Mail-Art Breaking Bad by Finnbadger (Columbus, Ohio, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Finnbadger (Columbus, Ohio, USA)

December 8, 2014 - Finnbadger is sending out some very interesting, self-identified “bad mail-art,” which has captured the attention of none other than Queen of Trash Diane Keys (Elgin, Illinois, USA) and her Museum of Bad Mail-Art (MOBMA). Given the non-judgmental, non-partisan, anti-academic and anti-institutional establishment nature of mail-art, defining what constitutes “bad mail-art” is a near impossibility.

I think the reality is that Finnbadger has created something good – something positive and compelling – so attempting to avoid wiping away his possible delusion concerning the creation of bad mail-art, I will call this “good bad mail-art.” That leaves open the possibility of “bad good mail-art,” “bad bad mail-art,” and “good good mail-art,” which I decline to pursue.

What is so intriguing about this good bad mail-art by Finnbadger? First, it does not look like art. We see labels placed in an orderly fashion upon unadorned cardboard; it doesn’t appear to be art; it has a quality of incompleteness. At first, this had a comic impact upon me, until I looked closer.

Upon examination, we learn these are found texts ready for modification in a kind of add & pass process. They are a novel form of cut-up and thus involve "chance operations." That opens new areas of interest beyond notions of good or bad mail-art. Incompleteness (perhaps a kind of minimalism) can be an artistic strategy used to trigger unusual responses in an audience.  You don't see it - unfinished work - released very often. Consciously or not, Finnbadger has gained maximum benefits from incompleteness in this work. I believe similar work by Finnbadger attracted the attention of Diane Keys also because label misprints definitely qualify as an original form of Trashpo. The incompleteness ties into Trashpo's anti-art roots.

Many thanks to Finnbadger for sending this work and kindly sparking my (unsolicited) views concerning the bad mail-art concept and why this recent batch of his work is generating such interest and positive responses.