<strong>Summer</strong>/<strong>Fall</strong> <strong>2012</strong> 50<strong>Harlem</strong>PostcardsTenthAnniversaryby Abbe Schriber, Curatorial Assistant<strong>Fall</strong> <strong>2012</strong> will mark the tenth anniversary of one of the<strong>Studio</strong> <strong>Museum</strong>’s signature ongo<strong>in</strong>g projects, <strong>Harlem</strong>Postcards, which <strong>in</strong>vites contemporary artists toconsider <strong>Harlem</strong>’s past and present as a site for visualengagement. Trac<strong>in</strong>g the chang<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Harlem</strong> landscapeof the last ten years, the postcards provide idiosyncraticvisions of a complex, culturally rich community.<strong>Harlem</strong> Postcards was created, <strong>in</strong> part, as a way for the <strong>Studio</strong><strong>Museum</strong> to expand on the bountiful photographic historyof <strong>Harlem</strong>, as vivid and nuanced as the community itself:from the elegant photographs of James VanDerZee andRoy DeCarava, to the representations of <strong>Harlem</strong> by socialrealist documentarians and photo-journalists throughoutthe twentieth century. Many recognize <strong>Harlem</strong> from itsiconic cultural landmarks—Apollo <strong>The</strong>ater, Lenox Lounge,Abyss<strong>in</strong>ian Baptist Church—that adorn postcards of theneighborhood sold on the street and <strong>in</strong> local shops, fuel<strong>in</strong>g<strong>Harlem</strong>’s mythic legacy. As <strong>Harlem</strong> Postcards has developed,artists of diverse backgrounds and generations havecelebrated, subverted or altogether eschewed these andother sites, engag<strong>in</strong>g the community <strong>in</strong> formal, conceptual,geographical and architectural terms.For such a site-specific project, explor<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Harlem</strong> isa requirement, whether artists live five blocks away orare visit<strong>in</strong>g New York temporarily. From Sugar Hill andHamilton Heights to Spanish <strong>Harlem</strong> and the northernedge of Central Park, the neighborhood <strong>in</strong>spires a wealthof <strong>in</strong>tellectual and sensory stimulation. Most of the artists,<strong>in</strong> their glimpses <strong>in</strong>to the banal, bizarre and gloriouscorners of the community, have used the language ofphotography to challenge the very idea of what a postcardmight depict: Tony Feher’s snapshot of a lone heart-shapedlollipop, discarded on the sidewalk; the pigeon who nibblesat a fried chicken w<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Adia Millett’s photograph; or theneon signs, found posters and eclectic decorations <strong>in</strong> localstorefronts, such as those found <strong>in</strong> postcards by CoreyArcangel and Christian Marclay. Artists Dom<strong>in</strong>ic McGill,Sowon Kwon and Fatimah Tuggar worked <strong>in</strong> collage ordigital photomontage, reflect<strong>in</strong>g the neighborhood’s layersof gentrification and cultural hybridity. Others activatedthe participatory aspect of the project, such as DemetriusOliver’s entreaty to view the full moon on the <strong>Harlem</strong> River,or Zefrey Throwell’s engagement of a local street vendorto subsidize snacks for <strong>Museum</strong> visitors <strong>in</strong> his Free Nuts:Re<strong>in</strong>vest<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>Harlem</strong>.As functional art objects, available free of charge,the postcards <strong>in</strong>vite artistic experimentation with massproducedimagery and distribution—every season, severalthousand postcards are created. Each image adheres tothe standard size of 4 x 6 <strong>in</strong>ches, attest<strong>in</strong>g to the postcard’sorderly repetition and affordable reproducibility, and thecreativity of the artists who work with<strong>in</strong> these set limits.Over the last ten years, the <strong>Harlem</strong> Postcards have representedtakeaway souvenirs, templates for correspondence,nostalgic remembrances and liv<strong>in</strong>g testaments to one’stravels—reflect<strong>in</strong>g the storied and celebrated neighborhoodthe <strong>Studio</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> calls home.
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