My Most Gracious Friend

Anne Haydock

An imagined relationship between WWII-era spy Velvalee Dickinson and cryptologist Elizebeth Smith Friedman, based on a counter-reading of Dickinson’s coded letters and audio collage of Friedman’s archival interview tapes. This mixed media installation explores subtext, code, and the reliability of audiovisual evidence, incorporating sculptural collages, 16mm "re-enactments" of both figures' daily lives, and silhouetted one-shots projected over archival documents to create live superimpositions.