The next idea evolved from thinking about this re-occurring notion of the public and the private. I wanted to take an existing collection of something that was very personal to me and plunge it into the public sphere. The audience/viewer was at the forefront of my mind during its initial conception. I knew I wanted to include emotion and I knew I wanted to involve this third element of public interaction. I needed to get out of the safety of the studios and really experience a response to a piece of work within the public realm.
Birthday cards for me are a physical representation of the support network that exists in my surrounding family and friends. They are extraordinarily private things meant for just one person’s eyes. They are a tangible product of emotion and personal relationships. At that particular point in time I couldn’t think of a more private object that has so much potential to conjure up emotion (my emotion or the viewers, or both..?)
Initially, I thought it would rouse feelings of sadness as the viewer could evidently see loving, handwritten messages strewn all over the dirty pavement. In fact, it was quite the opposite reaction. In general, people were smiling and reading the little private messages and nick-names that were displayed on each card, and children jumped around them as if they were a hopscotch game. As I was observing this interaction, amongst other emotions, I felt exposed. A very intimate part of my life in the form of messages from my Granny, and my Mum and sisters were laid bare for all to see. By putting a collection of such private things into the public’s eye was as if I was giving someone unrestricted access to my personal life. Although they could never know everything about whom these people are and what relationship they have with me, the association remained strongly within my mind.
On reflection, I feel I am really exploring the persistent and ever present notion of context within this work; I feel I have altered the object’s context more with this piece that any so far. The dynamics of the relationship between me, the artist, my work, and the people viewing it, has taken a dramatic turn also. I became the ‘Sophie Calle’ like observer of people interacting with the work. Was the work about my collection, or was it about people’s reaction to the contents of the collection? Maybe I cannot fully analyse it now as it is so fresh and recent, but I think I am onto something quite interesting here..
Video documentation of a site specific installation consisting of a collection of old birthday cards belonging to me positioned on the pavement in Ipswich town centre.
