Secret Life of Mailbox

A correspondence conducted by post between Hong Kong and recipients in more than thirty countries, working with fabric and printed ephemera including fashion magazine pages, Chinese almanac calendars and traditional red packets. Across three years the series asked how cultural ideas shape our sense of beauty, time and wealth.

Each piece was individually stitched and built in irregular formats that resisted the standardised dimensions of envelopes and postcards, while remaining fully committed to the act of mailing. The works were not autonomous objects. They were incomplete until they entered the postal system, crossed borders, and reached their new custodians. The journey, the traces of transit, and the exchange between sender and recipient were part of the work.

The project was made as communication was shifting from physical correspondence to mobile and cloud based networks. Working at the slower pace of international post offered another way of connecting, one that runs on anticipation, material presence, and the intimacy of receiving something by hand.