Truth Cards are Ready for YOU!
damali ayo
I am very excited to announce that Angela Mobley's Truth Cards are
ready for you to "shop drop" in the stores in your community. This is
one of the two first Now Art Grants and it's time for the magic of
participation to make it happen!
The timing is perfect as we've just accomplished a major
participatory art feat with the National Day of Panhandling for
Reparations. I know that some of you caught the excitement of
participatory art from doing that project, and that some of you are
waiting for a less controversial, less risky project, and that others
of you have been waiting for this project especially to take part.
Truth Cards are here and waiting for YOU!
This project is amazing. Angela writes:
> In the ritual of utilizing a generic sentiment to give grandma on
>her birthday
> or a co-worker for her new baby, we use the greeting card-a mix of
> predetermined and mass produced image and text. What is it about the
> non-specific wording surrounded by pastel flowers on a piece of paper that
> continues to take us back to the store to look for another? Why do we chose
> this paper medium to state life's undercurrents, the things gone unsaid?
>
> How would it feel to come across a difficult truth embedded within the format
> of the greeting card? "Truth Cards" is a project to challenge the language of
> the greeting card. iAs an artist, I'm most interested in works that can shift
> one's daily experience by encasing something challenging in an
>everyday, known
> object.
>
> Most recently I've been buying cards from stores, scanning them in, retaining
> the image and font and shifting the wording only slightly. The cards are then
> returned to the original site and placed among the originals. Using social
> spaces where cards are sold, allows anyone looking at greeting cards the
> access to these "truth" cards. Humor is an element to this body of work, as I
> am interested in giving the power to the card giver. For example, cards to a
> "Special Sister" and "Terrific Father" are slightly altered to a "Competitive
> Sister" or a "Terrible Father". The inside text is shifted minimally, just
> enough to change the cards meaning. [example attached]
>
> For the Now Art project, I have included other artists
> as card makers. I believe there are endless
> possibilities for the appropriation of the greeting card as an instrument for
> exploring and revealing familial, social and political truths.
Now Angela needs your help to get these cards into stores.
If you'd like to participate, send me an email with your name and
address and contact info. Angela will send you everything you need to
"drop" the cards into stores. Your job is to do this in a stealth way
but also to document your "shop dropping" with digital photography.
The artist card-makers want to see the work in action and see where
their cards end up. I also want to make sure we have this project
well documented and also get some images to the press. This is going
to be a lot of fun!!
Thank you for your participation! We are right on time for the
holiday shopping season, so you can drop while you shop!
Best to each of you,
damali