Erdem Taşdelen

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Dear,

Inkjet and pen ink on copy paper (47 sheets)
Dimensions variable
2010


The twenty-four anonymous, undated and very personal letters that make up Dear, seem to be suspended in a first-draft state. Reading closely, it becomes clear that these texts are not a correspondence despite their epistolary form, but rather traces of the writer's inward gaze. The letters disclose their most private reflections while simultaneously challenging the authenticity of these feelings with analytic detachment. The typed texts have been anxiously marked up and corrected by hand, and in exasperation—a second-guessing that harangues the writer for breaks in logic, improper syntax and evasive or vague passages. Fidgety revisions pause to helpfully smooth and polish an acceptable phrase, or to comment that a passage exemplifies “the postmodern condition.” At one point, even the sentiment “I hope one day we can just let ourselves be ourselves around each other” has been worried with a complicated re-working. The act of writing becomes an egocentric exercise in self-reflexivity, rather than a means of communicating with another.