I
WANT YOU TO SMELL ME
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR : HARRELL FLETCHER: FEBRUARY 2010
In making my selection I got rid of most letters that used abbreviations
for words. I don't like that sort of thing, except one of the letters
I selected used the letter "u" instead of the word "you" multiple times
and for some reason that one worked for me, and I even titled that letter
"U." But it doesn't look right with the quotes around it and the period
beside it, it should be like this: U just by itself which is how it is
as the title--I find it somehow poignant that way.
There is one letter that someone wrote which is very sexually explicit
and I couldn't tell if I wanted to include it our not, (I have a strange
fear that if I ever decide to get into politics that my association with
something like that letter could be my electoral downfall) but I really
like the title that I pulled out for that one: "I WANT YOU TO SMELL ME."
I think there is something really great about that, so even though the
letter is kind of weird and sexual I decided to include it anyway because
of the title. I even went so far as to use that line as the title for
this text, and as of this moment I think it might be a good idea if everything
I do from now on is titled "I Want You To Smell Me." (Though that would
probably for sure make a political career in the future impossible, so
maybe I won't do that.)
Another title that I like a lot is "FACEBOOK." I personally don't have
a facebook account or use facebook or any of those social networking sites,
but I thought it was funny to use that as a title for a love letter. Also
it seemed like if Raymond Carver was still alive he might write a poem
called "Facebook" and the poem might be a little like the love letter
of that name included here.
Two other stand out titles: "HEARING YOUR NAME MAKES MY STOMACH UNEASY"
and "I WILL MAKE THE MOST AVERAGE LOVE TO YOU." It is writing like that
which made reading all of those love letters really worthwhile for me.
I selected a couple of really short love letters. I think it is usually
a good idea to keep those sorts of things short and to the point. Also
I got rid of most of the very cliched letters which was almost all of
them. Cindy told me to select between 10-20 letters but I only came up
with nine and I'm not even sure if one of them was actually intended as
a letter or if it was a part of something else that I just wanted to believe
was a letter. I can't get into abstract, hackneyed, sentimental writing.
This is my advice to you love letter writers out there--keep it concrete
and direct when writing about love.
Harrell Fletcher has worked collaboratively and individually on a variety
of socially engaged, interdisciplinary projects for over fifteen years.
His work has been shown at SF MoMA, the de Young Museum, The Berkeley
Art Museum, and Yerba Buena Center For The Arts in the San Francisco Bay
Area, The Drawing Center, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Sculpture Center,
The Wrong Gallery, and Smackmellon in NYC, DiverseWorks and Aurora Picture
show in Houston, TX, PICA in Portland, OR, CoCA and The Seattle Art Museum
in Seattle, WA, Signal in Malmo, Sweden, Domain de Kerguehennec in France,
and The Royal College of Art in London. He was a participant in the 2004
Whitney Biennial. Fletcher has work in the collections of MoMA, The Whitney
Museum, The New Museum, SFMoMA, The Berkeley Art Museum, The De Young
Museum, and The FRAC Brittany, France. In 2002 Fletcher started Learning
To Love You More, a participatory website with Miranda July. A book version
LTLYM was published in 2007 by Prestel. Fletcher is the 2005 recipient
of the Alpert Award in Visual Arts. His exhibition The American War originated
in 2005 at ArtPace in San Antonio, TX, and traveled to Solvent Space in
Richmond, VA, White Columns in NYC, The Center For Advanced Visual Studies
MIT in Boston, MA, PICA in Portland, OR, and LAXART in Los Angeles among
other locations. Fletcher is a Professor of Art and Social Practice at
Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Visit his website.