Mail Art News #57: Weekly Review 9-27-2023

incoming from Nonlocal Variable

Welcome to another weekly review. Come along if you care. Come along if you dare. Let's jump right in. The Mail Carrier Handbook on Facebook is a good resource for postal culture humor. Will mail art end one day? There are certain challenges for current and future artists willing to journey the mail art path, mainly the increasing cost of postage (when might wages catch up with decades of inflation?) and the fact that kids today are born with smart phones in hand, but mail art is still alive and well for now. And maybe, just maybe, the OIMA campaign for a reduced postage rate for correspondence art will prove successful. 

Who's ready for Halloween? Monster A Go-Go was recently commissioned to make a Halloween party poster, which was then also converted to envelope form. 

outgoing mail by Monster A Go-Go 

Did someone say Halloween? This guy's ready. 

from Debra Mulnick to Juan Petry

LINKS LINKS LINKS (in no particular order)

• Rehfeldt mail art archive on Instagram

• Postcard History

• Imprint 93

• https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/imprint-93/

• https://www.printedmatter.org/programs/events/660

• Skymail

• www.ekduncan.com

• https://monoskop.org/Mail_art

• mailartarchive.org

Hymn to Peace, Eugenio Miccini, date unknown

• MOMA analog networks

• Rehousing the Mark Bloch archives

• University at Buffalo Libraries

• Lomholt Mail Art Archive

Brian Lane, Some Improbable Openings

Leonard Frank Duch

• Correspondence Art | SAIC Digital Collections

• One more find: While not directly mail art related, artist books are a not-too-distant relative of mail art.

source: University of Michigan Library

source: University of Michigan Library

Did you know? 

From Artware Editions on Facebook: 

"In 1957, Yves Klein mounted two concurrent exhibitions of monochromes- at Galerie Iris Clert and Gallery Collette Allendy, in Paris. The invitation announced both shows which were jointly titled, Yves Klein : Propositions monochromes, on a single postcard, with a novel blue stamp (IKB, of course).

The announcements indeed got from point A to point B... Klein purchased the normal amount of postage necessary to send his invitations, and then tipped the postal clerk, ensuring that his cards received the necessary official markings to make it to their destinations. These indexical postal markings also allowed Klein to protect against future counterfeit IKB stamps.

Klein's invitation itself extends the field of the monochromes he was exhibiting beyond the walls of the galleries-- the unique stamp placed upon the white field of the postcard quietly resembles a miniature of his large blue paintings within a white-walled gallery... a subtle preview of what a viewer would see upon entering the space.

Although Klein's postage stamp shares destabilizing and performative elements with the mail art actions of Fluxus, it's meaningful to remember that the IKB stamp predated the works of that moment."

Blue stamp image: IKB Pigment on Postal Stamp by Yves Klein, circa 1957 Credit: artnet com

Postcard image: Invitation with a blue stamp for the exhibition « Yves Klein : Propositions monochromes » Galerie Iris Clert an Gallery Collette Allendy, Paris, may 1957 © Yves Klein Estate, ADAGP, Paris, 2017.

That would be cool if Yves K. sent me a postcard, but he went on to the next world before I was born...and I got my own cool stuff this week. Let's take a look, shall we?

incoming envelope art from Avery Ayers-Berry

incoming postcard from Cascadia Artpost

incoming postcard from Cascadia Artpost

incoming postcard from Jimmy Hackney

incoming from Nonlocal Variable

incoming booklet from Nonlocal Variable

incoming collage from Nonlocal Variable

And this came by email from Theo Nelson. I might print a few up and mail them out. Yes? Autumn / Fall is my favorite season. Not too hot, not too cold here. 

From the Mail Art News archives, here's an IQ boost from Ranita Haanen. Space Lords and Space Ladies, yes, if only everyone would smarten up, but there are many different types of intelligence: Musical, Visual-spatial, Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Bodily-kinesthetic / physical, Interpersonal, Inner-personal, Naturalistic...to name the main ones. Speaking of different types of things, the ancient Greeks made note that there were eight different types of love: 

• Eros (romantic, passionate love)
• Philia (affectionate love)
• Agape (selfless, universal love)
• Storge (familiar love)
• Mania (obsessive love)
• Ludus (playful love)
• Pragma (enduring love)
• Philautia (self love)

from Ranita Haanen, date unknown

Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully you saw something interesting here today.  Call 1-900-MAIL-ART to speak with an operator right now. Just kidding. You can however send an email to mailartnews@gmail.com or look up my mailing address on IUOMA. I will close this blog post with some photos of a neighbor's mail box, around the corner from me.