Tonight for four and a half hours Forest Fringe’s installation project The Museum of Hope in the Dark became a flashing morse code beacon livestreamed on youtube, from 7.30pm until midnight. The words encoded within those flickers were an excerpt from a message of hope written for us by the poet Hannah Jane Walker. Here is her message in full.
Hi,
I was wondering when you would want to talk,
I am glad you made it past the barrier,
I hope you are comfy,
and please, don’t be afraid, you have just got your eyes closed.
If I leave long gaps, it’s because…
sometimes there are bits of light
that open you right up
and then the trees lean in, and the air listens.
But to keep the conversation going I will tell you that
when I was fourteen my friend Medina
sat me down on the top step of the technology building and said
‘if you feel hopeless, think of a T Rex wrestling a duvet cover onto a duvet.’
But I want to talk about roads
and how it looks like we have run out.
We have been driving a while now, in fact, for fucking ages,
down all roads we were told to go,
and we have seen ourselves past so many cities and barbed wire and field mist,
and now we’ve reached a big yellow barrier and no one is coming to show us the way.
So, we will need to go cross country from here OK love.
Your feet will harden so it will be fine
and you know as much as you are ever going to need.
And if you look between the trees,
you will see others climbing gate posts,
vaulting fences like rodeo riders,
saying goodbye to the broken machine.
Here we will build a fire, and feed it policy papers,
and oh from what a distance the flames will be seen,
even through closed eyelids the warmth will seep.
Your eyes are open.
You are so comfy.
I am so glad you made it past the barrier.