In 2005 I did a short residency at the Or Gallery called “Out of Office Reply.” The idea was to consider works that would live outside the gallery walls. I had become very interested in tourist sites and paraphernalia, and decided to make a postcard book that viewers could take out into the world.

This postcard book was a collection of reproductions of “world class cities” (Paris, London, New York, Tokyo and so on) put together in a single book entitled Vancouver: Your Private Sky!. The creation of this book coincided with the confirmation of Vancouver as the site of the 2010 Olympics, and its own self-proclaimed distinction of “world class city.” Sections of the postcard were perforated and viewers were encouraged to use these cards as makeshift “frames” through which they might view Vancouver’s shifting landscapes.

It’s a ridiculously simple premise, and I was happy with that. I also have since encountered Yoko Ono’s postcard work “A Hole to See the Sky Through” (1971) and I love what she was doing with that work: isolating, through a simple economy of means, a small part of the sky through a hole in a postcard. It’s a lovely gesture, and I like to consider this piece as (humbly) related to her project: it’s a way to consider the expanse of the visible world against one’s own hand.

Here’s a text by Jeremy Todd on the project. **coming soon