Mail Art: an Overview

Mail Art: An Overview

Mail art is a system that incorporates interaction between and among many active and passive participants. Mail art is an alternative activity that some consider avant garde. Mail art is limited only by the pocketbook. Mail art is a popular form of art; that is, mail art is being "done" by people who have never considered themselves to be artists but just plain folks. Mail art is as personal as a valentine to your sweetheart. Mail art is as cold as the junk mail sent by the ton. Mail art is political, apolitical, non-political, serious, fun, sad, fun, shocking, fun, fun, fun.

The history of mail art is just as awful as the definitions) of Mail art. Rumor has it that Cleopatra wished to send herself as a present to Mark Anthony, thus qualifying as the first piece of mail art. Then, it is said, Duchamp mailed a geometry book (or was it a chemistry book?) to be hung out of doors by his sister. That qualified mail art to be Dada. Then Ray Johnson began the New York Correspondence School and that qualified many people to begin their own groups. For more exacting histories, one could get in touch with Ken Friedman or Mike Crane, both of whom have written much about the history of mail art, its affects on ART, and the deeper meanings of life discovered through mail art. Too, there is a recent rash of academic studies of mail art, such as the thesis by Anne May Applewhite.

Mail art as mail art is currently expanding all the time through the increasing numbers of mail art shows. These exhibitions of mail art do, among other things, two important things: they advertise internationally through periodicals and direct mailing and they produce "catalogs" or mailing lists of all the participants. Therefore, by simply sending a postcard to a mail art show, the participant not only has his/her piece on exhibit for the viewing public but also will have his/her name and address sent to fifty to two hundred other artists, as well as receiving the same list with those other names and addresses. The Network, as it is sometimes called, grows all the time. At any given time there might be five hundred to a thousand artists involved with mail art; there is no way of knowing exact numbers. Most figures used are generally based on the number of people who respond to the advertisements of shows.

The address lists from the mail art show catalogs provide the "how" to get started, but why get started in the first place? My friend the Baron says it best:

Initially, my involvement was because of "psychic survival" and the uniqueness of the form. It was just plain fun and I found out that, yes- it's true that Artists communicate on a variety of levels. The sharing aspect is a lovely feeling. You give and you get returns. Added to it is the feeling that you share a kind of universal visual language, and your perceptions of things. Your own art involvements are a source of "energy" for others and vice versa. Unlike many art forms, mail art is a stimulus and response situation; it is a reciprocating process. (Add these to the already long list of definitions.)

The form of mail art exists within the boundaries of the regulations of local postal systems. Some nations have been known to jail their artists for supposed inflammatory materials sent through the mail. Just ask Geoffrey Cook about Clemmente Padin and Jorge Caraballo. The U. S. Postal Service has just this summer begun to impose surcharges on envelopes and cards that do not conform to the proper sizes. Other than these problems, mail art forms are unlimited. Three-dimensional works are sent through the mails as well as two-dimensional works. Supposedly, there may have been bricks, bones, chicken livers, marywannah seed, camouflaged pink flamingos, razor blade crucifixes, and even a found object or two sent through the mail as art. But flat stuff is most common with mail artists.

Perhaps the most widely used tool of the mail artist is the photocopying machine. Ray Johnson's questionnaires [my description] have been copied and photocopied from here to Recife, Brazil; these request the participant to "Add to and Return to Ray Johnson, 44 West 7th St., Locust Valley, N.Y." Leonard Frank Duch for some time now has been proclaiming with rubber stamp and photocopy that "I AM AN ARTIST" with an occasional added defense that "I AM DUCH, NOT DUCHAMP ." The photocopying machine has enable many folks to join the ever-popular chain letter crowd: "Make eight copies, add your name to the bottom of the list, scratch the name from the top, send a picture postcard," etc. While the U. S. Postal Service considers chain letters that request money or anything of monetary value to be mail fraud and therefore illegal, people know that mail art is worthless and without value; therefore; it is most likely not subject to these laws. A majority y of mail artists have already received quite a number of the chain letter. Steve Durland, for example, has an archive that last count numbered nearly one hundred.

The photocopying machines have greatly aided the increased publication of small periodicals and books by mail artists. Send camera-ready copy (artwork) 7-5 cm by 10 cm to Uncle Don Milliken and perhaps you may be published in the next issue of "OR." "OR" is a small-format anthology which occasionally spotlights an individual artist. Uncle Don is the chief producer and editOR as well as co-founder of the ORGROUP. As with many of the small publications, "OR" is not published on a regular basis. "Common Press" is another periodical, founded by Pawel Petasz (of Poland-- his name is not a mail art alias). Each issue of "Common Press" is edited by a different guest editor. Pawel will.-make arrangements with the guest editor to choose a format theme, size and deadline. The information is spread among the network. The editor is then responsible for collecting, editing, printing, and distributing a copy of each issue to the individual participants. "Common Press No. 13" asked the question "Can the artist help survive?" and was edited by Klaus Groh. Nudes on Stamps was the theme of "Common Press No. 18," compiled by E. F. Higgins III. Future issues will cover such subjects as Ethics and Art, Ruins, Political Satire, and We Can Know More Than We Can Tell.

