mail art

Postcards are the tweets of the mail art world. Since we first transmitted our general call for submissions to the Mail Art Bulletin, we’ve received dozens of postcards. Today, we’re publishing 11 examples from eight artists from as far afield as Belgium, Canada, Uruguay and a number US states (California, New Hampshire, New York, Washington).

The latest contribution to the Mail Art Bulletin comes from A Trail of Bread Crumbs, which I know as a tumblelog. Getting to know someone through an online publication is a strange thing. Even if there are moments of revelation about the person behind the posts, there is a distance that you can never fully surmount, like looking at objects through a vitrine — you are conscious of the distance.

Today’s addition exemplifies the free-for-all nature of mail art. Inside this cardboard box we discovered the work of artist Mira Gerard and her “Combined Media” class at East Tennessee State University. Needless to say, we couldn’t wait to crack it open.

This anonymous work — the first we’ve received — is the most digital image, and informed by digital aesthetics, we’ve received. While most mail art lends itself to a handmade and analog quality, here the artist has gone to the other extreme and sent us a digital print on photo paper with no indication of context.

Lynn Aquaheart of Conway, Arkansas, mailed us a a small canvas in an envelope covered with objects (and an animal) that fly. Inside was a small canvas painted light blue and covered with an inspiring message. We’re not sure if she meant it as a slogan for art in general or a commentary on mail art specifically, we’re guessing the latter.

Since we sent out a request for mail art, we’ve received 27 mail art submissions from five countries (Belgium, Canada, Spain, the United States and Uruguay) and nine US states (Arkansas, California, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont). The work we’re featuring today gives you an inkling at how layered and mysterious the medium of Mail Art can be. Stuffed with a zine, faux currency, postcards, “stamps,” random ephemera and a personal note addressed to Hyperallergic, the latest edition of the Mail Art Bulletin is from Larry Angelo of Manhattan.

Today, we received a message in a plastic bottle from Pennsylvania-based artist Deidra Krieger. Labeled with a neon-colored sticker with the word “PLAY”, the bottle was covered with handwritten messages on the surface, including “EMPTY POSTconsumer FANTASTIC PLASTIC” near the mouth of the bottle and “MAIL ART” all around. Inside, were 10 “play” stickers and a “Certificate of Authenticity.” Ours was numbered 004.