Mail art (also known as postal art and the art of correspondence ) is a populist artistic movement centered on the delivery of small-scale work through the postal service. It was originally developed from what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School in the 1950s and the Fluxus movement of the 1960s, although it has since evolved into a global movement that continues to this day.
Video Mail art
Characteristics
Media commonly used in the art of mail includes postcards, papers, collages of photographs or objects found or recycled, rubber stamps, stamps made by artists (called artistamps), and paints, but can also include music, sound art, poetry , or anything that can be put in the envelope and sent via post. The art of the letter is considered art after it is sent. Mail artists regularly request the art of a thematic or topical letter for use in exhibitions (often untouched).
Letters artists appreciate interconnection with other artists. The artform promotes how to create egalitarian ones that often violate the distribution of official art and approval systems such as art markets, museums and galleries. Email artists rely on their alternative "outsiders" network as a primary way of sharing their work, rather than relying on the ability to find and secure exhibition space.
Mail art can be seen in anticipation of a cyber community established on the Internet.
Maps Mail art
History
Artist Edward M. Plunkett argues that this form of communication as art is an ancient tradition; he posited (tongue on the cheek) that the art of the letter began when Cleopatra surrendered herself to Julius Caesar on the rolled carpet.
Ray Johnson, New York Correspondance School, and Fluxus
American artist Ray Johnson is considered the first letter artist. Johnson's experiment with art in letters began in 1943, while posts of instruction and activity requests from recipients began in the mid-1950s with the delivery of his moticos, and thus provided art mail with a blueprint for free exchange. art by post.
The term "postal art" was invented in the 1960s. In 1962, Plunkett coined the term "New York School of Correspondence" to refer to Johnson's activities; Johnson adopted this moniker, but sometimes deliberately mistakenly referred to it as "correspondence." A deliberate spelling mistake is characteristic of the spirit of playing the School of Correspondence and its actions.
Most members of Correspondance School are quite obscure, and the letters they send, often featuring simple pictures or stickers, often instruct the recipient to perform some fairly simple actions. Johnson's work consists mainly of letters, often with the addition of doodle messages and rubber stamps, which he sends to friends and acquaintances. The Correspondance School is an individual network of artists based on their willingness to play together and appreciate Johnson's sense of humor. One example of the Correspondence School's activities is to hold meetings with fan clubs, such as those devoted to actress Anna May Wong. Many of Johnson's missives into his network featured a hand-pulled version of what became a personal or alter-ego logo, the head of a rabbit.
In an interview in 1968, Johnson explained that he found an interesting correspondence letter because of the limits it generated on interactions and back and forth negotiations consisting of interpersonal communication. Correspondence is "a way to convey a message or some kind of idea to someone who is not verbal, it's not a confrontation of two people.This is an object that is open in privacy, maybe, and the message is seen... You see the object and, depending on the level of interest You, it's very straight across to you what is there... "
In 1970, Johnson and Marcia Tucker hosted a New York Schools Exhibition Fair at the Whitney Museum in New York, which is the first public exhibition of the mail art genre.
On April 5, 1973, Johnson declared the "death" of the New York School of Correspondence in an unpublished letter to the New York Times' Obituary Department and in the copies he circulated to his network. However, he continued to practice the art of letters even after this.
Although most of Johnson's work was initially given, this did not prevent him from reaching market value. Andy Warhol was quoted as saying he would pay ten dollars for anything by Johnson. "
In a 1973 diagram showing the development and scope of Fluxus, George Maciunas incorporated the message art among the activities of Fluxus artist Robert Filliou. Filliou coined the term "Eternal Network" which has become synonymous with the art of the letter. Other Fluxus artists have been involved since the early 1960s in the making of artist stamps (Robert Watts, Stamp Dispenser, 1963), postcards (postcards of Vickier, The Postman Choice, 1965: postcards with different addresses on each side) and other work connected to the postal media. "Indeed, the letter art network counts many members of Fluxus among its earliest participants, while Johnson does not consider himself directly a member of the Fluxus school, his interests and attitudes consistent with a number of Fluxus artists.
1970s and 80s
In the 1970s, the practice of letter art developed rapidly, providing a cheap and flexible expression channel for outsiders. It is very widespread where state sensors prevent the free circulation of alternative ideas, such as in certain countries behind the Iron Curtain or in South America.
