A woman will sit at a desk, dressed in vintage office attire, hands perched on a manual typewriter. As people walk by, she will invite them to send a postcard to the next president, which she’ll type verbatim.
Date: Dec 5, 2008Start Time: 12:30pm
Duration: 2 hours
Location: Library Walk
Tags: letters typing typewriter emotion president politics
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Democracy in the United States is a marginalizing process. Though we have the right to vote, the choice of what or who to vote for usually forces us to compromise our position. We are forced to pick what most closely fits our values from the choices that are offered, and to swallow the fact that the issues we feel most passionately about may not even be addressed on the ballot. Artist Sheryl Oring’s, I Wish To Say project offers some relief from the frustrations of being an American voter, or non-voter as the case may be.
I observed Sheryl last Friday as she sat on UCSD’s library walk at a small desk with her typewriter at hand, dressed to the T in her 60’s business woman’s attire, offering to passersby the service of transcribing a their words into a hand typed letter addressed to president elect Obama. I watched on as young male UCSD student sat down to dictate his letter. His voice filled with hope and absolute seriousness, he asked The President, in the politest and most respectful of manners, to embrace the diversity of American lifestyles by legalizing Marijuana. According to an October 08 Headline Press online survey as many as 85% of Americans advocate the decriminalization of pot, and still we have yet to see this point of view expressed by our politicians. We are still waiting for the opportunity to vote on an initiative to legalize herb. Why is it that a point of view that is so dominant, is hardly acknowledged by politicians? I think that it could have something to do with voice, with the fact that those who have the most money have the loudest voices in Washington. Politicians are more likely to listen to the point of view expressed by campaign contributors and lobbyists, than to the point of view expressed by a student at UCSD.
Oring’s Project seeks to amplify the voice of the people one hand typed postcard at a time. It brings us hope to imagine that she may one day succeed to deliver the 600+ postcards that she has amassed from people all over the country to the President himself, and that he will sit down and read them with serious contemplation. But even if Oring doesn’t reach this goal, she herself is offering to listen objectively to anyone’s point of view. She is creating a framework that allows her participants to safely exercise their right to free speech. Even if the participant’s words don’t reach the ear of the president they reach the ear of Oring her self who amplifies them both with the abstract sounds put forth by her typewriter, and with a series of artist books and exhibitions that make the words heard to a larger audience. Oring however is the first audience for her participants, and it is the earnestness with which she conducts her performance that gives the participants hope, that makes them feel like their voice is being heard, if not by the president, then at least by Oring herself, and by her trusty typewriter.