Nudity in Mail Art - Call for Entries - Deadline: February 14, 2009

[Carla Cryptic]

I chose Valentine's Day for the deadline for this call because I'm in a silly mood tonight. I am inviting everyone to send mail art on the theme of nudity. What does nudity represent for you? What kind of nudity are you comfortable with? What makes nudity sexual? What kind of nudity appeals to you? Have you made a nude self-portrait or been the subject of a nude work of art? What feelings does nudity create in you?

Be honest if you can - or be silly - or be angry or any other emotion. It's all acceptable!

Some things won't arrive, of course, if they offend the postal workers or the postal rules. So, if in doubt, send two copies - one visible to the world, one inside an envelope. Or take your chances and see what happens! Or send me your work via email.

I will make a booklet on the show for all participants.

Given the discussion here at IUOMA about nude women as models, I am challenging everyone, especially the men, to talk about and/or make art about male nudity as well as female nudity, or instead of female nudity. But, every kind of nudity is okay... even just a discussion of nudity! :)

Yours, in the mail,

Carla Cryptic
PO Box 1274
Berkeley, CA 94701
USA

[e-mail]

[Carla Cryptic]

Everyone who participates will get an actual 3 dimensional object with images of all the pieces in it. A small booklike object. :)

[Carla Cryptic]

Also received something from Daniel de Cullá which I really like. :)

[Carla Cryptic]

That is... other shows I'll host on the subject! This is my third or fourth time doing a mail art call on nudity of some kind or other. I did two calls on male nudes specifically.

[Carla Cryptic]

If you can postmark it by the 14th, or send it to me by email, there's still some time. But, anyway, I'm sure there will be others! :)

[Carla Cryptic]

P.S. Thanks for posting my comments on your blog... I think the main problem was that I couldn't understand how to post the comment once I previewed it. The translations I made using Babel Fish weren't as helpful as I could have wished. One button seemed to say 'go to the store' and the other said ' preview your comments' but I didn't see a button which said 'post your comment' or 'publish'. Maybe one has to join the site to make comments...?

[Carla Cryptic]

Thanks for more on this... it always helps to know more about where a person is coming from. I think, unfortunately, that some people would take offense if they knew where the skin shown on the card came from. The reason I think this is because of experiences I've had in my life, not just from conjecture. If we're lucky, no one with these kinds of beliefs will feel compelled to remove or destroy any of the artwork people send in, including mine. A friend in Indiana asked me to send some of the cards I made for this call to her to see if there is any problem with them getting through to her since where she lives is generally more adamant about things like this. One of my cards is called 'Adam and Eve... before the fall' and it shows one naked man and one naked woman, not touching or anything, just on the same card. Some of the people who most detest nudity in art believe that nudity is wrong because of their interpretation of the Christian Bible but, in that very book, Adam and Eve are naked and considered innocent of any evil 'before the fall', when they are given knowledge. So, it should be that no one can take offense at this portrayal of Adam and Eve. Well, that seems logical. But, of course, it doesn't matter to someone who is made illogical by their beliefs. Christianity is the religion most promoted here in the States so that's the one I was addressing in that piece. If I lived in a country where other religions were dominant, I'd have done something else.

When I was in the Netherlands, about 30 years ago, it was a breath of fresh air in this regard. What is the climate there like now?

[Jan-Willem Doornenbal]

Thank you Carla for your extensive answer to my blog post. I shall test the reply-function in my blog, it might not work as it should. Anyway, i copied your answer into the right place now, and i seems to work.
I think I understood/understand you quite well, and agree with you completely. I'm not offended by nudity either, but I am offended by rudeness or people with the intentions to shock other people (as some politicians use to do here in the Netherlands, unfortunately not with their nudism but with their opinions about religion and race)
I did not think you would want to offend, but I found it funny that you mentioned how postmen could be offended by some of the contributions (and I just read in your later comments that you're going to test this ;-) )
In my postcard, on the reverse side of the Lion and David, is this photo of my penis, but blown up that big that you just see skin. I wondered when someone just sees some skin will he/she be offended when he knows where the skin comes from?
Anyway, I'm getting more and more curious about the outcome,
jw

