This aluminum foil series requires a bit of aluminum foil every time I send a letter. I’ve been using two sheets of foil for each letter. Sending just one sheet feels a bit thin. Two sheets keep it more in the spirit of a letter.
I have at least seven of these to send out, so I’ll be going through a good chunk of our aluminum foil. I didn’t want to use our supply at home, so my next writing location would be Jewel. The very spot where I’ll pick up a dedicated roll of aluminum foil.
I got a kick out of having one of the locations be as mundane as the local grocery store. Not even a locally-owned one that is unique. But just a regular grocery store part of a chain. Nothing memorable about the location either. Set in regular suburbia that looks like any other grocery store you’d encounter. It’s fun to take the mundane and twist it into something slightly unusual.
The previous letter had the elegant beauty of a yellow flower reflecting in the foil. This next one will be an everyday grocery store. The place of extreme mundanity. It’s where people run their regular weekly errands.
Plus, I love the practicality of this letter. It comes from the very mission of getting the materials needed. It’s like going to an art store to buy canvases, then right on the sidewalk outside the store you make a painting. Why wait to go home? Make one right there at the store! So that’s what I did with this Letters on Foil location.
I biked over to the grocery store, which was already a big rogue in these areas. 99.99999% of the people drive. In fact, I can’t ever recall seeing a bicycle at this store. Not a bicycle rack is in sight of this location.
When I bike here, I lock my bicycle to the grocery cart rack farther back in the side parking lot. Right next to the online order pickup for automobiles. Another juicy irony for me. Parking next to the spots where cars come to do their “convenient pickup”.
With my bike locked up, now to do my artistic mission. I’ve walked into this Jewel hundreds of times before. But this time was different. This time I was walking in as an artist, seeking out materials for his artwork.
I arrived at the aisle with aluminum foil right away, because this is my store, my land. I know where stuff is. Honestly, I’ve never bought aluminum foil before. My wife is the one who always gets that on her grocery runs. I had no idea how much it would cost. I was a bit taken aback by the price.
But at least I’ll get a ton of sheets out of this roll. In the long term, it’s actually not that much to make each letter. Even with the higher price, I still went for the good stuff. Heavy Duty. Not the thin stuff. A project like this demands to have good quality aluminum foil. It’s art after all. People are willing to wrap their leftover meatloaf in this heavy-duty stuff. Here I’m making artwork with it. Yes. Buy the name-brand heavy-duty. The priciest stuff on the shelf. Look at me.
After all those bug bites from the previous letter, I felt like I needed something in my body to help heal. I quickly voice-asked Google, “what is a food you can eat to help you to recover from mosquito and bug bites”
But the AI answer gave me tips on what to apply on my skin. Of course, that’s the logical answer. I was not looking for logic. I was looking for a remedy I could consume. Something healthy.
“Something healthy” screams produce section. I was looking for something that fulfills two objectives:
- Something to eat that might give me the nutrients and vitamins to power my body to fight these three-inch-diameter red spots covering my arms and neck.
- Something that would look cool reflecting in aluminum foil.
Going to the grocery store to write a letter, I never thought of getting something from the store to include in it. But sure! Why not!
Side-note
One of the things I love about this project is that
- It’s completely absurd that i’m going out to places to write a letter on aluminum foil. Like, really?
- It completely rational to write a letter on alumnium foil in a place, because the place is reflected in the letter.
- But then it goes to being completely absurd, because the place disappears from the reflection.
It goes from absurd to rational to absurd.
Search for the fruit or veggie I need. It needs to be something I can eat on the spot. And loads of vitamins. And something visually striking. Oranges! Perfect. I haven’t had a regular large-size orange in a long time. (We get cuties at our house). I picked a nice plump orange.
With the roll of heavy-duty aluminum foil in one hand, and an orange in the other (and a backpack full of art supplies and cameras), I checked out. I headed over to my bicycle and opened the new aluminum foil roll. Stretched it out over the clipboard… which, by the way, feels a tiny bit like stretching a canvas. You want the aluminum foil to be taught… as in tight. You don’t want wrinkles in the foil. I like the surface to be pretty flat.
