Postcards from the past
An exhibition of postcards from India’s colonial era is currently underway in the city at the Museum of Art and Photography
An exhibition of over 80 postcards titled Hello & Goodbye: Postcards from the Early 20th Century is currently underway at the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), showcasing missives from India’s colonial era.
It would seem that X (formerly Twitter), does not have dibs on character restriction. According to Khushi Bansal who curated Hello & Goodbye with a team from MAP, “The messages on these postcards tell us a lot about life in those times. What is interesting is how abbreviations were used to convey news within a limited space; short forms are not a contemporary concept.”
Khushi says Hello & Goodbye was conceptualised “after we realised we have such an expansive post card collection at MAP”. A chunk of the collection comprises around 1,300 postcards that were donated by Kenneth X and Joyce Robbins to MAP.
However, quantity alone is not reason enough for an exhibition. The team realised these postcards provided a wealth of information on life in those times, especially in areas of cultural identity and lived history.
For over six months, the team pored over thousands of postcards from their collection, sorting them by dierent categories such as architecture, landscape and more.
According to Khushi, the team focused on three aspects to structure Hello & Goodbye. “First, we looked at the overall history of the early 20th century. Though postcards were introduced in the late 19th century, we looked at the period during which they were most highly circulated,” says Khushi.
Interesting facets of human nature emerged during the team’s work with these postcards. “Over the course of our research, we found out that a lot of people wrote postcards in letter format, resulting in a series of notes from which the receiver would piece together information,” she says.
Second, the team began to look into how people’s use of postcards reected the notion of their own identities and beliefs.
Khushi says there was a natural segue to memory and nostalgia as the nal aspect of the exhibition. “A postcard is a message from one person to another, and while most of them were little love notes between family, friends and lovers, they were also used by companies to communicate matters relating to business.”
Postcards present
“Linking to the idea of how postcards revolutionised communication, we wanted to revisit the idea of sending postcards — whether to a loved one or even to yourself. So we set up a little table with yellow postcards from the post oce with a stamp already axed. Visitors who are so inclined can write a message and if they put in the correct address, we will mail it for them.”
The team at MAP also put together a digital postcard greeting. “This essentially means you can play around with dierent backgrounds and elements to design your own postcard. Once done, you can scan a QR code as well as a specially designed stamp by MAP and email this digital version to any recipient.”
Hello & Goodbye at the Museum of Art and Photography will be on display till August 18, 2024
MBG-BGE