Sheryl Oring’s I Wish to Say

Abstract: This photo essay connects artist Sheryl Oring’s ongoing social practice project I Wish to Say with “Katrina’s America.” Since 2004, Oring has traveled with her typewriter to invite the public to dictate postcards to the president. She asks, “If I were the president, what would you wish to say to me?” She uses carbon paper to make a second postcard. She mails the original to the White House and archives and exhibits the copy. To date, she has typed over 5,000 postcards in her attempt to activate democracy. In September 2005, Oring visited Memphis, where many people displaced by Hurricane Katrina relocated. More participants expressed their frustration of then-president George W. Bush’s responses to the storm than celebrated his actions. Since the hurricane, the public has called on subsequent presidents to address climate change with growing urgency. The essay includes sample photographs and postcards from Oring’s time in Memphis.