(in progress)

Places I’ve Been, Times I Haven’t is a conceptual art piece with an alternative perspective on our relationship with distant time.

We’re often reminded of the importance of relating cultures that differ from ours. Well-meaning global citizens try to have empathy for cultures in far parts of the world with different languages, fashion, government or values.

However, the past is like a foreign culture in many ways. Looking into the past reveals a culture also with differences in language, fashion, government, and values— even in the same geographic location.

Time inspires differences in cultures very similarly to geographic distance. Why do we extend our empathy to people separated by miles, but withhold it from people separated by time?

Places I’ve Been, Times I Haven’t is an ongoing art piece that involves collecting postcards from locations I’ve visited, but from before I was born. The suggestion is that the past can be considered “exotic” in the same way as a foreign location, and that one should seek to relate with people of the past as we strive to do with people of today.