RECEIVED: Diane Keys (DK) Trashpo Collage and Mail-Art Retrospective (Elgin, Illinois, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Diane Keys (Elgin, Illinois, USA)

 

February 4, 2011 - Diane Keys (DK) sent me this amazing collage. A scan of this piece was posted in the IUOMA photo gallery around the holidays and received much praise. I am thrilled to have it. I think DK has been involved in mail-art for a while. I first saw her collages here at the IUOMA in the autumn and knew I wanted to be her friend. She uses found items straight from the Elgin landscape, including handwritten notes and scraps of print that are arranged in the collage to create new texts. They make fascinating but puzzling reading. If Diane continues at this pace, I think she will mail the entire town of Elgin to diverse locations around the globe. She seems very busy dis-assembling Elgin. 

 

Collage is one of my favorite mail-art mediums, but I don't have the background to really explain why I like something (I defer always to Erni Baer of Hamburg, Germany on this front). Diane Keys' work has this haphazard, spontaneous, thrown-together quality that suggests to me both freedom and creativity; and somehow they always manage to work for me in terms of composition. I have not the slightest idea how or why. The piece above, when you hold it and look at it, seems to have been smeared with a layer of glue to seal it, which adds to the effect. So when do we start seeing FluXus Elgin stamps? The whole style of the collage is further enacted on the address side: 

My two favorite collage artists working today are from Belgium: Thierry Tillier and Little Shiva (an IUOMA member). Their work usually involves juxtaposing two primary images that have on the surface little relation to each other. DKs' work does not do this at all; it seems to have more to do with creating a unified field. I have seen scans of other work she has done that look like assemblages of trash and are even more powerful than the mail-art collages. Interesting stuff. In addition to the collages, Diane has masterminded several mail-art concepts that I wanted to document in the mini-retrospective below:

 

ROADKILL MAIL-ART

 

In an unprecedented move, Diane - through a recycling schism with the Nevermind - pioneered Roadkill mail-art: controversial to the core yet an achievement. Below is an icon of the movement. I don't know if Diane created this or not but it has served to rally IUOMA members to venture into the brave new world of roadkill mail-art:

 

ATTITUDE GIRL

 

One of my favorites, Attitude Girl is far more than image. She is a character with a story that makes some interesting and insightful social commentary. I only know Diane through the mail. Yet, from the first piece of DK mail-art that arrived in my P.O. Box requiring me to pay the postage due (thus a club I have started and named in her honor), for me Diane Keys = Attitude Girl. I do hope she will continue to do more with the character. 

 

 

 

JUNK MAIL REVOLUTION

 

This DK concept has not yet been, perhaps, fully realized. I believe it has tremendous potential. Many have speculated about the relationship between junk mail and mail-art. Diane Keys has developed this prototype for junk mail-art, which, if you think about it, fits in with everything else she is doing. Where will it go? Somewhere, I hope:

 

 

DK - already a mail-art legend of sorts. How could one do so much for so many? I greatly appreciate receiving the collage that is one of my favorites and showcases her talent.

 

MAIL-ART PSYCHIC

I

If you plan on opening the "doors of perception" or anything similar, make sure you don't lose your Keys.

Mail-Art Color for the Day: same as yesterday and the day before that

 

[Lynn Radford]

Loved this! It explains a great deal. Thanks for redirecting to this blog post! :D

[De Villo Sloan]

MW - gb never deletes u. due the math & probly more comments cut than r left. DK probly scared 2 come near this. butt the matt stolte cell fone 1 is a record of a human implosion & thats the stuff that made it. u have no idea

[Marie Wintzer]

Every day is a DW delete day, yip!

[De Villo Sloan]

ok DKNY. IHOP no. IHOMA = international house of mailart

[Marie Wintzer]

Sophisticated, yes, that's what I said. Exactly like the one below.

[De Villo Sloan]

DK collage below trash=art butt -trash=sofisticated? LI - I hop we meat agayne GB deletes me 3x now trading 4s can you find the cell fone?

[De Villo Sloan]

DKs' contribution to fashion is the roadkilt.

[De Villo Sloan]

DK queasine - bunny squash roadkill added to the I-HOP (no more) menu = International House of Pancakes MW sophisticated trash thats a good one no kicking you to the curb

[Marie Wintzer]

Roadkill transport coordinator :-))  trashy envelope is really great, it all seems to be coming out of a very sophisticated trash. I see what you mean, I think it's a definite no no for Debbie's rabbit call :-0