The growth of a large arts community, with friendships born of personal correspondence and, increasingly frequent, mutual visits, led in the 1980s to organizations of several festivals, meetings and conventions in which networkers could meet, socialize, perform, show off and plan further. collaboration. Among these events were the Inter Dada Festival held in California in the early 1980s and the Congress of Decentralized Letters Art 1986.
In 1984 the curator Ronny Cohen held an exhibition for Franklin Furnace, New York, called "Mail Art Then and Now." The exhibition has a historical aspect as well as showing the art of a new letter, and to mediate two aspects of Cohen's editing material sent to Franklin Furnace, breaking an unwritten but generally accepted habit that all submitted works must be demonstrated. The intent to edit, interpreted as censorship, resulted in a two-part panel discussion sponsored by Artist Talk on Art (organized by artist Letter Carlo Pittore and moderated by art critic Robert C. Morgan) in February of that year, in which Cohen and the letter artist debated problem.
The night before the second panel on 24 February, Carlo Pittore, John P. Jacob, Chuck Welch a.k.a. CrackerJack Kid, David Cole and John Held, Jr. made a statement asking Dr. Cohen to step down as a panel moderator. Welch delivered a statement in which Dr. Cohen was asked to remain in the panel but lost his right to be a moderator. Instead of staying put, Cohen chose to leave the event. After some give and take with panelists and audiences, Dr. Cohen left, saying, "Have fun." His entourage walked out with him for the next short distance.
Excluded works were eventually added to the exhibition by the Franklin Furnace staff, but the events surrounding it and the panel revealed ideological divisions within the mail art community. Simultaneously fanning the flames and documenting the extent to which it has been dominated by small, mostly male, artist coterie, the discussion was transcribed and published by panelist John P. Jacob in his post zone PostHype postal art. In a letter to panelist Mark Bloch, Ray Johnson (who is not a panelist) commented on the censorship and sexism of the event.
The rise of letters and congresses in the late 80s, and the articulation of various "isms" proclaimed by its founders as a movement in the art of letters, in part a response to fractures seen by events around the Franklin Furnace exhibit. Even if "tourism" is proposed satirically as a new movement by HR Fricker, a Swiss letter artist who is one of the organizers of the 1986 Mail Art Congress, the art of pure mail will continue to function without a personal encounter between so-called networks.
In the mid-1980s, Fricker and Bloch, in bilingual "Letterhead To Everybody in the Network," stated, "1) The essential function of exhibitions and other network projects in the network is: opening channels to other humans. ) Once your exhibits are displayed and the documentation sent, or after you receive such documentation with the address list, use channels 3) Create people-to-people correspondence... 4) You have your own unique energy that you can give to others through your work: audio visual, verbal, etc. 5) This energy is best used when exchanged energy from others with the same intentions 6) network power in the quality of direct correspondence, not quantity. "Manifesto it concluded, "We have learned this from our own mistakes."
1990 and the impact of the Internet era
In 1994, Dutch letter artist Ruud Janssen began a series of letter interviews that became influential contributions in the field of letter art.
In the 1990s, the peak of mail art in terms of global post activities has been achieved, and letter artists, aware of the increasing number of posts, embarked on a gradual migration of collective art projects to the web and cheaper forms of digital communications. The Internet facilitates faster deployment of call letter art (invitations) and accelerates the engagement of large numbers of newcomers. Blogs and letters art websites are becoming increasingly used to show online contributions and documentation, even if many email hackers still prefer the catalog surprises found in their mailboxes.
Philosophy and norms of network mail artist
Regardless of the many links and similarities between historical avant-gardes, alternative art practices (visual poetry, art of copy, artist's book) and letter art, one aspect that distinguishes creative postal networks from other artistic movements, schools or groups (including Fluxus) is how to ignore and avoid the commercial art market. Anyone with access to the mailbox can participate in the postal network and exchange free artwork, and each free letters artist decides how and when to answer (or not answer) a piece of incoming mail. Participants are invited by network members to take part in collective projects or irregular exhibitions in which entries are not selected or assessed. While contributions can be requested around a particular theme, working for the required size, or sent by a deadline, the art of mail generally operates in the spirit of "whatever."
