The Dead Letters Mailbox
Itaru Sasaki built the first Wind Phone in 2010, a disconnected phone booth Sasaki placed in his garden as a way to speak to his brother who passed away from cancer.
After the 2011 tsunami in the Tōhoku region of Japan, where 19,000 lives were lost and many more lost their homes, Sasaki’s wind phone became a public destination where mourners could gather to share a final “phone call” with a deceased loved one.
In a 2018 interview with The Believer’s Tessa Fontaine, Itaru Sasaki said, “Life is only, at most, 100 years, but death is something that goes on much longer, both for the person who has died and also for the survivors, who must find a way to feel connected to the dead. Death does not end life. All the people who are left afterward are still figuring out what to do about it.”
Several Wind Phones have been built around the world inspired by Itaru Sasaki’s garden creation.
Itaru Sasaki believed the words spoken into the disconnected phone in his garden were “carried by wind” to loved ones who have passed away.
The Dead Letters Mailbox, inspired by Itaru Sasaki’s Wind Phone, is a sculptural installation, soon to be located at MACRE at 415 N. Tioga street in Ithaca, New York, where mourners can write a letter to their friends and family who have died. These letters can be the goodbye you never had, they could be a way to help process the loss of a loved one, they can act as a cathartic physical act to feel reconnected with someone who no longer walks this earth.
Itaru Sasaki believed the words were taken by wind to be delivered to the loves beyond this realm, and the Dead Letters Mailbox will be a receptacle for physical letters that will be collected bi-monthly and burned. The idea is that your words will be carried by flame and wind, by ash and storm, by the consensual lick of fire and air.
The Dead Letters Mailbox is a safe place for your letters of grief; providing the pen and paper to write, the envelopes with which to seal your words, the always-locked mailbox to deposit the package, and the attendant who will carefully collect these letters, the contents of which will only be known to you and the deceased loved one you are addressing. These letters will be collected bi-monthly and burned with that process being recorded and shared via Instagram stories and posts.
The concept of the Dead Letters Mailbox was created and written by georgianna Van Gunten and the physical installation was built and funded by Barb Neal. The Dead Letters Mailbox is supported by and located at MACRE at 415 N. Tioga st. in Ithaca, NY 14850.
Barb Neal is a retired arborist and Cooperative Extension agent. She and her wife have a small homestead farm in Danby, NY where they grow fruits and vegetables and tend to a small flock of sheep. Barb enjoys farm carpentry and building fun things.
georgianna Van Gunten is a poet, a dog philosopher, often covered in mud, and founding hedge witch of ithaca writing studio.
