Otis Ike & Ivete Lucas Love Letters in a Tree

Otis Ike and Ivete Lucas employ documentary photography and filmmaking to explore encounters with niche segments of society. While much of Ike and Lucas’s work speaks to the closeness the artists developed with their varied subjects, their most recent project, Love Letters in a Tree, examines from a distance the intimate yet physically detached relationship between two anonymous correspondents. For this series, Ike and Lucas photographically recorded the daily exchange of letters hidden inside a dying tree in Houston, Texas. Using only their first initials, “V” and “J” wrote and illustrated their reflections on love, nature, family, and mysticism. By documenting this exchange, Ike and Lucas address the interwoven nature of public and private spaces, and provide commentary with their interception and restaging of this communication between individuals.