Text commissioned for Parallax Journal. ‘Postcards’ is a travelogue through cultural fragments and ruins. It re-visits images that have been obscured and painted over, reintroduces characters from films and novels that have been compromised by their original authors. Sites shift in the background of this series of text snapshots from Venice to Tarset, Moscow to Tokyo (journeys made by Coutts before writing the text). In each place objects are found and are reviewed through the veil of a parallel text read in transit. The text seeks to unravel the authenticity and dependability of the author’s voice. It challenges our ability to pinpoint the precise origin of cultural artifacts, to accurately describe them, to navigate their significance as contexts change. ‘Postcards’ is primarily a text at the meeting place of word and image. It seeks to re-engage with the time-based shifting, unstable site of the teller.
Parallax is a peer-reviewed academic journal. Published quarterly by Taylor & Francis, it is a forum for topical and innovative critical theory, philosophy and cultural studies.