Tell me your sins, child
Confession isn’t for everyone, PostSecret!
Leah Werier, volunteer staff
The PostSecret website is the largest advertisement-free blog and arguably the most interesting on the web. So what is all the fuss about? Well, PostSecret is a community-based art project that was started by Frank Warren in 2004. Warren handed out 3,000 postcards to strangers in public places such as libraries, art galleries, and coffee shops. These postcards didn’t have any design or particular message on them; they just asked for an anonymous secret. Any other requirements? Each secret had to be true and never previously shared with anyone. Warren got about 300 postcards back and those responses were originally shown in an art exhibition in Washington D.C. Remarkably, Warren continued to receive postcards, even after the exhibition closed and he had stopped passing out blank cards. The influx continues at the rate of approximately 1,000 postcards a week. Warren has received 150,000 postcards to date.
These postcards convey messages deeper than words scrawled on paper -- they are intricate handmade works of art with poignant and hauntingly relatable stories. The public wave of enthusiasm for this project triggered Warren to create an online forum titled PostSecret. Each Sunday the site is updated with a page of new secrets. There is also a PostSecret Internet community where viewers congregate to share their secrets and their similar struggles. The blog can be found at http://PostSecret.blogspot.com.
A highly successful blog was not enough for Warren or the followers of his increasingly popular project. Warren began to compile these secrets in loose chronological order and published three New York Times bestselling books. The fourth book, titled A Lifetime of Secrets, was published this past October.
PostSecret evolved from a small, secretive project to a widespread phenomenon, gracing the Internet and people’s hearts alike. Many people have heard of the project and have submitted their own secret or simply bought one of the books and read someone else’s secrets. Contributors to the online community blog have written about postcards with secrets that they have found in copies of the PostSecret books while others write about postcards with secrets that they have left in PostSecret books.
Shocking secrets, hilarious secrets, whatever the emotion, readers are addicted to reading PostSecret. Warren is considered one of HarperCollins’ most sought-after speakers and has spoken at several university campuses. He tours in part for book signing, but also explains the origins of PostSecret and talks about some of the most haunting and humourous secrets he has received as well as the secrets that were banned from books. Winnipeggers will soon get the chance to see over 400 postcards that reveal people’s secrets, whether they are desires, regrets, or fears. These carefully crafted works are hand-made from personal artifacts such as wedding invitations and old photographs. PostSecret is now coming to an “art gallery near you” toured in part by the International Arts and Artists. The first venue of the exhibit’s North American Tour is the Winnipeg Art Gallery, where it runs from Nov. 24 until Feb. 3. All of these secrets are provocative, interesting, and highly inspiring; they’re crafted carefully with designs and images that relate each creator’s inner workings. I highly recommend that everyone head down to the Winnipeg Art Gallery to see these personal art works. Who knows? Maybe your secret has made it into the exhibition.
Peep in on PostSecret at the Winnipeg Art Gallery until Feb. 3.
