Unreliable Narrator

Julia Dahee Hong received a grant for the development of new work. Unreliable Narrator is a series of holographic video sculptures that take the prompter as their visual and conceptual starting point. The prompter — literally the “whisperer” — helps actors remember their lines and thus symbolizes invisible labour: present yet unseen, essential yet without authorship. The holographic videos will be shown within the prompter’s box. At the centre of this work is the fragmented voice of the working class. From an interest in emotional labour and alienation within the late-capitalist service economy, Julia investigates how empathy, servitude, and affective behaviour are regulated and commodified. What happens when kindness is compulsory, or when empathy feels like a script? The prompter, hidden at the edge of the stage, represents for her a collective memory: a voice that does not speak for itself, but carries — like so many people working under precarious conditions.

Julia Dahee lives and works in Amsterdam and maintains a multifaceted practice spanning photography, performance, writing, sculpture, and video. She questions culturally specific and socially inherited values by addressing notions of customer service, emotional labour, and aspiration. Julia Dahee is the organiser of the Breakfast B Reading Series, where artists and writers are invited to read or perform from their own work; a platform for writing, active listening, and community building. She obtained her Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.