Notes for a Traveller
Rebecca Sharp
2021
Visual poetry oracle deck.
A set of ten A6 interactive oracle cards plus information card, in a stamped manila document envelope.
Very LIMITED EDITION - **Now sold out**
£10
Commissioned for the exhibition Kiosk, at An Lanntair (Stornoway), summer 2021 - curated by Philippa C Thomas and Hector MacInnes, with Roddy Murray. The exhibition addressed the concept of souvenirs; exploring ideas about place, time, travel, memory and sustainability. http://hectormacinnes.com/buthmhicneacail/
*These sets were not used in the exhibition, are pristine, and have not been handled - part of the original print run of only 10.
NOTES FOR A TRAVELLER is a commonplace of visual poems, fragments of stories, ritual actions, pockets and moving parts. Each card is a meeting place – between reader/user and object; between place, memory and imagination – playfully navigating ideas of past, present and future. Part divination, part activity-pack for the journey home.
Inspiration came from stories of Stornoway and Lewis found in the Tobar an Dualchais/ Kist o Riches archive: anecdotes of lead hearts crafted and used as charms to bring people together, or break them apart. Stories and spells are themselves souvenirs after a fashion – showing what’s kept (or what’s left) of our actions and desires. Echoes of old travel guidebooks (Black’s Guide to Scotland 1840) with their pockets and pull-outs of maps, timetables and hotel listings. Childhood holiday magazines, with small toys or packs of stickers attached – cards, puzzles, little things to unwrap and assemble. Memories of village newsagents.
Also informed by the experience of not being able to go to Lewis (for now), 2020-21, some references were drawn from correspondence between artists and curators as the project developed remotely.
The cards are to be read, collected, played with, used as bookmarks, put on a mantlepiece, stuck on the fridge, given away - maybe they'll even tell your fortune...
See also: https://www.instagram.com/souterrain.press/
