REM Sleep, Jao Chia-En

the long version

Exhibition catalogue for 'REM Sleep' by Jao Chia-En, held at TheCube project space, Taipei, between 24 Dec 2011- 20 Jan 2012. Part of TheCube's Re-envisioning Society series. "REM Sleep" distils via a documentary format the dreams of Indonesian, Filipino, Thai and Vietnamese labourers who have come to Taiwan as short-term migrant workers after Taiwanese government policy shifted in the 90's. On the one hand, documentation of these dreams in a foreign land serve as an exploration of the range of effects of a change of environment on the individual, as a result of shifting global economic forces. On the other hand, as documents with no legal ramifications whatsoever, they also avail to the global economic system inhabited by these nomadic individuals a possible means of introspection.