Archive: Issue No. 98, October 2005

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Gorillaz

Gorillaz


Secrets, lies and longing
by Carine Zaayman

PostSecret
postsecret.blogspot.com

In November 2004, Frank Warren initiated his PostSecret Project. He sent out blank postcards, with only the request that people write a secret on the card and send it back to him. The secret, he said, could be 'a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession or childhood humiliation'. Originally he intended to exhibit the returned postcards on an exhibition in which he was due to take part.

Even after the close of the project, however, the secrets kept coming in, and this prompted Warren to continue the project online. Warren's PostSecret website now contains over 3000 beautiful cards, and he posts more every Sunday.

The cards are incredibly beautiful testaments to guilt, fear and longing. Some are highly specific, others express a common human experience or thought. Their visually interesting surfaces bear secrets that betray severe unhappiness, regret, unrequited love, depression and so on. One particularly poignant one reads, 'My Grandfather molested me. I'm afraid to go near kids. I'll never have children. I'm scared there is a monster in me too'. Another states, 'On the subway I stand so that other people's bodies will cushion the impact if we crash'.

The combined anonymity and public exposure written into the premise of the project probably provides an opportunity for people to both say things they are afraid to admit, but, importantly, to do so in such a way that they are actually heard. It is more than 'confession', and a complex conflation of the public and private.

The PostSecret project still accepts submissions and still has the same invitation quoted above. As the site states: 'Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.' As with the first phase, one is required to send a postcard, and not an email.

(Extra information on the project, that was used to write this article, came from The Guardian Unlimited: www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1548560,00.html)

Learning to Love You More
www.learningtoloveyoumore.com

On the other side of the self-expression spectrum, and a bit more upbeat and self-affirmative, is the Learning to love you more project by artists Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July. These artists have created a site on which they have listed numerous (currently 53) assignments, intended to make you stop and reflect on yourself, your personality and your ability to appreciate yourself.

Do not expect a Dr. Phil-style self-help curriculum though; this is a far more eccentric and vibrant project, and one that has specific visual outcomes. Moreover, the highly personalised, diverse and creative products ('reports', as they are called) by other participants (also available on the site) testify to the quirky open-ended nature of the project. One assignment reads, 'Take a flash photo under your bed', another 'make an exhibition of art in your parents' house', and yet another 'Reread your favourite book from fifth grade'.

The idea is that one would document the assignments after completion, and send the documentation to the artists. Fletcher and July have made what they call a 'series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to [our] assignments'. These presentations have taken place at the Whitney Museum and the Seattle Art Museum among other places. The site states that since the inception of the project in 2002, more than 2000 people have participated in the project.

The creators of Learning to love you more express their thinking behind the project as follows: 'The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response. Suddenly it is clear what you have to do. For a brief moment it seems wonderfully easy to live and love and create breathtaking things. In this section we have archived some of the work that has commanded us in this way. In a sense, these are assignments - in the same way that the ocean gives the assignment of breathing deeply, and kissing instructs us to stop thinking.'

A highly inventive project in its conception, Learning to love you more also delivers interesting products. The 'Take a photo of your parents kissing' assignment, for one, is touching and tender. More challenging, however, is the 'Defeat Bush' assignment, and reading the different actions that people took to communicate their resistance is really entertaining.

...

Both the PostSecret and the Learning to love you more projects rely heavily on group participation, but more importantly, that each individual in that group contribute in a personal and honest way. In this sense, they are highly engaging, presenting both touching instances as well as a surprisingly coherent portrait of humanity.
 


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