Since this is my second aluminum foil this year, I realized it works better when the foil is wider than the clipboard, so it wraps around. When the foil wraps around the clipboard, it doesn’t get as wrinkled. The wrapped sides help to stabilize the very unstable foil. Kind of like how a canvas gets wrapped around wooden stretchers.
I wrote half the letter and then photographed the orange on it. I like these photos of the unfinished letter for a couple of reasons.
- It provides a nice teaser image that I can share with the recipient before mailing. So they get an idea that I’m actually doing this.
- The shorter message gives a nice image for social media. It’s not a long message someone needs to read. The words are short and to the point.
- It shows some of the process. This is not a completed letter, but one in the middle of the process.
Wow, did the orange ever pop on foil! Especially in the nice bright skies. Wow. And then the asphalt behind it. Dude, this is just oozing with textures and colors. The foil has a vibrancy. The orange has vibrancy. Even the asphalt has its own kind of vibrancy, with its thick, dried-gooey surface.
As I’m typing this, I just realized that hello. This recalls one of my artworks I made in college that I love so much. Underbelly. I took sheets of aluminum foil, glued them to a large board. Then laid asphalt sealer over the aluminum foil. Let that dry. And then, using oil pastels, I drew a coal worker on it. What wonderful texture. Here, some 30 years later, I’m working with asphalt and aluminum foil again.
I wrote the letter on one sheet. Remember, I always do two sheets for this series. So there is more to write. After finishing the first sheet, I thought it would be interesting to eat the orange. Then I had the peel left over. I would photograph the peel on top of the foil.
Just as the image on the aluminum foil disappears, the orange itself disappears too. Leaving only the trace of the peel behind. The peel is essential to signal that the orange is gone.
Unfortuantely, this second sheet got more wrinkly, so the text is hard to read. That’s one of the major challenges with this project. You have to photograph the aluminum foil from just the right angle to read the text. If you get the wrong reflection in it, the words become unreadable. But yet, we also need to capture the reflections of the surrounding area. Like this orange peel should reflect in the foil.
Thus we have two fighting situations.
- The right angle to photograph the surface to make the words legible.
- The right angle to photograph the surface, so the environment can be seen in the reflection.
Curious how the environment almost seems to fight with the words. They are supposed to get along! After all, my words are describing the environment! There’s some meaning in this conflict that I need to explore more. I personally haven’t come to a resolution to this meaning.
Also, the Sharpie started to dry out, because y’know, I’m sitting there in the sun writing with a Sharpie. Those things dry out fast. Therefore, the text got a little lighter on this one. Sign of the process? Yeah. But next time I should just open another Sharpie in my pocket.
And now it’s time to pack up. I now have TWO aluminum foil rolls with me. The original from my house. And the new one I just bought—which is only for art making now. They are both the same brand and both heavy-duty. How will I distinguish the two? I know, I’ll write something on the art roll with my Sharpie. I do have Sharpies with me after all.
Ok, so I’ll write “art” on one of the rolls. That makes sense. Oh wait. The branding on this says “Reynolds Wrap”… wouldn’t it be amusing if it said “Reynolds Art”? Hahaha. Oh man. So I put a big X through “Wrap” and wrote “Art” above it. Yeah, this is no longer just any regular Reynolds Wrap. This is now Reynolds Art! This roll is artwork.
I love transforming the mundane into something on the level of fine art.
I bike over to the nearby dumpster and deposit the orange peel into the bin. It makes a nice thud. Sorry, orange peel. But you are no longer artwork.
The final letter
Photographed at home, because I thought the lighting might be a bit better.
PAGE 1
Eliana,
This reflection comes sto you from the Jewel parking lot. I want to get a fresh new roll of aluminum foil for starting this “Letters on foil” series.In the reflection is also an orange. I was hungry from the bike ride over here. Orange looks nice in the reflection, dontcha think? Oh wait, you can’t see it right now. Put an orange on this letter, and you’ll see!
PAGE 2
Now I am eating this orange. Just like its refection in this foil, it’s here, and then it’s gone. A lso a bit like the ink in this Sharpie! Writing in the sun sure does dry up a Sharpie!
Hope all is well with you.
Shine on!
Matt Maldre
When I came to mail this, I put another bioluminescent postage stamp on it. I love those stamps with this series.
