A Transoceanic Imagination : Midsummer, 1994

The project begins with a box of letters from 1994. Through reading, translating, and photography, I explore the emotional connections and fragmented memories within the archive.

The project begins with a box of letters from 1994, exchanged between a transnational married couple. The correspondence traces their everyday lives across different countries and the emotional ties sustained through transoceanic communication.

I began by reading, excerpting, and translating the letters, while creating photographic images in response to their contents. The project unfolds in three parts: an edited and translated letter archive; a “radio” installation where the correspondence is read aloud; and a photographic collage that reimagines the archive.

For the photographic component, I traced the West African cities mentioned in the letters through Google Maps, reproducing satellite images through Risograph printing. These were combined with gelatin silver photographs I took in the Netherlands, bringing together images from different times, places, and media.

Through this process, I found a resonance across time between myself and the letter writers, shaped by migration, departure, and longing.

Belonging and displacement can often exist within a single thought. An unresolved sense of fate becomes an invisible thread, binding individuals to land, time, and space. Standing in 2026, holding letters from 1994, where might these traces of history and constructed landscapes lead our imagination?

Image materials: physical collages combining gelatin silver prints and Risograph prints.