On the Verso: Ten Postcards from an Anonymous Lover . An artist statement
The contents in this package are found objects of the everyday: ten video postcards sent from one lover to another. None of the cards are dated or arrange in any specific chronological order. Both the identities of the recipient and the sender are unknown.
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A postcard is a technology of communication. It operates within a complex network of data in order for its message to be received. The physicality of the card itself, as a mass produced commodity, on one level functions as the medium for the card’s message, and on another level exists as the embodiment of that message’s meaning. This latter implication realizes the postcard as the materialization of abstract emotions and representation of one’s identity, even if anonymous, and thus invests personal meaning in seemingly disposable objects of technology. The markings on the fisiduals for example, can operate as personalized semiotics of emotion rather than computer data.
The original meaning of these videos cards, as found objects, however, is lost. Yet at the same time, as evidence of an anonymous existence and artifacts from an unknown history, the imagined narratives and speculated identities projected upon this collection are infinite. This blur between real and fictional worlds is the space in which the reader occupies. Further more, unlike its text-based predecessors, the audio-visual component of the cards provides a reading experience outside the parameters of linear time. Played simultaneously, the collection becomes a cacophonous landscape of juxtaposing sentiments and identities, representing an overwhelming yet fragile totality in which the reader becomes immersed in. The noise that this simultaneity produces is not however meaningless, but rather occasion for aleatoric meanings to come into play. Contrary to Benjamin’s critique, these small paper mementoes reveal to a certain extent a technological based aura and mystery around these imaginary yet real found objects/narratives.