The e-mail philosophy of openness and inclusion is exemplified by the "rules" included in the invitation (call) to postal projects: a mail art event has no jury, no entry fee, no censorship, and all works are on display. Original donations are not returned and remain the property of the organizers, but catalogs or documentation are sent free to all participants in return for their work. Although these rules are sometimes stretched, they generally last for four decades, with only slight differences and adjustments, such as occasional requests to avoid explicit sexual works, calls for projects with particular participants, or recent trends to display digital documentation at blogs and websites instead of sending personal paper to contributors.
Mail art has been exhibited in alternative spaces such as private apartments, city buildings and shop windows, as well as in galleries and museums around the world. Letters, magazines, and project art exhibitions represent the "public" side of the postal network, a practice that essentially is the direct and personal interaction between each participant. Email artists appreciate the process of exchanging ideas and the sense of having a global community capable of maintaining peaceful collaboration beyond language, religion, and ideology differences; this is one aspect that distinguishes the art network of letters from the world of postcard commercial images and only "art sent".
A letter artist may have hundreds of correspondents from different countries, or build smaller core circles of favorite contacts. Mail art is widely practiced in Europe, North and South America, Russia, Australia and Japan, with fewer participants in Africa and China as well. In addition to being kept by the recipients, the mail art archive has attracted the interest of libraries, archives, museums, and private collectors. Alternatively, the works may be 'done' and recycled back to the sender or to another networker.
Ray Johnson suggests (with the pun) that "mail art has no history, only gifts," and letter artists have followed their playfulness in creating their own mythology. Parody art movements such as neoism and plagiarism have challenged the notion of originality, as well as the pseudonyms with Monty Cantsin and Karen Eliot, proposed for use by anyone. A semi-fictional organization has been established and virtual ground is created, the imaginary states in which artistamps are issued. Furthermore, efforts have been made to document and define the history of complex and disparaging phenomena that have lasted for five decades. Various essays, passing theses, guides and anthologies of letter art writings have appeared in print and on the Internet, often written by veteran networkers. An envelope art sub-group has its origins in the Grateful Dead Ticket Service. Seeking to help their fans avoid the high costs generated by the national ticketing service, Grateful Dead started their own service, commonly referred to as mail order. At some point fans began to decorate their envelopes with art. Some for the sake of art, others to attract the attention of the people who hand out tickets in the hope of a better chair.http://www.gdtstoo.com/
Media and artistic practices in making letter art
Because the democratic ethos of mail art is one of inclusion, both in terms of participants ('anyone who can afford postage') and within the scope of the art form, various media are used in the making of mail artwork. Certain materials and techniques are commonly used and often preferred by letter artists because of their availability, convenience, and the ability to produce copies.
Rubberstamps and artistamps
Mail art has adopted and used some form of graphics already associated with the postal system. The rubber stamp that is officially used for sending letters, already used by Dada and Fluxus artists, has been embraced by letter artists who, in addition to reusing the ready-made rubber stamps, make them professionally made for their own designs. They also carve erasers with linocut tools to make handmade ones. This unofficial rubber stamp, either spreading the message of a mailing artist or simply announcing the identity of the sender, helps turning a regular postcard into a work of art and making an envelope as an essential part of the letter's art experience.
Mail art also uses stamps as a format for individual expression. Inspired by the examples of Cinderella stamps and Fluxus fake stamps, this artisamp has spawned a sub-network of artists eager to create and trade their own seals and stamp sheets. Artist Jerry Dreva from the conceptual arts group Les Petits Bonbons made a set of stamps and sent them to David Bowie who then used them as the inspiration for the cover of the single "Ashes to Ashes" released in 1980. Artistamps and rubber stamps, have become an essential staple of artwork mail, especially in the improvement of postcards and envelopes. The most important anthology of the art of rubberstamp was published by artist HervÃÆ'  © Fischer in his book Margin Art and Communications , Balland, Paris, 1974 - in French, English and German, to also record the catalog of the exhibition "Timbres d'artistes ", Published from MusÃÆ' © e de la Poste, Paris, 1993, hosted by the French artist Jean-Noà « Laszlo - in French, English.
Envelopes
Some letter artists pay more attention to the envelope than the contents inside. The painted envelope is one of the artwork with handwritten addresses that are part of the work. Stitches, emboss and array drawing materials can all be found on postcards, envelopes and inside contents.
