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[UNCLASSIFIED] records the uncensored Facebook conversations between the artist and her partner, a Western diplomat living in Moscow. The text of their messages is printed in invisible ink that can only be seen by the naked eye when exposed to ultraviolet light.

Viewers can scan the conversations with an ultraviolet torch with complete freedom, an allusion to the ever-present possibility of government surveillance.

Diplomats around the world are often surveilled but, as Snowden revealed, so are many private citizens. The work juxtaposes sophisticated digital technology against the almost comically analogue method used during the Cold War of delivering secret messages.

[UNCLASSIFIED] invites viewers to enter the artist’s home with an UV flashlight in the dark where they can discover the conversations, and question whether (as in Foucault’s Panopticon) the possibility of surveillance changes the way people correspond, act and live. It also points to the fragility of the private space.

This project invites people to reflect on language and the modes in which our generation communicates.

The installation consists of 15 white pages, spread across a white wall, capturing two weeks of Facebook conversations between the artist and her partner. These seemingly invisible, yet physical pages, transcribe visible, yet immaterial conversations.  

[UNCLASSIFIED]

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