Dear Friend, from my life I write to you in your life
multi-channel sound installation
2025
This work explores language as both an escape and a means of self-reclamation for people navigating diasporic experiences. It conveys and conceals psychological instability within the transitional process, reflecting how memories and identities—deeply embedded in mother tongues—interact with second languages as protective layers, creating distance from trauma rooted in early linguistic experience.
The title, Dear Friend, from my life I write to you in your life, is taken from the memoir by Yiyun Li, who chooses to only writes in English, a world apart from her mother.
This sound piece features a chorus of non-native English speakers reading different prose passages in both their native languages and English. The spatial positioning of the sound corresponds to geographical locations, with different speakers filtering the audio, creating acoustic and physical vibrations throughout the space.