Time did most of the work here is an ongoing artistic and curatorial research project. For four years now, my artistic practice has focused on hijacking found postcards and photographs. I use embroidery, texts, engraving and collage to explore the tension of these often forgotten or discarded objects. I use them to write to people; the ones I haven’t met yet, the ones I miss, the ones I know I’ll never see again. I also send them, alongside letters or poems, to artists,  curators, friends, or anyone who’s willing to recieve them. What happens quite often is that the receivers send me an altered postcard or photograph back. 

I’ve also started doing workshops where I bring miscellaneous materials (postcards, photographs, watercolours, pencils, found objects, pressed plants, tape, pens, thread and needles...) for people to play with. They are also encouraged to bring photographs or letters that hold emotional value. And while we ‘destroy’ them, we reminisce. We talk about our creative processes or about what the photograph, the card, or the letter in question meant to us:

Take your most precious-printed photograph and a needle. Use the needle to pierce through the paper. If it’s a glossy one, you’ll first feel a slightly sticky resistance before it magically pulls through and makes a hole that’ll remind you of the shape a bullet leaves in metal. If you prick multiple holes, you’ll eventually have a residue on the needle that resembles glue. Hold the precious-perforated-printed photograph against a light source. You may feel something. Yes, write what you feel (or think) on the back of the picture. Pull out paint, or threads, or tape, or a pen, or whatever you have at hand to draw on the white side. Do what feels right. Regularly hold the photograph’s printed side to the light. This will allow you to recalibrate. You must think about the picture: where-how-when-why-what. Why did you take it, or where did you find it? What makes it (or its subject) unique? Who’s in this photo, and do you miss them?   In other words, what ‘pricks’ you? Write about it wherever you find room on your card. If you feel especially sacrilegious (and like having a bit of fun) also draw on the printed side. You’ll know when you are done.