There is a strong connection between
mail art and cassette culture. In fact, some say cassette culture was a
direct outgrowth of this postal movement. I certainly knew several home
tapers who were also mail artists. My own brother Chris told me once of
mailing a rock to his pal Dave. Just a rock with some stamps on it.
Musician James Hill put one of his tapes in an old doll's arm and mailed
it off somewhere. Minoy was involved in mail art even before music I
believe. I was involved in a mail art project curated by "Nick" (
Dennis J. Baldwin, also a musician) called "Dead Things" in about 1987.
I will reproduce a few images of that here and also another mail art
book ("Things To Think About In Space") edited by Mario Lara in 1980.
If you are new to mail art you may
want to read this short history, it's fascinating:
http://www.panmodern.com/one/history.html
In some cases there are concepts or
themes for particular mail art projects. Other times it is just random
work with occasional guidelines for size. Post cards have been a
signature way of producing this work that is mailed between artists,
sometimes added to and then mailed again.
A card indicating which copy of
the mail art project ( Level 10) I got.
Above, this piece is by David
Greenberger who is also a writer, musician and editor of the
journals known as The Duplex Planet.
Above, A weird piece
laminate of different materials created by Clifford Mee.
Angelo Vitale painted
on cardboard for the effect above.
Some cards
designed by "Nick" for this edition of Level.
To the right,
a post card sized work by Franco Cenci.
Words and
graphics go together to make this offering
by Pat Fish.
"Tape
Sample" by Trevor actually had a piece
of open reel recording tape attached but
it has long since fallen off.
Vittore Baroni, also known as "Mr.
Bizarro" was a well known
Italian postal artist. In fact, here
is some interesting info to follow
up on: http://www.oberlin.edu/library/art/mailart/bios/baroni.html
Too small
to probably be readable is a piece by sound
collage artist, Malok from Wisconsin. Malok
used cut outs from newspapers and printed
matter for many of his cassette covers.
Experimental
musician, James Levine ( also known as Croiners)
was also a mail artist. His work was an
announcement of this 1984 radio broadcast.
To the right, a work by Achim
Schnyder.
