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(text-based version)
Browse, Immerse, Create, Submit
The postcard's complex power lies in its hybridity — in its ability to illuminate, through brevity and art, the ephemera of a life. These postcards in the magazine’s possession collectively reveal glimpses of the story of the world, of our lives, in the granular, in the moment.
On display here at Firehouse Art Center, you’ll find postcards about lost mothers, and lovers, loneliness and illness, poems and stories about how we live, questions about how we should live — addressed to real and imagined people. They are representative of our human experiences; from art and writing that ranges from the prosaic to the extraordinary — postcards that are absorbed in the social and emotional, from poignant to pointless missives, to none at all.
Where to Start: This curated exhibit begins on the north wall with vintage postcards and postcards that our contributors purchased, culminating in originally created postcards on the opposite wall.
Handle Cards: As you walk around, you are invited to handle postcards in sleeves — any card that is not hanging in a frame. Take your time and engage with all their elements, from the image to the message.
QR Code: Open your photo app on your device, hover over the museum label’s QR code, and find out more about each contributor. Codes with a video or audio message will have a play button next to the contributor’s name.
Immerse yourself in this postcard collection. Allow yourself to be enchanted by the postcard's complex power to illuminate lives, plights, thoughts, visions, dreams of anyone, of any status,
in any syntax.
Submit: You are invited, at the end, to join this collective by creating your own postcard for publication
consideration in Inverted Syntax’s The Art of the Postcard series. You may submit it through the mail or leave your postcard at the museum to become a part of the exhibit.
Browse, Immerse, Create, Submit
The postcard's complex power lies in its hybridity — in its ability to illuminate, through brevity and art, the ephemera of a life. These postcards in the magazine’s possession collectively reveal glimpses of the story of the world, of our lives, in the granular, in the moment.
On display here at Firehouse Art Center, you’ll find postcards about lost mothers, and lovers, loneliness and illness, poems and stories about how we live, questions about how we should live — addressed to real and imagined people. They are representative of our human experiences; from art and writing that ranges from the prosaic to the extraordinary — postcards that are absorbed in the social and emotional, from poignant to pointless missives, to none at all.
Where to Start: This curated exhibit begins on the north wall with vintage postcards and postcards that our contributors purchased, culminating in originally created postcards on the opposite wall.
Handle Cards: As you walk around, you are invited to handle postcards in sleeves — any card that is not hanging in a frame. Take your time and engage with all their elements, from the image to the message.
QR Code: Open your photo app on your device, hover over the museum label’s QR code, and find out more about each contributor. Codes with a video or audio message will have a play button next to the contributor’s name.
Immerse yourself in this postcard collection. Allow yourself to be enchanted by the postcard's complex power to illuminate lives, plights, thoughts, visions, dreams of anyone, of any status,
in any syntax.
Submit: You are invited, at the end, to join this collective by creating your own postcard for publication
consideration in Inverted Syntax’s The Art of the Postcard series. You may submit it through the mail or leave your postcard at the museum to become a part of the exhibit.
The Paradox of the Postcard In a chaotic and fast-paced world, small-scale pieces briefly freeze time, provide us a place of retreat where we can live in these real and imagined worlds. From its size, material, and shape, to its edges, to the at-times illegible handwriting, the nature of the postcard is an accessible and intimate form of art that invites you into its world, to slow down and engage with its hybrid messaging. With its unthreatening presence, the postcard seemingly puts us, the audience, in control, which also, paradoxically, stimulates for some of us a sense of unease as we engage in the often weird imagistic and literary realities created by others. The unease experienced is not an unusual one when engaging with small or miniature art. In its smallness, the postcard awakens in each of us, our own vulnerability to external controls. |
The Ambiguous Nature of the Postcard With a postcard, we can step into the art and literary world as creators, without judgement or pressure, knowing the postcard we make is certain to engage the viewer’s senses. How can we be certain? Because its size requires brevity, the nature of the postcard can be an ambiguous thing. Whether through the card selected, created, or text added, a postcard often captures the fragmentary, ambiguous nature of our thoughts and feelings. As a result, its presence is often enigmatic, playing on the curiosity of the viewer’s need to know the unknown. And now, here you are, engaging with these objects—imagined worlds and cryptic meanings beating in the palm of your hand. |
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Can’t I Just Post About it on Insta?
