“The Reunion (Taiwan to New York),” is an architectural intervention in which I rigged the front door to my New York apartment with an automatic door opener to simultaneously open and close based on the front door of my long-lost family in Taiwan. Throughout the day since January 2024, a transmitter in Taiwan signals an open and closed status to a receiver in New York to determine when the automatic door opener is activated. With the door also left unlocked and out of my control, I’ve become a subject in my privacy, forced to confront and adapt to a different time zone and lifestyle in the city.
As a part of a group exhibition at Time & Space Limited, Hudson, NY, I’ve built a 1:1 scale replica of my apartment on top of an existing plywood stage that showcases the motion of the door in real time. Viewers were invited to wander through the replica apartment to discover the images, texts, and documents that point toward the mechanized door.
Materials: Pinewood, Plywood, MDF, Plexiglass, Acrylic Paint, Acrylic Glaze, IKEA Furniture, Laminated Floors, Ceramic, Insulation Foam, Foam Coat, Fridge, Stove, Carpet, Framed Photographs, Photocopy of Drawings, Spotlights, Door Opening Motor, & Receiving Arduino connected to a live transmitting sensor in Taiwan
Dimensions: 11' x 21' x 9' 4"
Interior Shots:
The Notes on the Fridge:
April 4, 2024
The silence was deafening, and only grew louder as the clock ticked. This was the first full day when my front door remained closed.
April 5, 2024
The front door would often open and close starting around 7:30 PM, with a pause in between. Around 10 PM or 1 AM, the front door would re-open, and usually remain open for an hour or two; sometimes the front door remains completely open for the rest of the night, from 3 - 6 AM, and finally opens either at the start or end of its cycle at 7:30 AM.
But the front door remained closed today, which worried me a great deal. I learned a huge earthquake hit Taiwan yesterday.
Video Walkthrough (2:42mins):
Video of Door Opening (1:02mins):
Detail Shots:
Special thanks to Andrew Yong Hoon Lee, Halsey Rodman, Ching-Ping Lin, Jack Li, 林靜嫻, Jenny Jisun Kim, Talia Fox, Aleda Rosenblum-Katz, Kay Flynn-Murray, Mark Coyler, Maite Iribarren Vazquez, Weihui Lu, and the members of Coop Fund.
