Series: The Invisible Asians
Title: Fingerprints
Year: 2020
Medium: sculpture and photography | silicon, pigment, piano finish taper wood base, metal print (dye-sublimation printing on aluminum)
Dimension: approx. 6 x 6 x 4½ in, including the base (sculpture), 11 x 17 in each (photography)
Fingerprints is a silicone sculpture that captures an imprint of my hand in an aim to reflect unrest in response to immigration and racism.
My name, 林嘉貞, was left behind in my native country of Taiwan the moment I entered the U.S. Customs and Border Protection building. I immediately became another person once I entered U.S. territory. In the U.S., I insisted on not having an easy-to-pronounce English name; instead, I kept my translated name, Jia-Jen Lin—which, however, has often been recognized to be Chinese due to the pinyin system I chose to use 19 years ago. Having my fingerprints taken at Customs represents my knowledge that I will always have to press my fingers harder; otherwise, the immigration system will not recognize me as a legal immigrant who has become an American citizen through naturalization.
