366

Tel Aviv - The Main Scene of Happening
This work consists of 366 postcards written on Polaroid instant photos taken daily between February 29 2008 and February 28 2009 sent to a single addressee. Each day a single photograph was taken capturing a moment in the life of the artist, a person, a location, an event or an interesting visual without editing, retaking or replacing the photo. Following the snapshot a text was written to accompany the visual, similarly not drafted, stylized or edited.

Each photograph reflects a day lived, as such each moment was addressed as a point of singular importance. Moments were selected for photography 'live', forcing a process of evaluating life as it goes, examining temporal impressions without retrospect, not knowing what's next only what was missed. The texts on the other hand reveal a context or portray a longer process of metaphysical notion, not necessarily corresponding directly to the photos. The combination of visual and textual, experiences and thoughts with gaps and irregularities maintain the personal and natural sense of the postcards, reflecting much of the automated and subconscious tendencies of 'real' life.

The Artists Family

This work examines the effects of an unspoken commitment between a writer and a recipient, a daily ritual of a delayed connection between two people. It examines the appreciation of life and the heightened worth of experiences shared with another. The texts are private. Intimacy was apparent through the simplicity and candor of the process and by its regularity. Upon embarking on this endeavor it was not apparent what mark will it leave on the relationship or whether any will survive the full year. Though hardships and turmoils during the process are reflected in this work, the view of the completed work leaves a sweet taste of a life in retrospect.

The transportation mechanism of content in this communication played an active and important role in the process. The time gap characteristic of postal mail was joined by uncertainty of arrival.The unusual dimensions (illegal by the Israeli post service regulations) and medium caused many of the postcards to disappear in the mail. Less than 280 of the 366 postcards arrived at their destination. This loss of physical vessels of memory were translated as lost moments in time.

A Jigsaw Puzzle for the Mailman

At the same time the noticeability and regularity of these postcards revealed a Pavlovian response when a postcard without an address arrived at its destination on the sole basis of postal workers interest and undisclosed involvement. Many times the involvement and interaction was intrinsic to the artwork as in a postcard arranged as a puzzle which the postmen needed to solve in order to figure the address. But at times the involvement was voluntary. A neighbor of the addressee confessed that he looks at the photographs through the partially transparent mailbox. He also attested seeing the postman viewing and reading these Polaroid postcard before leaving them in the mailbox.

More Bits and Pieces
In the period of time this project went on Polaroid discontinued the manufacturing of their film. Both printed photography and handwritten letters have lost their prominence and became obsolete due to emerging technologies such as digital cameras and email. As with all subjects, evolution is in constant progress. Technologies applied in this work all belong to species in decline, on a verge of extinction, being replaced with newer, more adapt ones. These dying technologies are not being used as nostalgia but are the essence of the work - their continuous nature exposes a language inaccessible via digitized media: moments can't be replicated, experiences stay unaltered and physical touch remains in existence.

 

Self Portraits
"Documenting life is like documenting a dream. Real time thoughts and experiences that at a moment fill the whole being are forgotten in to the subconsciousness. Communicating them to an engaged person provides these moments with meaning allowing them to linger and have consequence. One such consequence is creating awareness to the beauties of each moment in life. Another is creating awareness to consequences of the awareness itself." - The artist