Join the exchange! Send me your post address per email and I'll try to send a work of mail art in return. (Email will not be used for the exchange of art as such, but will be useful to check if letters arrive.) You can also send me your mail art as regular letters or post cards.
holopainen at ristoid dot net
With the current exchange I intend to document the mail art I send out, bottled or not, in short format videos. At least some of it.
Outgoing
To Everett, September 2024
Zweckmäßigkeit ohne Zweck (2022).
Linoleum print, edition of 7, with a short poem on the reverse side.
Envelope, details.
To Yadamaniart, June 2024
Vau onertika! Letter and envelope with decalcomania.
To Martin, May 2024
Drypoint (edition of four) with poem on the reverse side.
To Alice, May 2024
Gouache painting and a short exceprt from the letter.
To Artimisia Mailarta, May 1, 2024
Selfie drawing for Artimisia's portrait collection and the second half of the accompanying letter.
To Markgräfler Museum, April 2024
To David, April 2024
Both sides of the envelope.
Inside the envelope is a letter of asemic writing, a poem about abroniak and a gouache painting.
Inbox
September 2024, received letter from our dear Dame Mailarta with a wonderful collage of stamps, which of course are portraits of royalties and celebrities, including my own selfie portrait! Unfortunately I have problems with my scanner, so I can't show it here at the moment.
Letter from David Keir received in April 2024.
Apart from a letter, the large outer envelope also contained an inner envelope, which upon closer inspection turned out to be almost empty.
Recording of the opening of the Sound Envelope, as per instructions.
Videos
Here's a short one to get started. Say no more.
All videos in this section have been created with the generous support of The Composers' Remuneration Fund. They probably like to see their logo on web sites, so here it goes:
lubethje omonina
Video based on envelope and letter with drypoint and poem.
y avasuno
Only acoustic sound sources used in this one. The video combines text and illustrations from the letter with found glitch video stills.
Okisio Ogail
Reading processed with eurorack modular and video made from the letter and envelope.
eter etendi; zo mifra herpa-shemap. For a close reading, see:
gemini://oberdada.pollux.casa/gemlog/2024-03-25_zo_mifra.gmi
Abroniak
A first animation of one of many poems. The full text is available if you want to give it a try. To quote the Glossolalie LitteraturMagazin: "Leser! mit lauter Stimme, lies!".
David Keir reads Abroniak wearing the pork pie hat backwards.
Background
I must have been contacted by Italian mail artist Sassu Antonio of Gruppo Sinestetico around 2006 or 2007. He sent me some of his mail art, and I replied with a letter of asemic writing and drawings, the Lexique pour Sassu Antonio, which might count as my first contribution to mail art.
Mail art is said to have been popular in the 1970's and 80's. The privatisation of postal services has led to much confusion, inefficiency, and consternation. Although current conditions are less than ideal for a mail art revival, letters still seem to miraculously travel around the world and make it to the recipient if you put a stamp on it and write a readable and existing address on the envelope. At least sometimes.
But it's tempting to quote T. S. Eliot:
Tell her I'll bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.
Join the exchange!
Slow communication
In the olden days, communication with strangers could take place by means of small notices in the local printed newspaper, as documented in the video Efterlysning from 2003.
Messages in bottles are always a good last resort and an even better first resort. With some patience they will eventually reach their recepient. Some bottles have traveled the seas for a century – peanuts compared to interstellar communication!
I once posted a bottled message and threw it in the river in my small home town. A few months later someone picked it up and wrote a reply letter. Bottles may be the ultimate vessel for mail art. Adorno, in one famous quote, compares advanced music to a manuscript in a bottle: Sie ist die wahre Flaschenpost. Random destination, random delivery time; nevertheless bottled messages may soon beat what's left of postal services.