“In 2008, Carol began to explore the idea of time as distance. This was to be expressed in the evocative, still on-going Postcard Project. In part the Postcard Project follows on from her own interest in travel and communicating journeys to friends back home. It also begins from an increased awareness of the distance between contemporary people, due to time constraints as a result of busy lives, or physically with loved ones moving away, but also with the increased use of social media rather than writing. The concept of the Postcard Project is to ask the viewer to sit, reflect, and forget time, whilst contemplating not only the postcard as mini-artwork, but time itself as a distance that opens up when communication is allowed to break down. On the picture side each hand-made postcard – the current figure runs at over a thousand pieces – has a stencilled image. These images are primarily derived from rubbings of artefacts and textures culled from her travels; an object from France, an iron grate in London, a wood carving from Iran or a stone carving from Greece. Some images may be gathered from daily life as a pattern derived from a physical texture, a shadow falling on a tabletop. Each is preserved on a postcard using the “time drawing” technique and commemorated by the date and location of the original object, pattern or artefact stamped at the bottom.”
- Karen Smith
(Karin Smith has been writing about the contemporary art scene in China since the early 1990s. She as lived in China more than twenty years during which time she has contributed her writings to numerous international and domestic publications and exhibition catalogues, both for individual artists and for group exhibitions. Her personal books include monographs on China’s leading artists, including Liu Xiaodong, Ai Weiwei, Jia Aili, Shi Jinsong and Ma Ke. She is the author of the historical compendium Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China, which examines the careers of nine founding fathers of China’s new art movement which began in 1985.
In her capacity as curator, Smith regularly produces exhibitions in China and abroad. She currently serves as director of OCAT Xi’an, the third of the Shenzhen-based museum group OCAT’s contemporary art museums.)
「她在二零零八年開始探索時間作為躍離這個意念，而表達這個意念的是明信片計劃，一個持續進行而且喚起各種思念情感的系列。從某個角度去看，明信片計劃延續了她對旅遊的熱愛和在旅途中與遠方朋友通信的習慣。這個系列也源自她對現代人與人之間距離日遠的感觸，這個現象的成因很多，例如時間因生活忙碌而受限制、親近的人遠遷他方，以及愈來愈多現代人選用社交媒體而放棄書寫。明信片計劃的概念，是要人們坐下來，反思時間，忘記時間，不光是把明信片看成小型的藝術品，而是思考在溝通失效之後，時間如何成了彼此之間的距離。這些手製的明信片數量已然過千，每張明信片的其中一面，都有以圖板製成的圖像。有些圖像來自她在旅途上拓印的文物或物件表面：來自法國的物件、倫敦的鐵栅、伊朗的木雕、希臘的石雕。有些則來自日常生活，像某件物件表面上的圖案，或是落在桌上的影子。這一切都藉著“時間繪畫“的技巧，給保留在一方明信片上，每張明信片的下方還印上了日期和圖像來源（物件、圖案或文物）的所在地，作為紀念。」- 凱倫・史密斯
(自二十世紀九十年代初起，凱倫・史密斯一直致力於撰寫有關中國當代藝術現狀的文章和專著。凱倫已在中國生活超過二十年，在此期間多次為國內外多種期刊及展覽畫冊撰寫有關獨立藝術家以及群展的文章； 她個人出版了包括劉小東、艾未未、賈藹力、史金淞、馬軻等眾多中國著名藝術家的專著。凱倫也是《九條命：新中國先鋒藝術的誕生》的作者，此書詳細闡述了中國“八五”美術新潮中九位先鋒的藝術生涯。
作為策展人，凱倫定期在國內外策劃展覽，現任深圳華橋城當代藝術中心西安館的執行館長。)