Artists' books come in all sizes and formats. C. D. Kohler has been doing a number of small format books. Kohler, also known as Beachart, makes books using the photocopy machine and high-contrast photos, to convey a feeling of bleak austerity. Aptly, her content is women's rights. To the other extreme is Guglielmo Achille Cavellini whose books are large in size and offset printed. Cavellini uses his books to further carry out his philosophies of self-historification and the living room exhibition.

In the simplest terms, Covalence art is about Cavellini and his exhibitions occur anywhere anytime his books are read.

While still near the subject of photocopying, it would be wrong not to mention that wonderful new toy: the color copier. Although it is not so new, there are not very many to be found in places like North Carolina. However, Mohammed of Genova, Italy, seems to have easy access to one. He produces his pieces as baker's dozens and sends color copies out to groups of twelve people, each stamped "Known to the other eleven." Apparently the piece is a color copy of a piece of correspondence received from another artist with whom Mohammed shares the Twelve. A recent piece was one of Tommy Mews' Diary papers. Buster Cleveland has used the color photocopier for quite some time. One of the first pieces I received from him was a Mendodada postcard of a laminated color photocopy. Buster's pieces are collaged and then copied. Color photocopies have a quality that is difficult- to describe other than "damn nice when done by the right person." Buster is one of the right persons; another is E. F. Higgins III. Higgins is the founder of the Dooda Post. He uses the color photocopier and a perforating machine to create commemorative stamps. In a fashion similar to the regular postal systems', these stamps commemorate people or events. They then are used in conjunction with regular postage to speed the mail from point A to point B. Sometimes the process slows down because a local postmaster may feel threatened by the idea that other people are producing stamps that appear to be of value. Rumor has it that there was an artist who, using pen and ink, drew a stamp of U. S. issue on an envelope and successfully sent it through the mail. Artists' stamps are a big part of the mail art scene.

G. A. Cavellini, who produces the beautiful books about himself, also issues commemorative stamps about Cavellini. Ed Varney of Intermedia has for the last few years produced sheets of artists' stamps. Similar to the anthology periodicals, these sheets are made up of images submitted by a number of different artists. G. E. Marx-Vigo have been busy in Argentina with a number of different activities focusing on the artist's stamp. These stamps are often printed by offset and professionally perforated, or they might be photocopied and then run through a sewing machine without thread, or the stamps may actually be rubber stamps.

Rubber stamps are another tool used widely by mail artists. Among other reasons is the fact that they are more portable than photocopying machines and cheaper to operate in the long run. Most people buy their stamps already made or order stamps from office supply companies. Some folks have images custom made by commercial stamp makers. A few even make their own, usually by cutting or gouging rubber erasers. The applications of rubber stamps to mail art are varied. A good overall view of these many fun things to do with the stamp can be found in the Rubber Stamp Album by Joni Miller and Lowry Thompson. More specific views of uses are provided by Aart van Barneveld at the STEMPELPLAATS Gallery, which is devoted solely to rubber stamp art and artists. There axe even rubber stamp shows going on, such as the annual event which this year was The Fifth, First International Stamp Exhibition. Reportedly, there might not be a Sixth.

I am one of those who gouge innocent erasers to produce commemORative stamps, issued as the OR Post. [For a more complete description of OR Post, see the summer edition of "Artscope" 1979 (byline omitted) and/or "Rubber" vol. 2, no. 7, July 19791

There are other techniques used by particular mail artists, Some, like Deluxe and A. Vandenburgh, send out unique drawings and paintings. D. Greenberger mails old package displays as postcards. Postcards are being used more and more frequently by all folks, probably because in the U.S. you save a nickel by using a postcard. When you might mail out as many as forty or fifty pieces in one week, that nickel begins to add up pretty fast. The mail art postcard usually begins as index stock or heavy paper. Then the artist will collage it, laminate it, add photocopy to it, or stamp it. Some artists prefer to have their cards printed. This can be done by the photocopying machine, which can handle the heavier stock, or by a professional postcard printer. Ron Gasowski has his photographs professionally printed as postcards. His cards record' the events and thoughts of Marc D'chump.

All of these bits and pieces add up to the mail art network, like pieces of a very large puzzle. The interesting thought is that each participant in the network actually has a small part of the overall picture. In other words, the artists mentioned in this article are just,.a few of the many out there. The rest of them can be reached with the aid of the U. S. Postal Service. The best way to begin to understand mail art is to begin to participate in the process. But let the reader beware: Mail art is habit-forming. You might even have to purchase a larger mail box, get to know your postal carrier, or spend your beer money on postage.