Wish You Were Here

‘It’s very hot. CU soon.’

The holiday text is usually short, rarely sweet and sent to fulfil a promise to your loved ones, made as you kissed them goodbye at Manchester Airport. It’s often an afterthought, hastily written as you hit the streets in search of dinner or dash to your sun-bed after breakfast. It may be swift, it may be easy, but does it fill the void left by the ever decreasing number of postcards being sent back to Blighty from foreign lands?

A trip advisor survey suggests that only 11% of travellers still send postcards home, with 60% preferring to send a text. Admittedly, it has been a while since I’ve sent a postcard but I do still feel a small frisson of excitement when one appears in my letterbox. My most recent communication was from the sunny climes of Cornwall and boasted a pretty fantastic picture of a pasty. Once it’s in your hands, the guessing game begins, where it’s from, who it’s from, what they’ve written (because the writing is always partly obscured by the name of the beach in ten languages)…all of which you know the answer to because you demanded that they send you one before they left. It’s still nice to receive a 3” by 6”inch picture of a flamenco dancer with a net skirt though isn’t it?

That’s what the brains at BA thought when they launched their ‘Save the Postcard’ Campaign last week. With the trip advisor statistics in mind they enrolled the help of various artists, designers and, strangely enough, singers to create a collection of postcards that are to be auctioned off in aid of Comic Relief. Reviving a classic and raising some cash for charity, what honourable people BA employees are when they’re not striking.

So who’s onboard? Florence (of Florence and the Machine fame), Jack Vettriano, Liberty Illustrator Daisy de Villeneuve, Giles Deacon and Tracey Emin have all contributed to the surprisingly exquisite collection. Some are predictable, Manolo Blahnik’s vibrant watercolour shoe for example, others are more symbolic. Vettriano’s dada inspired collage includes a scrap of a map, a newspaper clipping about St. Tropez and the shapely legs of a socialite. On first glance you might miss the snippet of paper that links the French President with Vanity Fair, on second glance it could help you read the card as an encapsulation of all things French. Florence Welch’s contribution is just plain lovely, tiny stars and swirls surround an image of the Trevi Fountain with her swirling handwriting proclaiming ‘Ciao Bella’ across the night sky. It’s safe to say that the designs are simple, economic usage of space is the dominating theme. Tracey Emin’s is, some might say, naturally the highlight of the collection. A roughly executed, navy blue monoprint of the words ‘Margate Just a Kiss Away’ is perhaps a bleak take on the jaunty holiday tradition, but the words sear with meaning. The blue ink against the white paper suggests clear skies and frosty seas, softened by the mention of a kiss. A holiday kiss is always something to write home about, even if it happened in Margate. The scratchy image penetrates the mind as, like in many of Emin’s works, a familiar object is presented in an uncomfortable form. The current bid on ‘Margate’ is £625.

The most disappointing and all things considered the most offensive postcard in the auction is Diane von Furstenberg’s effort. You’d think the designer behind a highly successful and frankly wonderful global fashion house would be able to do better than a love heart with ‘UK’ scrawled inside.  The token sportsman’s childish image I can forgive, but Diane I cannot. If you can design a collection for New York fashion week you can do better than a marker pen and a signature. No one wants your signature, we want an image that can help us relive a holiday romance, revive a Victorian tradition and convince us to pick up a pen next time we’re by the pool.

See the full collection here:

http://www.bahighlife.com/Competitions-and-Offers/Celebrity-Postcard-Auction.html

Try Again Diane 

Or read the Guardians take on it here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/art