THEME: The signs and symbols that we use to communicate have been a recurring theme for me – written text can only communicate to you if you can read the language in which it is written.
INSPIRATION: This series of work is designed on the Japanese origami envelope, where the letter is the envelope.
Old Letters have a very poignant significance to them. Letters were collected and kept together, wrapped with ribbon. They were precious.
“The day that man broke language into sounds and invented graphic symbols to represent these sounds, he bestowed upon humanity the greatest cultural tool one could ever dream of.”
From: Writing: The Story of Alphabets & Scripts by Georges Jean.
An American soldier found a bundle of 108 undelivered Japanese letters and postcards at Iwo Jima. He kept them for 60 years as a souvenir. Finally the film ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ prompted him to try and return them. They were all addressed to Tadashi Matsukawa, who was killed in action at Iwo Jima. In 2007 the war veteran was able to return all the letters to the soldier’s brother, Masaji who was still alive.