LIMINAL MOMENTS
Postcards are sent from a destination. This emphasizes the importance of the destination and completely ignores the journey.
Throughout my art practice, the journey and process have always been of greater importance than the destination or final piece. In this project, I reflect that sentiment by implementing it in more areas of my life. I created a series of postcards that grew over several journeys. These weren't necessarily long journeys, but rather a mix of 8-minute tube rides, 40-minute bus rides, and even 2-hour-long plane journeys.
The drawings themselves are made up of abstract forms that borrow and morph shapes and shadows from my surroundings and subconscious.
Journeys, whether they're short or long, are seen as liminal periods where nothing of importance occurs. It is simply a means to get from one place to another and is ideally as short as possible. These liminal moments aren’t only found in transit, but also when waiting for a doctor's appointment, or for a friend who is running late. Waiting for an expected phone call, in line for a restaurant, or even the next act at a comedy show.
A lot of these moments are spent alone and could be used as treasured moments for reflection and contemplation. I know people do use these moments to simply be and think and exist, but I also know that a lot of people, including myself did not treat these moments in the same way. I would often fill these liminal moments with mindless, and mind-numbing activities like mini phone games, doom scrolling, or watching TV. Anything that would make the time pass by faster.
There’s the saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun’. I believe that time also flies when you’re not paying attention.
In my understanding, more time is spent in these ‘journeys’ and ‘liminal moments’ than at the destinations. I wanted to take back control of my time and no longer feel like I wasting the majority of my life. I decided I would carry around a pen and some paper wherever I go, so if I find myself in a liminal moment, rather than getting out my phone, I can draw. I can make more of that journey than hoping it ends sooner. Over time, these moments started feeling like events in themselves. I no longer looked for the fastest route to get home from work, a flight getting delayed no longer felt so bad. I started enjoying these moments as much as most destinations. I looked forward to waiting.
Every day felt like it had more hours in it. This process reminded me of the metaphor for filling time where a jar filled with golf balls is full, but then can still fit in a bunch of pebbles. Now with golf balls and pebbles, the jar is full, but then a cup of sand fits in. Now surely the jar is full, and yet a cup of water fits in.
I don't mean to say every waking moment should be filled, and ‘numbing’ activities are inherently bad. What I'd like to illustrate here is that the spaces between the events (the golf balls) are just as important and meaningful. Numbing those moments takes away from any possibilities they could bring. With the rise of the addictive short-term dopamine hits that we so easily get from doom scrolling and social media in general, our attention spans are shot. At least in my life, it has very much been an addiction with my fingers sometimes itching to open Instagram again right after I closed it. Appreciating the liminal moments has helped me with this addiction and being more mindful of how I spend my time.
The postcard drawings celebrate all this. They are not about the specific journeys themselves, but rather what these moments have in common. The shapes and forms that appear have a natural sense of familiarity with each other; they are easily connected. This is very apparent when the different drawings are laid out and form a sort of puzzle that can be rearranged.
From these postcard drawings I collected, I have begun to make large charcoal drawings that morph the postcards into larger compositions. I am unsure of how far these larger pieces will go as there’s a slight irony in the postcards becoming the ‘less important’ journey to the larger pieces. I want to ensure the importance of the ‘postcards’ themselves before creating larger works out of them.
One idea was using ‘Meadow’ to create an AR addition to the experience where the audience can rearrange the postcards into compositions of their own. I may continue with developing this, but would like to understand why conceptually first.
The same goes for another idea where, along with the postcards, is an audio piece that samples recordings made during these moments. Bringing the audience along on the journey, and maybe making them feel as though they were there.
I am excited to see where this goes, and have many smaller ideas flying around my head for what direction to take, but for the moment this is where the project is at.
Questions:
Can something be of importance without having a name?
Can something not be of importance unless it is an individual?
THE POSTCARD SERIES I
I have not yet uploaded Postcard Series' II and III, but you can find some more images on Instagram @neetiart_




























