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
