Write It Down For Me

Write It Down For Me
Allyson Proulx
July 19-23, 2022

Satellite Project Space
121 Dundas St
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday 2:00-7:00pm, Saturday 12-5pm; public reading begins at 4pm

Artist Statement:
Allyson Proulx is a pen pal and performer, writer and artist, currently based in so-called London, Ontario. Trauma informed, self-defining, and counterculture, Proulx is the daughter of an entertainer and a nurse. She is the granddaughter of Italian crafters, and Irish workers. Allyson’s practice is shaped at the intersections of distance, identity, language, loneliness, and healing. Committed to attend to the messy and entangled times we live in, both alone and together, Allyson invites you into a heart and mind that is equal parts liminal and loving. She currently works from home.

‘Write it down for me’
As we continue to collectively navigate pandemic life and an ever shifting political landscape, Allyson Proulx offers ‘Write It Down For Me’, a community-engaged art installation inviting you to write a postcard in response to these questions: What are you ready to let go of in service of a liberated, healthy future on planet Earth? What is a relationship, belief, behaviour, or thought that is harmful to sustain any longer? As someone navigating individual trauma I have tangible knowledge of what letting go and grieving are to the healing process. So much of what we lose (and have lost) is out of our control. What fragments remain that no longer serve the whole?

Over the course of the week-long exhibition, members of the public will have access to a postcard designed and printed specifically for this installation. Each day, as postcards are written, they will be attached to fishing lines hung from the ceiling so that anyone may read them. The resulting atmosphere will be that of postcards floating through the sky. This public display gives these messages a chance to receive compassion and shared feelings from those who enter the space after, a chance to be touched and witnessed before their release. On the final day of the installation, as the postcards are being taken down, the gallery will remain open and each message will be read out loud. The final action of giving them voice signifying the release of these sentences from our physical bodies.

So mote it be.