Letters in the time of Corona
04/05/20
by Ida Cuttler
During this time, everyone has had something different that has been particularly hard for them. For me, it’s been hard to know, with so many options and unknowns, how to cultivate routine. Of all the art out there, it has been hard for me to figure out what feels good to consume. I ask myself a lot of questions: When do I want to make a piece of art and when do I just want to talk to someone? When do I want to watch, read, or look at a video, an essay, a concert, a photo, and when do I just want someone to check in with me and ask me what I did that morning and what I will do that night? It’s confusing.
This isn’t to say I don’t love all the projects people are doing: I love all of the projects people are doing! All of the art being created, live-streamed, broadcast over social media, websites, and blogs, all of this content generated under the shelter-in-place order - really has been all the things people are saying about it: lovely, inspiring, entertaining, remarkable and hopeful.
And yet. I am also still overwhelmed and sad and dissatisfied. None of it replicates the connections I like to have with people when being in the same room, and less than six feet away. The art we have all collectively broadcast over the internet is wonderful and important, but doesn’t satisfy my craving for the more private and vulnerable aspect of art as a tool for communication.
I started talking to my collaborator, muse, and close friend Catharine Savage about all of this. She expressed similar wonderings and frustrations. We came up with a project of our own:
“LETTERS IN THE TIME OF CORONA”.
It works like this: Catharine and I take turns writing each other real, handwritten letters. We record ourselves reading them out loud and then send these recordings to each other. We then post them to our Instagram stories and tag one another with the label. #LettersinthetimeofCorona.
Okay, this isn’t the perfect private model of an intimate art project. Catharine and I aren’t actually mailing each other. Moreover, and ironically, it is still going to be a social media thing to be consumed by our followers of friends and family. We’re kinda performative theater kids in the videos too. But it started from a desire to tap into this idea of routine and connection. I think we try to do a good, fun, and honest job to maintain that vibe. Catharine and I started this because we were interested in the tension between project and product. We were also inspired by this letter we read from F. Scott Fitzgerald during the Spanish Influenza quarantine (which turned out to be fake).
Where is the project right now? Still going. And we have begun to expand our #LettersinthetimeofCorona to writing letters to other people. So, If you’re reading this and you’d be interested in receiving a real letter (we actually send these in the snail mail!) from me or Catharine: please fill out this form!
So far, we’ve sent 13 of those letters. Some are people we know. Some are people we don’t. Catharine says, “It feels so crazy how lonely this time can feel even though literally everyone is going through almost the same things. So maybe this will be a fun way to connect”. And it has been!
This isn’t to say that the two of us aren’t still making videos and live streaming and posting our writing and art. We are. We can’t stop. But it’s been nice to have something more personal to focus on. It’s been nice to be able to directly ask each other questions and ask questions of our friends. It’s been nice to have created a process that feels a little bit more reflective and contemplative and yes, maybe sloppy - but, in that, actively resisting a mounting pressure to churn out a finished product.
In the form, you can check an option to receive a letter yourself. You may also nominate someone to receive a letter. Yesterday, I wrote to someone in Germany and I wrote to someone’s Grandma. At the end of every letter we write the following postscript: “If you feel comfortable, please write us back and record yourself reading your response. Post it to your Instagram story and tag @idacutt and @cath.sav. We think that getting footage of people connecting like this over this isolated time has the potential to be pretty powerful. But when we don’t hear back or don’t get people’s filmed responses, that’s okay too. After all, this is more about the project than about the product. Besides, Catharine and I are very pleased with ourselves after cultivating this pen pal routine for twenty days or so - so we will continue to write and to film ourselves.
