Oscar's Letters

2017

On June 5th, 2017, I had a dream about a new acquaintance, Carolee. I posted about it on her Facebook wall:

You were in my dream last night! I was at a beautiful summer camp in the woods. After a campfire and performance art show about ostriches, I was walking back alone to my cabin and I noticed a pile of letters in a wooden box mounted to the railing. They were unsent love letters, collected and meticulously sorted by you, waiting there for people to come pick them up. One could only see if a letter was addressed to them if their heart was ready to be kind about its contents. 💌

She responded with a message inviting me to the Far Flung Forest for the first time. At that time it had a distinctly summer camp-like air that matched my dream. Inspired by the steel ostrich Oscar my mother keeps in her front yard, I wrote a series of letters about emotional experience. Folks were invited to interact with the letters in any way that felt right, and to seek out the real-world Oscar after the conclusion of the event.

Using Plutchik's wheel of emotions and a wide variety of stationery garnered from estate sales, I wrote letters to 48 different emotions on my typewriter, ostensibly from Oscar to the participants. The letters were full of typos and whimsy. Each began "Dear Camper."

I also wrote a set of letters between myself and Oscar, telling the story of an ostrich who wanted to go to summer camp but could not because he was stuck to the ground.

I printed a number of postcards inviting participants to visit Oscar at his home, with a simple set of clues directing people to my parents' erstwhile domicile.

Once on site, I left the box of letters and postcards sitting out. Participants could rifle through the box, open the sealed letters, or read already opened letters. Participants were invited to keep the letters, put them back, or burn them. Watching people interact with the letters was very satisfying.

Participants were invited to bring a token of their emotional landscape to Oscar at his home.

One of the things I learned as a result of this project was that there's an ephemeral nature to events that doesn't usually continue into the real world. Only one person came to visit Oscar after the event. Her tokens were beautiful and significant.

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