Unlit Matches (2021)

unlit matches

Exploring the seductive potential of connections made online, Unlit Matches delves into the delicate and humorous poetry of the failure to connect. By trying to make sense of dating and meeting new people in the age of dating apps, Wee is interested in the prose of potential suitors and her learned skill of reading between the lines of the profiles we put online, both on the apps where we intentionally seek romance, and on social media, where we all simply want to be liked. Wee has spent the last few years researching the platforms of online networking and social media, and for the past year she has used various dating apps, for research and pleasure.

She routinely comments on the profiles that stick out to her and posts them on her personal Instagram stories, with identities scrubbed, in order to understand why we relate so deeply to the struggle of trying to make a love connection in the present day. In cataloguing the most interesting (or mostly both funny and sad) profiles, she has reflected on her journey so far and written what might seem like flippant quips and affixed them to these fabric ‘flags’ reminiscent of the red and green flags we often talk about in relationships, but by using other colours and textures, Wee attempts to speak more about her personal experiences and the grey areas of pondering the unlit matches in her past (either by luck or by choice) or the possibilities of potential future matches.