The Changeling by Fiona Tan is an installation comprised of double facing monitors: on one side, slowly changing photograph after photograph of Japanese schoolgirls in their uniforms and regulation haircuts, and on the other, a still portrait of a single classmate. The voice-over accompanying the solo girl, in painstaking awareness of her mother and her grandmother’s careful watch, quietly reflects upon herself and her struggle in coming-of-age and finding her own words.

The title of this work is in reference to a "creature from Old English and Nordic mythology who, as the child of an elf pixie or gnome, is swapped for a human child. In association with this mythology, 'changeling' is also understood as a role playing game in which the participants slip into different character roles and thus play themselves as well as others." (Thorsten Sadowky, "With Other Eyes". Fiona Tan Mirror Maker. Kehrer Verlag, p. 62)

The work is Tan's exploration on the role of the voice-over and narrative, and its relationship to image. This work was first shown in England in 2006 with a voice-over by Fiona Shaw, and later adapted for numerous countries and languages for the artist's traveling exhibition. The Japanese version, which was first shown in the Yokohama Image and Film Festival in 2009, is read by Junko Uchida.