Online project Postcardwall is making 2015 the ‘year of the postcard’. For nearly five years, Sophie Hill has written about art using her postcard collection as a springboard, numbering and categorising each one. Set to reach 365 ‘on the wall’ at the end of 2014, Hill plans to celebrate by re-releasing a postcard online every day of 2015, and the collection, together with their expressive words, will be popping up in exhibitions all over London – and hopefully further afield – throughout the year.
Postcardwall is a project inspired by Hill’s collection of artists’ postcards from galleries and museums across the world. In 2009, she began a blog to remember each one, using words to create further windows into every artwork. Featured postcards come from large institutions to smaller galleries and graduate shows, constructing an online platform for all kinds of art. Building a far-reaching wall of visual memory, Postcardwall celebrates works from temporary displays as well as permanent exhibitions; often of artworks from private collections, or those that are rarely seen, the postcards are snap-shots of our ever-growing art world, each made more accessible by Hill’s evocative text. Collectively, there are over 70,000 words about art on Postcardwall and each postcard is categorised by century. With a search bar that brings up artists, titles or even the mention of a medium or subject, Postcardwall acts as an archive that documents and elaborates on works of art that have been re-produced as a means to be shared. Postcards are an accessible way of understanding and examining a work of art; people take them home, put them on their fridge or mantelpiece and become attached – and it is this ease of acquaintance that Hill aims to capture with Postcardwall.
Exhibited, Postcardwall is a show about art and words, with each postcard displayed alongside its accompanying text. Browsing becomes a chance to remember, as well as to discover, artists both past and present. The postcards jog memories of visiting exhibitions, trips or holidays; the power of the image to take one back to a time of visiting the original work of art is incredible. With all the postcards bought, received and cherished by Hill, the collection is also an intriguing insight into art as experienced by one person in the twenty-first century. The year of the postcard will be the first time the collection is exhibited in selections, rather than in its entirety in number order, and will reveal the postcards’ ability to explore themes, trends or ideas.
Throughout 2015, medleys of the collection will appear in cafes and spaces all over London, culminating in an exhibition of all 365 in Stour Space, Hackney Wick for the month of September. The 365 exhibition will be accompanied by new artworks from a selection of contemporary featured postcard artists, showing the evolution of their work since. 2015 begins with postcards in Mario’s Café, Kentish Town and will pay homage to the café’s history, which opened as Tony’s in 1957 by Mario’s father, who had just emigrated to London from Italy. The postcards and their words will be hung around the themes of travel and movement, mirroring their artists’ trips across the world, often all for the sake of art.
Also looking to celebrate the excitement of receiving postcards (a growing rarity…), a postcard raffle is also planned for the new year; every entry will receive a postcard, the winning ones featuring an original work of art from a postcard artist. Postcardwall has partnered with artlyst over the year of the postcard, so follow both for news on events, announcements of pop-up exhibitions, and, of course, a postcard for every day of the year.
Anyone wondering what to start the year with? Answer’s on a postcard.
postcardwall @ Mario’s Café will on exhibition from 12 Jan to 13 Feb 2015 at 6 Kelly Street, London NW1 8PH; open Mon – Sat, 7.30am – 4pm.
365 @ Stour Space will be on exhibition from 4 – 28 September 2015 at 7 Roach Road, London E3 2PA; open Mon – Sun, 9am – 5pm.
See More On Art On Art On A Postcard Here