Welcome to Postcards between Friends, an exhibition of extraordinary postcards. They’re real postcards, complete with stamps, postmarks, and wear and tear, but they’re special in three ways. They are all hand-drawn. Every postcard is a collaboration between at least two people. And every postcard has been through the mail at least twice.

The process works like this. One artist starts a drawing and, without adding any verbal instructions or commentary, mails it to another. The second artist finds the postcard in her mailbox, completes the drawing, and mails it back to the sender. The results are surprising because each collaborative postcard is a small work of art that neither of its makers could have predicted.

歡迎來到「友愛明信片」展覽，是次展品是真正投寄過的明信片，有郵票、郵戳、舊跡，而且還有三大特點。首先，它們是手繪明信片；其次，每一張明信片都是兩位或者以上藝術家的協作藝術品；再次，每一張明信片都被投寄過至少兩次。

協作明信片是由一位藝術家未完成的手繪開始，不作任何文字解釋，寄給第二位藝術家。第二位藝術家收到明信片後，完成整幅手繪再寄回。協作明信片計劃成果斐然，每一張明信片都是一幅藝術小作，而它的作者均不能預見。

The exhibition of Postcards Between Friends at Fong Sum Wood Library, Lingnan University, Hong Kong)showcases the collaboratively-drawn postcards produced by Carol Archer (Lingnan University) and five artist-friends: Anna Couani, Loene Furler, Kit Kelen, Sue Rawlinson and Virginia Shepherd, along with the postcards made by  the eighty-five students who participated in Carol’s drawing classes from 2012 until 2014.

As well perusing the exhibited works, visitors can enjoy video screenings that explore the postcard-making process and the learning it involved. ‘Postcards between Friends’ is an instance of Liberal Arts education at its best. Students have been challenged – intellectually and creatively – through an art-making process that fosters experimentation, mutual generosity and peer learning. A one hundred and eighty page catalogue that explains the project and showcases its results is available in the library from December 12, 2014.

To see  the catalogue, click on Postcards between Friends (catalogue).

To see a video of students discussing the collaborative postcards they made in response to collaboratively-written haiku written by students studying with Professor Kit Kelen (English Dept, University of Macau), click on Strange Places (video of students discussing the project).

To see a (partly bilingual) video that explains the project as a whole, click on Postcards between Friends (short exhibition video).

There’s also a blog titled Collaborative Postcarding Hong Kong that showcases scans of most of the postcards made by Carol’s drawing students during 2012 to 2014. Artists’ names are listed throughout according to the order in which they worked on a particular postcard.

The project is supported by Professor Carol Archer’s Lingnan University Teaching Development Grant [‘Postcards Between Friends: Collaborative Drawing and Creativity Pedagogy’; TG14A1].

友愛明信片： 協同繪畫與創意教學法

展覽「友愛明信片: 協同繪畫與創意教學」將展出由區勵志教授、五位藝術家朋友 (Anna Couani, Loene Furler, Kit Kelen, Sue Rawlinson and Virginia Shepherd) 的協同繪畫，他們以明信片形式跨地合作。同場亦會展出由八十五位學生於2012-14年間於視覺研究系繪畫課堂的明信片作品。此計劃由嶺南大學教學發展補助金資助 [TG14A1]，推廣博雅教育，讓學生於藝術創作中，透過嘗試實踐，友伴分享，深化學習。