline.
All family photos generated by AI (Midjourney). In the second half of the album, I composited my face into Tinglan’s.
The following chapters of my story present different episodes and provide some clues and narrative as people walk into my labyrinths. There are some lights, photographs, and letters along the path, people will see the full album at the end.