Frank Warren has fulfilled his own prophecy. Several years ago, in a small suburb of Washington, DC, Warren created an anonymous art installation entitled “The Reluctant Oracle.” He placed messages in bottles and released them in nearby Clopper Lake. The DC media and local art world didn’t know who this reluctant oracle was, but they became intrigued when the items were found washing up on shore, containing phrases you might find in a fortune cookie. After the project ended, one of the messages stayed with Warren, and it inspired an even larger project, which would garner an even greater response. “You will find your answers in the secrets of strangers,” it said.
The community art project, entitled Postsecret, began in 2004 with Warren distributing 3000 self-addressed postcards to strangers around DC. The idea was simple: write an anonymous secret on a postcard and mail it back to Frank. The only qualifiers were that the secrets had to be true, and ones never shared before. After receiving a large number of responses, Warren showcased the postcards in an art installation at a local gallery. The funny thing was, long after the installation had been displayed and the project had ended, Warren kept receiving postcards in the mail. Some of them came from other states in the US, and some from other continents. Warren’s publisher calls him “The most trusted man in America,” and as such, he felt a responsibility to the secrets, and to those who placed their trust in him. So he started a blog to keep the project alive at www.postsecret.blogspot.com.
With the creation of the website, Postsecret’s popularity blossomed. Warren now receives around 1000 postcards a week. Every Sunday he posts 20 of them on the web, and throughout the week he updates the blog with comments he receives via e-mail.
“Not 20 independent secrets,” Warren explained by phone from his home in Germantown, MD, “but a collection, a conversation of different voices, hopefully greater than the individual secrets that are there.” It seems the secrets have a life of their own. Not only is the person who admits the secret relieved of it, so too are those who identify with the candid admissions of others.
“I had no idea it was going to develop the way it has,” said Warren. “I always knew it was going to be something very special for me, but I’m just so pleased that so many other people have responded to the project in the same way that I have, and seen it as something very special and valuable.”
Why postcards? Warren tells the story of sending a postcard home from camp when he was in grade school. When the postcard arrived, he was already home to receive it, and he felt as if he had mailed a message to himself in the future. This sort of “time-capsule,” as Warren calls it, coupled with the new media of the blogosphere, helps make Postsecret the unique entity that it is.
“I’ve received e-mails from people who have mailed in postcards and one of the things they’ve shared with me is that facing their secret on a postcard and then physically letting it go to a stranger, into a mailbox, has brought them a sense of relief or catharsis,” said Warren. “Maybe it’s the first step in a long journey that person is going to go on in reconciling with a part of themselves they’ve been hiding.”
Some of the secrets are charming: When I was 18 I baptized my dog in the living room, and some are powerful: I was happier when I had cancer. All of the secrets are posted on the website in the same format they were sent, written on postcards and decorated with visual art to accompany the secret. Often, it’s the visuals that add the most intriguing element. These vary from the simple, handwritten in ink, to the more artistically complex, pasted with magazine cut-outs and stencil and calligraphy.
As the project has grown, Warren has expanded the format, as well. There are two traveling art installations, a college presentation, and several books. The fourth book, A Lifetime of Secrets, was just released this month, and is the focus of his visit to Seattle on October 18th at Elliott Bay Book Company. Perhaps even more so than the previous books, the most recent iteration uses the postcards to tell a complete story - “A human life… a hopeful biography,” Warren says.
One of the controversies that surrounds the secrets, and a complaint often brought by people who dismiss the project altogether, is that some of the secrets can’t possibly be true. “All of my friends and family think I died in 9/11,” says one secret. But Warren thinks of the postcards as works of art, akin to those you might find in a museum.
“The idea is that these secrets aren’t necessarily true or false,” says Warren “It’s a process, a journey, and maybe the very act itself of writing a secret on a postcard is what makes it true. And what’s important is the impact the secret has on the viewer.” However, Warren is quick to point out that he’s not a priest, and isn’t trying to absolve anyone of their sins. “The project really is more about sharing what is authentic, with yourself with me, and with the world.”
What Postsecret reveals is that most people are haunted by secrets: their own, those that belong to their friends and family, those they have overheard accidentally or discovered as children. The burden of these secrets can follow a person their entire lives, but for Frank Warren, he has found a way to release them. While he may not offer salvation, for many people, that’s exactly what they get.
