4-1-9, or You can’t View a Masquerade By Standing in One Place is a musical suite and artwork based on email scams. 4-1-9 is the name for a fund transfer scam believed to originate from Nigeria, as they often use names and locations that are particular to Nigeria or other parts of Africa. These emails are actually created around the world. What idea of Africa do the composers of these letters hope to invoke?

Housed in an ATM machine at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the project explores the structure of tragedy, archetypal African identities on the web, and the notion of scams. You can listen to songs based on the letters, use our form to create your own 4-1-9 letter, and play the online game, BALANCE.

Author: Mendi and Keith Obadike.

The work is part of the Airborne exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, in NYc till June 9.

Via net_art_review.