Dear Unloved - Dear Loved
2012 - 2014
Hundreds of letters sent between Freakley and an unnamed other. They were not originally an art project but a way to know the other. Upon first meeting (not in person but through letters continued for years) it was arranged immediately that emails stuck in the draft box, half written things remaining unsent, could be sent to each-other.
The two progressed to sending each-other suicide notes, copied suicide notes from famous people... but Danielle and this unnamed other (who is a real person who wishes to be namesless) injected their own words into parts of the suicide notes. It was never clear which was their voice or the voice of the original suicide note writer, they merged and both adopted the tone and style of the original author. In their highly edited suicide notes from other people, they were not interested in discussing suicide but having conversations, sometimes mundane ones, with each-other through them.
Later, they wrote each-other letters from "loved" and "unloved" (which could be another kind of death note). These letters may have been a creative outlet to push through real acceptances/rejections taking place, or luxuriate in these uncooked, unfitting emotions for each-other, for a while and see what happens. So renamed as "Loved" and "Unloved " (with sincerity) sending many letters to say a long goodbye or fuck off to each-other, not sure. That naive clawing toward the sunken investment took place in these letters that progressively moved over the last year to a deep apathy and annoyance. They continued writing through these emotional states regardless, writing to write, even when the will left. The cemented "loved" and "unloved" which are both partially exaggerated and embarrassingly honest simultaneously (they never let each-other know what was and wasn't an exaggeration) panned out until they truly grew into something no longer "loved" and "unloved".
These letters took place roughly once or twice a week over a period of three years.