In the News

Thanks CHEX for the great piece on Friday night Newswatch! And a big thank you Lady Eaton College for having Voices at Hand for an extra day. I'll be striking the installation tomorrow. Check back in soon for the residency summary.

That serendipitous moment of finding and reading a letter will be lost..."–Day 5 Lady Eaton College

It Starts With Wonder — Day 4 Lady Eaton College

Ron Thom’s exquisite modernist architecture is working for me and it isn’t.

I’m told there are private niches like the one where I’ve installed Voices at Hand all over Lady Eaton College. Mine was intended for dining, not research, but even with the din of the main dining hall I find I can focus. I feel separate and yet part of things. Perfect.

The downside is my nook doesn’t get walk by traffic—of course if it did it wouldn’t be much of a nook. I can see bodies heading to and from classes along the porticos across the courtyard and know the students in the dining room are wondering what I’m doing. Jean in the cafeteria is my informer and she’s been encouraging students to ask me themselves since day one.

Maybe We Are All Wayfinding?—Day 2 Lady Eaton College

Yesterday at Lady Eaton I processed and added sixty-one new letters to the collection including stacks of Christmas cards and Valentines and a large number of letters I was prepared to file in The Big News, The Small News or The Juicy News.

Today, after mounting a number of over-sized letters from Wayfinding in the dining hall to lure diners to my installation I’m not so sure.

A blank postcard with a note attached to it promising to locate a risqué letter recounting a ménage-a-trois:

Random Storylines in the Calm Before the Storm—Day 1 Lady Eaton College

I love the way I can fly under the radar on the first day of a residency.

I’m sure students and faculty at Lady Eaton College have noticed something is up in the dining hall, but only a handful made their way to my fishbowl-like annex. I’ll give them until midday tomorrow before I employ small acts of art sabotage to lure more in.

Hearing Voices Again: Trent West Bank Coming Soon.

Hi Everyone,

A brief missive to invite you to Lady Eaton College next week where I’ll be artist-in-residence for my ninth installation of Voices at Hand.  I’ll be sharing and expanding my collection of nearly 4,000 letters, hopefully with some of yours.

Promised me letters in the past? Perhaps the mail is slow? Still searching for your shoebox or reading the letters you found? Now’s your chance.  

Scan and press send, mail them or better yet bring them to me on site. That way I can share some of the treasures I’ve found.

Hope to see you,

Wendy

P.S. Follow the project on facebook, twitter and http://voicesathand.blogspot.com

See the residency particulars below. 

Art and Faith - Norfolk County Summary

I never know what I’m looking for, but I always find it. 

People often ask what sort of letters I want when considering a donation to the project. It’s a question I try not to answer. Unlike most archives I resist establishing a priority in part because leaving that decision up to the donor feels like a more honest way of building the collection, but also because I could never think of the characters and stories within the letters I’m brought.

My short residency at the Norfolk Arts Centre (NAC) in Simcoe this past December was no exception: 

Bryan writes his pen pal from a correctional facility in Michigan.

King George V sends best wishes and thanks to a returning WWI soldier.

Norrie complains he “is still struggling with the language” in a postcard dashed off before a meeting in Bologna with Umberto Eco.