This indoor installation will appear in the gallery space at Conflux HQ for the duration of the festival.

Project Description::

LOCATIONS & DISLOCATION is a postcard project about moving. It is an attempt to creatively and subjectively describe the people who move from home to home in the urban environment, swept by the forces of the city and the ebbs and flows of life changes. The marks of their presence often vanish from each place they leave, replaced by new tenants and sometimes new buildings entirely. This energy of movement, both voluntary and forced, is a vital component of the contemporary urban landscape.

The process: I collect an individual’s past and current addresses in the city where he or she lives. I map these addresses with lines from place to place, and then remove the map, leaving an abstract line drawing. I collect the reasons for each move, such as: job, love, priced out, rats, light, band, adventure, safety, space, etc. I print the line drawing and the reasons on a postcard and mail it to the person.

The project searches for the poetry in this personal data, creating abstract biographies of a person as he or she moves through a city. It reveals the complexities that underlie a mobile population and excavates the choices and forces that shape an individual’s path, while providing abstract documentation and affirmation of people whose often untraceable presence is essential to the fabric of urban life.

There is a growing installation of postcards at CONFLUX headquarters, beginning with postcards I made for a group of New York City artists. Throughout the festival, I will create new postcards for CONFLUX attendees to add to the installation.

Paper submission forms for the new postcards are available near to the installation on a first come, first serve basis for twenty new participants. (People who submit should have lived at three or more addresses in the city where they currently reside, though you may have left and moved back. You do not have to live in New York City.) The postcards identify the subject only by first name and city; addresses will not be shared with anyone but the artist. Subjects will receive a copy of the postcard by mail after the festival.

Each postcard will become part of the ongoing installation and will be photographed and available on my website, where it will exist in dialog with future postcards.

Website: http://sarahnelsonwright.com/category/locations-dislocation/