How often do you get the urge to make something? Chances are you will probably make something at least once a day. Whether it’s an Instagram post, the filtering of an image, journaling, or your favorite meal, we all have a desire to make things. For postcard creators, there is often a spontaneity, creativity, and therapy experienced from putting cards together. You may be thinking that posting on social media is the digital equivalent of creating a postcard, however, studies show that working with your hands, with actual objects, is a catalyst to positively altering brain chemistry. “When we move and we engage in activities, we change the neurochemistry of our brain in ways that a drug can change the neurochemistry of our brain,” — Kelly Lambert, neuroscientist at the University of Richmond https://www.cbsnews.com/news/handiwork-how-busy-hands-can-alter-our-brain-chemistry/ |
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What the Fluxus? The Postcard Art Movement
Inverted Syntax and The Art of Postcard take inspiration from Mail Art and Fluxus, which emerged as an antiestablishment practice, a way to defy art and art venues by using experimental art forms. Similarly, when Inverted Syntax magazine was born, it was out of a disenchantment with the elitist attitude they perceive dominating the art and literary world. Declared a real artist movement in the 1950s, Mail Art was intended as a way to build a global community by aesthetically engaging with other artists and writers, with a focus on the act of collaborating and exchanging art through the mail. Mail Art’s creative process’s only guiding principle is that it should be created art that fits in envelopes and sent through the postal service. The postcard, as a result, has become its most commonly used form. |
Let's play a game. See if you can locate the following:
Curation rationale:
In between the postcards are cards that contain guided information. They are the ones with the Inverted Syntax logo. They will help with these questions:
Take a guess at this:
Why are some of the purchased cards in wood posts placed really high or really low?
- A contributor who sends postcards with fake stamps
- a failed marriage
- a friend's suicide
- Dorothy in Oz?
- A series of cautionary tales
- A card from France ... what does it mean?
- Great aunt Esther dancing
- Cards by an accomplished Denver poet
- Dear mom cards
- Inverted syntax editors' postcards
- A postcard referencing the the February 2021 insurrection
- Two postcards about bread
- A collection of "smelling salts"
- A contributor who lived in this place on the card
Curation rationale:
In between the postcards are cards that contain guided information. They are the ones with the Inverted Syntax logo. They will help with these questions:
- What does Mailart have to do with Inverted Syntax and the curation of this exhibit?
- Why are the poles green and the shelves slanted?
Take a guess at this:
Why are some of the purchased cards in wood posts placed really high or really low?
Get To Know The Inverted Syntax Team
Get to know the curator of "WE ARE ALL ARTISTS" exhibit
Nawal Nader-French (she/her) is a Lebanese -- Ghanaian mixed-race writer, editor, and educator. Before immigrating to the United States and landing in Colorado almost thirty years ago, Nawal grew up in Accra, Beirut, and lived in Hamburg, London, and Hawaii. Her first book A record of how the mother’s textile became sound will be published by NOEMI Press (March 2023) . Her second manuscript an improvised song is likely to come apart and scatter in infinite directions was a finalist in University of Pittsburgh's 2021 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics Book Prize and the 2021 Autumn House Press Full-Length Poetry Contest judged by Eileen Myles. Her poems appear in RHINO, Fence, Texas Review, Bayou Magazine, Grist Journal, TheElephants.net and elsewhere. Her poem “That I remember” was nominated Sundress Publications' 2017 Best of the Net. Her now disassembled manuscript, A Hemmed Remnant was a finalist in the 2018 Ron Sillerman Prize for African Poets through the University of Nebraska Press and a finalist in the 2018 Brigham Award through Lost Roads. Nawal has an MFA in Creative Writing in Poetry from the Mile-High MFA at Regis University, a BA in English with secondary education from University of Northern Colorado, and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction. In the past, she taught secondary English, authored high school curriculum and graduate professional development courses, was the Instructional Coordinator of eLearning in St. Vrain Valley Schools, and an adjunct instructor in Front Range Community College’s Department of English. Nawal is the founding editor-in-chief of Inverted Syntax.
