Discarded

I love getting postcards. I like the idea that someone has given me a moment of their time. For the same reason I love receiving letters. So when my friend Venice Gent asked me if I'd like to be involved in a postcard art project. I said yes. The project was one of a collaborative nature. We were to send each other 8 postcards, (4 each) starting blank and build up images on them. The idea being that we'd not know what the other was creating on the card, nor what would happen to the cards during their journey through the Royal Mail.

We took a vow not to discuss whatever we produced and just to send the cards back as soon as we possibly could. Each card was to be posted 4 times. The nature of the artist (and ego) got in the way, as I felt many of the elements of the project had not been collaborative. The cards were sent. Venice's cards followed random images and ideas. I wanted my cards to have a theme to them, one of lost love. Years earlier I had regularly written to a girl I loved, and walked the route to the post-box from my house. This route was the same today as then. I wanted to produce a visual journey from my home to the post box, with elements of the journey, leaves, text from letters, and drawings. Then each card was ideally meant to fit together producing this map.

My sketchbook is shown below, it's 13cm x 29cm



These are some of my final postcards:



Card 1: Blue outline of post route, plastic sealed. Leaf structure/shape cut out of an Asda shopping back, with words taken from a love letter.



Card 2: Blue shaded map, outlined in blue with arrows, compass bearings added and love letter sections added. There is also a scratched in leaf form.



Card 3: Burnt and stitched with writing scrawled on top.



Card 4: Stuck on leaves, 3D maps and oversized punctuation marks.

The arguments persisted and the friendship broke down, I never got to see Venice's sketchbook, nor did I get to see her final cards, I have copies of two of them. The rest are in preliminary stages in my sketchbook. She did send me a picture of the final exhibition, which I wasn't invited to. I felt and continue to feel incredibly frustrated with the project but pleased with what we both achieved. The sketchbooks became a record of an argument, a frustration of 2 artists bucking against each other’s egos.

Venice card 1:




Venice card 2:



The final exhibition: Leeds University 2008