Print and copy
Printing is suitable for sending artists who distribute their work widely. Various graphic art techniques, in addition to rubber stamping, are used to make multiples. Copy art (xerography, photocopy) is a common practice, both with mono and color copying being widely used in the network. Everywhere 'add & amp; pass' sheets designed to be circulated over the network with each artist adding and copying, the fashion-chains, also receiving some unfavorable criticism. However, Xerography has become a key technology in the manufacture of many short-term and zine journals on the art of letters, and for print documentation that has been the culmination of traditional projects sent to participants. Inkjet and print laser print computers are also used, both for distributing artwork and for reproducing zines and documentation, and copies of paperless paper papers and non-printed documentation are circulated through email. Photography is widely used as an art form, to provide images for artistamps and rubber stamps, and in print and digital magazines and documentation, while some projects have focused on crossing the art of mail with the medium itself.
Fonts and languages ​​
Letters, whether handwritten or printed, are an integral part of the art of mail. Written words are used as a form of literary art, as well as for personal letters and notes sent with artwork and recording spoken words, both poetry and prose, are also part of the network. Although English has become a de facto language, since the beginning of the movement in America, more and more letter artists, and groups of mail artists on the Internet, now communicate in Breton, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Russia.
Other media
In addition to using stamp models, letter artists have assimilated other design formats for print artwork. Artists 'books, decobooks and friends' books, banknotes, stickers, tickets, artist trading cards (ATCs), badges, food packaging, diagrams and maps have all been used.
Mail artists routinely mix media; collage and photomontage are very popular, giving some art letters the quality of pop art style or Dada. Mail artists often use collage techniques to produce original postcards, envelopes and work that can be changed using copy art or computer software, then photocopied or printed in limited edition.
Printed and epemera prints are often circulated among mailing artists, and after artistic care, these common items go into the mail's art network. A small set, sculptural shapes or objects found in irregular shapes and sizes dug up or sent unopened to deliberately tease and test the efficiency of the postal service. Fake fur coats ("Hairmail") and Astroturf postcards were circulated in the late 1990s.
After borrowing the intermedia idea from Fluxus, the letter artist is often active simultaneously in several different areas of expression. Music and sound art have long celebrated the art aspect of the letter, initially using cassettes, then on CDs and as sound files sent over the Internet.
The performing arts are also a prominent aspect, especially since the emergence of meetings and art congresses. Performances recorded on movies or videos are communicated via DVD and movie files via the internet. Videos are also increasingly being used to document mail art events of various types.
Quote
"The art of correspondence is an elusive art form, much more diverse by its nature than, say, painting.Where a painting always involves paint and supporting surfaces, the art of correspondence can emerge as one of literally dozens of media transmitted by mail. the great art of correspondence or mail art activity took place in the post, a new form of electronic communication today obscured the tip of the forum.In the 1960s, when the art of first correspondence began to bloom, most artists found the postal service to be the most readily available - and the most expensive - the medium of exchange.Current microcomputers with modern facilities offer anyone who computes and communicates the power two decades ago is only available to the largest institutions and companies, and only a few decades before is not available to anyone at any price. "- Ken Friedman
"Cultural exchange is a radical act that can create a paradigm for sharing and conserving water, land, forests, plants and animals on earth Aesthetic networker calls for aesthetics to lead the dream through action Cooperation and participation, and celebration of art as a birth life, vision and spirit are the first step.Electronic artists who have met in the Eternal Network have taken these steps.The company with them is a contribution to our shared future. "- Chuck Welch
"The purpose of the art of mail, a joint activity by many artists around the world, is to build an aesthetic communication between artists and ordinary people in every corner of the world, to divulge their work beyond the art market structure and beyond traditional places and institutions: communication free where words and marks, texts and colors act like instruments for direct and direct interaction. "- Loredana Parmesani
References
Note
Further reading
External links
- Mogens Otto Nielsen Mail Art Archive, 10,000 pieces held by the Museum of Modern Art of Kunsten Aalborg
- Mail Art-Archive at Staatliches Museum Schwerin, 30,000 pieces
- "You've Got Mail Art: Discovering John Held Jr.'s Role as a Librarian and Letters Artist," American Art Archive, Smithsonian Institution
- E.F.Higgins III - Doo Da Postage Works
- Digital collection of email collections from the University at Buffalo Libraries
- IUOMA network with an active discussion of letter art
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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