-PROVFLUX ARTIST-
Post-Postcard
by Erika Howsare
This project will raise such questions by complicating the production, dissemination and selection of postcards. I have always been interested in how text and image can inform each other, especially regarding geography. I will set up a postcard “factory” including a selection of images and a selection of texts. The images will be photos of Providence I’ve taken, newspaper photos, flea market finds, any image of Providence other than standard tourist shots. The texts will include chunks of poetry or prose written based on the experience of living in Providence, excerpts from Providence guidebooks, local media, historical snippets, etc. The “factory” will be a table and chairs, cards, pens, art supplies, glue, and so on.
Participants will be able to choose a card with an image and write their own
message, as with regular postcards. Or, they can choose a card with text only
and draw or photograph something on the image side. Or they can simply put
text and image together from what I provide. I also supply completely blank
cards so that both text and image are of the participant’s making. The
only common element all postcards will share is the word “PROVIDENCE”.
All the texts and images I provide will play to some extent with the official
“facts” about this place, and will be drawn from the actual fabric
of lives lived in the city—images and words encountered while moving
through the environment.
It will be up to participants to put these together—to accept or reject
certain elements, to pair them in new ways, to decide when they can use an
existing representation and when they need to respond in their own voices.
As a whole, the project will constitute a collective re-representation of
the city by people who live here and aren’t trying to “sell”
the place in any particular way. Participants will, of course, also decide
where to send the cards when finished.
Erika Howsare is an MFA candidate at Brown University in Creative Writing.
