What You Touch You Cannot See: Performance for Phil
City Mail Route #16 in Walla Walla, WA.
February 24 - March 21, 2021
What You Touch You Cannot See: Performance for Phil was the third performance in the ongoing project For You (and Us), a performance series created with and for an audience of one. Phil is a United States Postal Service mail carrier who delivered my mail and his own, as he lives on his own route. Woven into the fabric of his daily life, the performance rearranged elements of Phil’s days—his relationships, communities, and sites that are significant to him—culminating in an experience that falls somewhere between everyday life and performance.
On a snowy day in January of 2020, I approached Phil on her front porch to ask if he would be willing to be an audience member. While he said yes, his only request was that he not be “put on the spot.” I responded honestly, “That will be very hard. I can try?” Phil had me over for tea, brought me to his favorite Walla Walla vista, and drove me along his mail route. I learned of his love of everything from the Romantic Period, especially Romantic poetry. He introduced me to his friends, our mutual neighbors.
Eighty-six residents along Phil’s mail route collaborated in the making of his performance. Some were his friends, others were acquaintances, and many he knew only by their names and addresses.
Each performance is documented as a book and copies are distributed to all the participants. Phil’s 25 page limited edition RISO printed book contains: an introduction Phil and the performance-making process for him, a post-performance interview with Phil in dialog with English professor Mary Raschko (who is on Phil’s route) describing Phil’s experience of the performance, a performance script, drawings of significant objects & locations in each performance and a list of the community collaborators and performers.
What You Touch You Cannot See: Performance for Phil occurred on Phil’s mail route, City Mail Route #16 in Walla Walla, WA, over the course of one month in February and March, 2021. The performance unfolded in two acts, the first act only evident to Phil after he experienced the second. Act 1 began on Tuesday, February 23, 2021. Phil spent one day hand delivering identical purple wax sealed envelopes to 100 residents on his mail route. Act 2 began Monday, March 8th, 2021 when Tia dropped 54 letters and parcels addressed to Phil from residents on his mail route. For the following week Phil sorted and delivered these to himself as he lives on his own route. The mail contained drawings, food, objects, poems, plants, and stories that constructed narratives about the things he touched and delivered to their doorsteps. On Sunday, March 21 the performance ended when Phil opens my letter, which he chose to open last. In response he sent a text to her with the following:
“Tia, I just opened your letter. Everything we encounter has a meaning and an implication beyond itself. It is the essence of a poetic view of reality...metaphor surrounds us always though we may not realize it at the time. It's a two edged sword. We derive our joy from it but our anguish too. That just comes with the territory I suppose. [...] Let me leave you with one of my favorite Wordsworth quotes apropos to this topic: ‘And I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfered, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round ocean and the living air, and the blue sky, and in the mind of man. A motion and a spirit, that compels all things, all objects of all thought, and rolls through all things.’☺️❤️😁”
What You Touch You Cannot See, Performance for Phil was produced and performed in February and March, 2021 along City Mail Route #16 in Walla Walla, WA. It was the third performance in the ongoing project For You (and Us). This performance was created by Tia Kramer in collaboration with Phil and residents on his mail route: Aaron & Holly Gagnon & kids; Abby, Mark, Lexa, Samuel & Simon Juhasz; Augusta Farnum; Ben, Claudia & Alaska Mattice; Brian & Carole Hunt; Carol Jean Thompson; Cheryl & Lilly Boehm; Cindy Horton; Damien & Rachna Sinnott; Diana Badyrka; Dino & Michele Lucas; Erica Daudt; Florine Van Donge; Gene & Teresa Martin; Jake & Jane Kaminsky; Janie Millgard; Jeffrey and Norma Adams; Jen, Jose, Jordyn & Madison Cedeno; Johanna Hintz; John & Donna Murray; Harrison, Edie & Timothy O’Connor; Henry & Eliza Juers;;Kate & Aaron Bobrow-Strain; Liz; Marcie Colleen Anderson; Margaret Jamison; Marika Esarey; Matt, Margarita, Sophia & Nico Banderas; Michael Uhren & Kryee Anderson; Michael, Lucas & Isabel Stephen & Mary Raschko; Mike & Carrie McClure; Nancy Jacobsen; Nico, Aimee, Isaac, Josiah Parmley; Nicola Cattlin, Lucy (& Buddy) Moll Cattlin; Nicole, Erik & Theo Gryler; Noah & Kim Levitt; Rebecca Hanrahan; Robert & Shannon Bergevin; Sara (& Kaia) Kyle; Scott Elliott; Steve & Pam Rusch; Stuart & Heidi Chapin; Tom Davis; Tom, Alice & Arthur Armstrong & Adeline Rother; as well as Sharon Alker (Professor of English Literature) and unidentified workers at the Walla Walla United States Postal Service Office.