Nawal Nader-French (she/her) is a Lebanese -- Ghanaian mixed-race writer, editor, and educator. Before immigrating to the United States and landing in Colorado almost thirty years ago, Nawal grew up in Accra, Beirut, and lived in Hamburg, London, and Hawaii. Her first book A record of how the mother’s textile became sound will be published by NOEMI Press (March 2023) . Her second manuscript an improvised song is likely to come apart and scatter in infinite directions was a finalist in University of Pittsburgh's 2021 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics Book Prize and the 2021 Autumn House Press Full-Length Poetry Contest judged by Eileen Myles. Her poems appear in RHINO, Fence, Texas Review, Bayou Magazine, Grist Journal, TheElephants.net and elsewhere. Her poem “That I remember” was nominated Sundress Publications' 2017 Best of the Net. Her now disassembled manuscript, A Hemmed Remnant was a finalist in the 2018 Ron Sillerman Prize for African Poets through the University of Nebraska Press and a finalist in the 2018 Brigham Award through Lost Roads. Nawal has an MFA in Creative Writing in Poetry from the Mile-High MFA at Regis University, a BA in English with secondary education from University of Northern Colorado, and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction. In the past, she taught secondary English, authored high school curriculum and graduate professional development courses, was the Instructional Coordinator of eLearning in St. Vrain Valley Schools, and an adjunct instructor in Front Range Community College’s Department of English. Nawal is the founding editor-in-chief of Inverted Syntax.
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EDITORS: FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF NAWAL NADER-FRENCH ASSOCIATE EDITOR JESICA DAVIS ASSOCIATE EDITOR ALLISSA HERTZ ASSOCIATE EDITOR MELANIE MERLE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT GINNY SHORT EDITORIAL ASSISTANT YESICA MIRAMBEAUX |
READERS: REGIS FACULTY READER TRACI JONES (Fiction only) TED DOWNUM (Fiction only) ANDRÉ O HOILETTE MIRANDA MARTINEZ-HERBERT JASON MASINO ASHLEY BUNN ADVISORY BOARD: TRACI JONES ANDREA REXILIUS ERIC BAUS |
PREVIOUS VOLUNTEERS:
ISSUE THREE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
JASON MASINO
ISSUE TWO EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
AND SCHUSTER
EVENTS & PROMOTIONS CONSULTANT (2018-2020)
HILLARY LEFTWICH
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER (2020-2021)
ASHLEY HOWELL-BUNN
PREVIOUS INTERNS:
SUMMER 2019
MARY FAYE WETTERER
SPRING 2019
M. BUI
CLARE HARNSBERGER
LUCY FINDLEY
PREVIOUS EDITORS (2018)
ASHLEY SPURGEON
KATERI KRAMER
STEPHANIE VESSELY
ISSUE THREE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
JASON MASINO
ISSUE TWO EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
AND SCHUSTER
EVENTS & PROMOTIONS CONSULTANT (2018-2020)
HILLARY LEFTWICH
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER (2020-2021)
ASHLEY HOWELL-BUNN
PREVIOUS INTERNS:
SUMMER 2019
MARY FAYE WETTERER
SPRING 2019
M. BUI
CLARE HARNSBERGER
LUCY FINDLEY
PREVIOUS EDITORS (2018)
ASHLEY SPURGEON
KATERI KRAMER
STEPHANIE VESSELY
