'The Lucerne Project': forthcoming exhibition

100 page accordion book using images of
Lucerne found on the internet

Last week, I formally accepted an offer to exhibit materials from The Lucerne Project at a gallery in Chicago, this coming October, 2011. Below is a short description of the exhibition:

Title: The Lucerne Project

Venue: Finestra Art Space (link), The Fine Arts Building, Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

Brief description: Artist Philip Hartigan documents personal narratives about people he’s never met, in a place he’s never been, using artist’s books, written narrative, animation, and a blog.

Short artist’s statement: I make art based on personal narrative, using 'damaged photos' which I transform into prints, books, objects. Often the personal narrative is my own, based on memories of growing up in a mining town in the north of England. Sometimes I use the personal narratives of other people. The Lucerne Project is an extension of this. It starts from the fact that Chicago, USA, where I now live, and Lucerne, Switzerland, are sister cities. I asked myself the question: how would I make a personal narrative about people I've never met, in a city I've never been to?

Special event: For one evening during October (date to be announced), there will be an interactive event in which visitors to the gallery will be asked to select a pre-printed postcard, and send it to someone in Lucerne,Switzerland, using a list of publicly-available names and addresses. Some of the postcards will have images of Chicago on them; some will be blank for participants to draw their own picture. The reverse of the postcard will have space to write a greeting, and to write the address of the recipient in Lucerne.