For the past year, Kansas City multidisciplinary artist Kasim Hardaway has been asking people to slow down and connect with each other through a series of anonymously addressed letters.
His public installation, “Take What You Need,” appears through pop-ups at busy spots around town like City Market and Union Station. It invites visitors to browse a collection of letters Hardaway writes and attaches to fishing wire connected to a wooden frame.
“On those lines of fishing wire are envelopes that are addressed to different aches and pains, to the one who is haunted by perfection, to the one who mistakes control for safety,” Hardaway told KCUR’s Up To Date. “So there's a collection of 40 of those letters and they kind of just drift in the air by clothespins. It's a very interesting visual.”
While he also publishes the letters on his Substack, Hardaway says that when strangers are able to experience these words in a tangible form, they can create unexpected moments of connection.
“A lot of people are like, ‘How did you write so many letters? How does this all apply to you?’ And I think that's part of it is that at different points of our life, all of these letters can apply to you,” Hardaway said.
While he continues to write letters, Hardaway says he is taking a short break from in-person pop-ups to celebrate his birthday, but he will be back in September for more events around the city.
- Kasim Hardaway, multidisciplinary artist
