Talk To Your Neighbours (2020)

Talk to your neighbours

a window installation in east vancouver (March 30-May 25, 2020)

“talk to your neighbours: found poetry project” (2020)
found materials, varied dimensions
Vancouver, B.C.

"in limbo,” ink on re-purposed deli paper from Santa Barbara market
"floating on a wave," pages from The Bulletin: a journal of japanese canadian community, history, and culture (March issue)
"it carries us," mail packaging
"ebbs and flows — how long?," tissue and wrapping from a floral bouquet

Artist statement

In March 2020, I wrote the following email to my friends and neighbours:

"I've been thinking a lot about the ways neighbours and communities are both connecting with and physically avoiding one another in the midst of this pandemic - as likely you are, too. As a creative experiment, I started a new project today from my living room in East Vancouver.

Over the next four weeks, I will share a line of poetry each week in my street-facing window on Salsbury Drive, between Venables and Parker. Curious readers will have to pass by my living room window each week to uncover the full poem.

This poem developed through the process of found poetry, pulling phrases from recent conversations with my mentor Hiromi Goto. Since I am restricting my time outside (and not shopping at any art supply stores), I will also use re-purposed and found materials from my home to create a new visual each week.

I welcome you take a read while on your daily walk, jog, bike ride, or drive. My plan right now is to share a new line of poetry on Sunday afternoons."

The project ended up spanning almost 2 months, instead of 4 weeks, as I had originally planned.
Time felt really different during the pandemic.