[Carla Cryptic]

Pieces received today include 4 cool ATCs from Scott Ray Randall and a great collage piece from Lancillotto Bellini - thanks to you both! :)

I'm really excited because I think my Mom's going to send in a copy of one of her paintings which I love. Crossing my fingers. :)

[Carla Cryptic]

Jan-Willem wrote a blog post about this call which I wanted to respond to but I can't figure out how to add a comment to his blog. So, I will repost his comments and mine here, just to keep the record straight. :)

Here is what he wrote:

Nudity in Mailart
Submitted by jwd on Sun, 02/08/2009 - 23:00 Verwarren Mailart

Carla Cryptic felt a strong urge to receive nudity in her mail box. She did a mail art call and started a discussion. She even hopes for offensive stuff, which does not arrive because of postal rules. So I just tried to make it as offensive as possible and tempt fate and send an open postcard with a picture of my enlarged personal belongings.

On the postcard a lion, who wonders what in fact she means with nudity. Is nudity the same as seeing a persons skin. Does it matter to which bodypart this skin belongs?

Is a penis offensive anyhow (when it belongs to a statue, a painting, a photograph, a man) and does it lose it offensiveness when it is enlarged in such a way that you just see some skin and don't see its form? Anyway, more questions asked than answered I'm afraid.

Here is what I wrote:

Lol... reading your reaction

Ingediend door Carla Cryptic (niet gecontroleerd) op do, 02/12/2009 - 05:50. (don't know what that means!)

Lol... reading your reaction to my mail art call is informative, amusing, and philosophically interesting. I'm afraid you have misread my own intentions a bit but that's okay. I don't ever expect to be understood when I host a mail art call. That's part of the experience, to see what happens when I ask for mail art on a given theme or concept. No matter how clear I am, or think I am, everyone will read it differently and the reactions will sometimes surprise me. (My favorite emotion is surprise. :)

I actually don't feel things should be offensive for the sake of being offensive - just the opposite. I feel that nudity is a natural state of being and that it's ridiculous and silly that so many human beings find nudity offensive. Here in the U.S., many people feel that nudity = pornography and that is a strange idea which I don't agree with. We are all born naked and are all naked under our clothes and being naked is not good or bad in and of itself, it just is. So, what I wanted to do was see what different people think about nudity and how they would represent their feelings in their mail art for this call. I do wonder what things, if any, won't get through the mail to me but I am not hoping that people will make things they think will get censored, only wondering which things might get censored no matter what the concept or intent.

A penis is not offensive to me and I don't think it should be to anyone. At this time, in this country and many others, it is considered offensive to show full frontal nudity on a man. Again, I find this ludicrous. Is it an attempt to castrate men and turn them into asexual beings? Men and boys have penises, women and girls have vaginas, this is just the truth. Some have both! And, again, there are people who would try to ostracize and marginalize people for things which are just facts, not acts.

This offends me. Why? It is misguided and causes many of the world's worst problems. When I was born, the child of a white man and a black woman here in the U.S., it was illegal for me to EXIST in 13 states and illegal for my parents to be married to each other. What foolishness! You cannot stop a child from existing because of your small-mindedness. It is the same with other natural events, like being a boy or girl, or having sexual preferences, or having different religious beliefs (or no religious beliefs). All of these things are personal and natural and factual. They are not things which can be legislated successfully. And, yet, many people try to legislate them and sometimes succeed, which only diminishes the entire human race.

Anyway, I'm glad that your misunderstanding of my call led to trying something different.... that's the best outcome. I like your concept. It's cute the way the lion's tail covers the penis of Michelangelo's David! Very funny. :)

[Carla Cryptic]

Thanks, Chantal... it's getting better all the time since the breadth of work is so interesting!

Thanks, Jan-Willem!

I have also received email copies of cards from Anticham and Francis Von Maele today.

BTW, I am pushing the envelope (sic) and sending several things to myself for this call - I am going to send things which are tame and things which are not and see which ones make it through to me. I've sent nude paintings and drawings through the mail in the past without any trouble, other times where they never showed up or were sent back to me vandalized. So, we'll see what happens. (!)