'Free your secret': PostSecret phenomenon coming to Crystal Bridges at The Massey in December.
Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008
Photograph submitted Frank Warren is the creator of the PostSecret project and continues supporting and maintaining interest around the world.
BENTONVILLE — When Crystal Bridges at the Massey opened its doors, it promised one thing — diversity.
Having explored local and regional art, links between literature and art, color theory and even illustration, diversity is exactly what Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s temporary exhibition and programming space has delivered. On Dec. 13, Crystal Bridges at the Massey will venture in yet another direction — this time, conceptual art.
But anyone on staff at Crystal Bridges will tell you this isn’t just any exhibit. It’s PostSecret — a growing phenomenon over the past four years. What’s more, it will represent the first potentially controversial exhibit at Crystal Bridges at the Massey.
“ In our world that is both real and virtual, the impact of the PostSecret phenomenon may be an expression of the desire for connectivity within an increasingly isolated world, ” said Bob Workman, Crystal Bridges executive director. “ This exhibition will challenge our visitors and may not be appropriate for everyone. ”
For those who may not be familiar with PostSecret, it began four years ago when Frank Warren, a Germantown, Md., resident, decided to try an idea at the annual Artomatic exhibition in Washington, D. C. His idea: To pass out blank postcards to complete strangers in hopes they would return them with a personal secret and a doodle jotted on one side.
The postcards came pouring in and Warren put them on display, instantly becoming the talk of the exhibition. What Warren did not expect was that the postcards would continue filling his mailbox, long after the exhibition came to an end. Before long, he was receiving postcards with witty, depressing, shocking, engaging and even insulting secrets from every state in the country.
Warren decided to create an online blog to start posting the secrets he was receiving. Then, postcards started arriving regularly from Australia, India, the United Kingdom and beyond.
“ I realized I had tapped into something that was there all the time — something full of mystery and wonder, ” Warren said. “ I quickly realized I was no longer the leader of the project. PostSecret had a life of its own. ”
Four years later, Warren continues to receive more than 1, 000 postcards per week from around the world. The PostSecret site, www. postsecretcommunity. com, averages six million hits per month. To put things into perspective, that’s more visitors than eBay.
Today, Warren spends the majority of
PostSecret — a sampling of more than 450 PostSecret postcards — will be on display Dec. 13 through Feb. 1 at Crystal Bridges at the Massey, 125 W. Central Ave. in Bentonville. Over the past four years, the online version of PostSecret has become one of the most popular forums of conceptual art, possibly ever. his time reading the postcards and traveling around the country and the world, talking about PostSecret. The week the Daily Record interviewed Warren for this story, he had spoken to standing-room-only auditoriums in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia. In addition, several volumes of PostSecret have been published in book form and hundreds of the once-blank postcards are touring the country as a conceptual art exhibit that has the potential to both shock and challenge the viewer — portraying a very real side of life that Warren said not everyone necessarily is prepared to face.
“ We all have secrets, ” Warren recently told an audience at a speaking engagement in Canada. “ Every day, each one of us faces a choice — to take that secret and bury it deep down inside like a coffin or to bring it out into the light, open it and share our secrets like gifts. ”
From Dec. 13 through Feb. 1, PostSecret, a sampling of more than 450 PostSecret postcards, will be on display at Crystal Bridges at the Massey. The secrets they tell are real secrets from real people. They reveal certain truths about the hopes, fears and realities of contemporary society.
“ These anonymous messages at minimum engage the viewer and have even been credited with transforming lives, ” Workman said.
One recently posted secret contains a drawing of the cartoon characters Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, with the text, “ Fruity Pebbles taste much better when stolen from the café. ” Others, such as a recent postcard with a photo of armed gunmen in a school cafeteria, with the text, “ I’m only nice to you because I’m afraid you’re going to shoot up the school, ” take on a much more serious tone. Still another postcard shows a hand with a razorblade, with the text, “ I wish my parents would reach out to me. I wish I had reached back. ”
The fact secrets like these are more the norm than the exception is why Warren takes his job as administrator of the PostSecret phenomenon extremely seriously.
“ This project does illuminate that hidden landscape we all share but don’t normally like to talk about, ” Warren said. “ Some of the secrets I get, they’re about eating disorders, suffering, people on the brink of suicide. PostSecret may be the only place some people feel like they have to turn.
“ Since almost every postcard I receive comes anonymously, it’s almost impossible for me to reach out. Sometimes that’s hard. But PostSecret has contributed thousands of dollars to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and other important organizations. Whatever the secret, I feel an incredible amount of responsibility. Think about the trust each one of these people is placing in me by sending their secrets. ”
In addition to providing an important outlet, Warren believes PostSecret represents an opportunity for anyone, anywhere to add to the story of life. And that, he said, is the truest form of art.
“ PostSecret is people art, ” Warren said. “ It shows there’s an artist inside all of us. Sometimes what’s more important than artistic talent is the courage to become vulnerable. Free your secret and become who you are. ”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
