Correspondence Windows

Correspondence Windows

by Maria Fong

Š 2020 Maria Fong

Correspondence Windows

by Maria Fong

installation in 17 homes; photos by participants

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve stared out my windows - with longing, hope, boredom, gratitude, loss - and imagined others doing the same. I look out the window as an escape from the other rectangular screens of light capturing my attention. What weather patterns, architecture, and foliage are other people looking out at?

Based on images of others’ window views, I sketched interesting shapes, lines, and objects I saw in the photos, then I used ink to trace my sketch with a thin brush on clear plastic (re-purposed report covers I hoarded as a child). I mailed one ink drawing, along with a letter, to each contributor, to hang up on their respective windows. It’s a game of telephone; each person gets the previous person’s view, connected in a circular chain.

In exchange for the drawing, participants emailed me photos of the ink views superimposed on their windows. This book is a documentation of that installation, in windows all over the country.

Maria Fong is an artist from Berkeley, California. In her fourth year in the BFA program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Maria works in hand drawn and stop motion animation, drawing, socially-engaged art, and bookmaking.

Inspired by toys, maps, and storytelling, she makes playful objects that require or precipitate interaction between viewers. Maria loves to cook and bike and doodle with friends.

Thank you for your window views: Alex Bauer, Sophia Clason, Rebecca Chang, Muriel Horvath, Kiara Reagan, Barb Garrison, Emmy Curtiss, Alex Gutierrez, Emily Levenson, Silvia Bottinelli, Nora Li, Ana Sofia Amieva-Wang, Yumei Lin, Esther Tzau, Karen Wells, and Doi Park