PostSecret
By Henrietta Hammonds
Monday 28th September 2009
Monday 28th September 2009
PostSecret – “The Princess”, PostSecret, 23rd August 2009, http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
'you assume i am the perfect child but i punch holes in the wall'
'i've already decided to kill myself if he doesnt come home from iraq and he doesnt even go over for two months'
'i make a conscious effort everyday to not become my mother.'
I didn't kiss you becasue i was afraid of the swine flu'
'my secret is in this envelope. i don't want you to read it. i wonder if you will'
'I often have rape fantasies about the men I like.I think it’s because I want someone I secretly care for to want me More than he can stand.'
'I’m scared the anti-depressants will change who I am, and no one will like me anymore.'
'When I found out i had herpes, I wished it was AIDS so i could just die instead of being alone and unloved forever'
'I was pro life before i had it done, im still pro life after'
'My bulimia has made me better at giving blowjobs'
'Part of the reason I became a wildland firefighter was the hope that it would get me laid … it hasn’t'
Secrets are no longer bound to their traditional place in wooden confessional booths. Post secret (www.postsecret.com) is a website phenomenon that has spread across the States and gradually made its way to the UK and further afield in which anonymous secrets are posted onto the blog each sunday. The website is the brain-child of Frank Warren, the curator of secrets, and it started as a small-scale community art project. Mr Warren left blank postcards in public places, and asked people to decorate them and confess a secret on them anonymously, and then return them to him. When over 100 people returned the cards, he thought he might be on to something. Now, thousands of secrets are sent to him every week, and he selects just 20 to be uploaded to the website every Sunday. There is no official archive of the confessions, but many of them can be found at http://postsecretarchive.com/
Frank Warren has teamed up with 1-800-SUICIDE, a helpline in the US, to try and help some of the people who send in these secrets. Mr Warren has been sent stories of people on the verge of suicide who have read secrets of the site and decided against it. The best of post secret can be found in a Borders near you as several books have been published displaying the artworks.
'i've already decided to kill myself if he doesnt come home from iraq and he doesnt even go over for two months'
'i make a conscious effort everyday to not become my mother.'
I didn't kiss you becasue i was afraid of the swine flu'
'my secret is in this envelope. i don't want you to read it. i wonder if you will'
'I often have rape fantasies about the men I like.I think it’s because I want someone I secretly care for to want me More than he can stand.'
'I’m scared the anti-depressants will change who I am, and no one will like me anymore.'
'When I found out i had herpes, I wished it was AIDS so i could just die instead of being alone and unloved forever'
'I was pro life before i had it done, im still pro life after'
'My bulimia has made me better at giving blowjobs'
'Part of the reason I became a wildland firefighter was the hope that it would get me laid … it hasn’t'
Secrets are no longer bound to their traditional place in wooden confessional booths. Post secret (www.postsecret.com) is a website phenomenon that has spread across the States and gradually made its way to the UK and further afield in which anonymous secrets are posted onto the blog each sunday. The website is the brain-child of Frank Warren, the curator of secrets, and it started as a small-scale community art project. Mr Warren left blank postcards in public places, and asked people to decorate them and confess a secret on them anonymously, and then return them to him. When over 100 people returned the cards, he thought he might be on to something. Now, thousands of secrets are sent to him every week, and he selects just 20 to be uploaded to the website every Sunday. There is no official archive of the confessions, but many of them can be found at http://postsecretarchive.com/
Frank Warren has teamed up with 1-800-SUICIDE, a helpline in the US, to try and help some of the people who send in these secrets. Mr Warren has been sent stories of people on the verge of suicide who have read secrets of the site and decided against it. The best of post secret can be found in a Borders near you as several books have been published displaying the artworks.