Since 2001, the artist team Lin+Lam’s (Lana Lin and H.Lan Thao Lam) has been producing collaborative projects that challenge the ways in which hegemonic national historical narratives are constructed, translated, and mediated. Their videos, installations, and interventions also examines the role of the archive, memory, representation, language and the legacies of historical trauma, particularly the Viet Nam War in different countries.

Lana Lin is kind of a veteran of critical cinema. She was trained as a filmmaker and began making films about 15 years ago. For the past 8 years or so, she has geared her practice more toward art venues and writing. She is influenced by social and political philosophy, feminism, and psychoanalysis. Lana is a Taiwanese American, born in Canada, and grew up in the US.
H.Lan Thao Lam was born in South Vietnam, escaped after the war ended and immigrated to Canada. As an artist, her works in installation, object-making and intervention revolve around social memories of place, history, and architecture.

The following is a transcript of a lecture presentation by Lin + Lam at IAS, Sept. 4, 2007. Excerpts from this text will be compiled in "Archive Mine," a forthcoming publication on archival and counter-archival impulses in aesthetic political practices. (Please contact the authors for permission to reproduce.)

Lin+Lam : www.linpluslam.com, info@linpluslam.com