| lige qiao |
| Lige is a Gadigal-based emerging artist (and curator, sometimes) who constantly contemplates suburban landscapes. Their practice revolves around the locational lived experience in Northern China and the influence of digital culture. Working with language and translation, they seek to explore the intricate connection between temporality and presence through video-based synchronisation. @liquid_goose |
dimension variable
hope this letter finds you well (2025) is a durational performance and installation that is developed on an archive of sent letters between my parents when they were in their 20s. In the performance, I transcribe these letters in English onto a notepad for an extended duration of time while the monitor live feeds my transcription through a document camera, until I reach an extent of emotional or physical fatigue. In the installation, viewer is welcome to fill the void of my presence by reading the transcription and original letters.
This work is to gather and re-enact memories before me. Thinking of how distance is manifested through sent and received letters, I reflect on my experiences with relocating during the process of transcribing and interpreting my parents' written words. I question my distance from my native language while unavoidably recognising that the act of translating doubles as an attempt to bridge that distance. When I turn to another letter nonchronologically, their voices echo around me, continuously revealing stories and resonating with the past. Reasoning and rewinding, I gradually realise that I am writing to get closer.