Doppelganger is a video work by Yi-Chi Lin that explores early overseas migration in Kinmen. With a narrative focusing on a premonition of “doppelganger” in a family that had migrated abroad, the piece ties together members across three generations in Taiwan and Indonesia and their experiences of diaspora through different periods in time, including separation, growing up in a foreign land, and eventually settling down and building a life there. Departing from the perspective of the family, the work recounts the life history of the migrants and then further explores issues of nationality, history, and identity in Southeast Asia.
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In regards to production, the work employs cinematic mise-en-scène and theatrical performance arrangements, and the idea of a doppelganger in a foreign country is presented with actors from three generations each taking on two roles, showing close contrasts of similar mysterious encounters that the two sides have both experienced. Additionally, more clues and codes are hidden in the images presented. With theater-like scene transitions, the narrative spans across three different dimensions of time, traveling from the past, the present, to the future, with the distances between Kinmen, Taiwan, and Indonesia stitched together. For the presentation, the video is screened in a cave-like setting to represent the historical tunnel in Kinmen, which further augments the audience’s corporeal perception, with more possibilities evoked by the images and the space.

《雙生》為林羿綺探尋早年金門出洋移民離散軌跡的錄像作品，以出洋家族裡的雙生子預言作為架構，敘述臺灣與印尼三代成員，倆倆在不同時代切片中經歷分離、異地成長、而後落地生根的歷程，企圖以家族的視角出發，述說移民者的生命史，進而追索近代東南亞各國的集體記憶、後殖民經驗以及身份認同議題。

在影像製作上，揉合電影化的場面調度與劇場式表演，由三位演員分飾同輩的兩角，讓雙生子的臉孔串連起已分枝的兩個家庭，與其生命歷程中的種種神秘巧合，並以默片字卡的形式，將彼此述說的不同語言藉由文字表達，影像也以埋藏更多線索與暗語的方式編輯而成。展出現場，《雙生》影像放映在洞窟造景內，象徵時光的隧道也像是金門的坑道──雙生子預言的起源，透過劇場舞台般的場景變換，讓敘事軸線得以橫跨歷史、現代與未來三個時間維度，也縫合起金門、臺灣與印尼間的越洋距離。

Born in 1986, Lin Yi-Chi now lives and works in Taipei. Lin received her Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Taipei National University of the Arts. With educational backgrounds in both contemporary art and film production, her works take the form of video art, experimental cinema, and video installation. In recent years, Lin’s practice centers on the diaspora experiences within Asian geopolitics. Memories and dreams are collected through field investigation, and the dynamic images are transformed into her medium of necromancy. Individual life narratives are re-interpreted and re-enacted into a re-enchantment scenario, which she employs to summon the marginal voices and re-produce bonds among nationalities, histories, and collective memories. ​

Lin was recently invited to exhibit works in the Jakarta Biennale (2022), 13th Gwangju Biennale (2021), and the Biennale Jogja 2019, as well as her solo exhibition “Selamat, the messenger over the sea” (2022) at Honggah Museum, Taiwan. She has also participated in numerous domestic and international curatorial projects, film festivals, and artist residencies. Also, Lin has been accoladed with the Special Jury Prize at Huayu Youth Award (2021), First Prize at Miami Beach Pulse Prize (2019), First Prize of Golden Harvest Awards for Best Experimental Film (2021 & 2019), Finalist at the 16th Taishin Arts Award (2018), First Prize of Kaohsiung Award (2018), MIT New Artist Award by the Ministry of Culture (2018), and Honorable Mention of Taipei Arts Awards (2018).The unique atmosphere her artworks create is outstandingly experimental and subversive.