Received: Mail-art from Fluxus artist JF CHAPELLE (Bordeaux Cedex, France)

[De Villo Sloan]

September 28, 2010 - JF CHAPELLE sent me the piece above, which was included in an envelope that also contained a postcard you can see scanned further below. First the documentation for the entire piece. This past July I mailed the item pictured below to JF (photo courtesy of JF from his IUOMA portfolio). It consists of the plastic arm of a Barbie doll from Walmart, a turquoise-colored shoe lace, a plastic bag, and a stamped card that reads: "JF FIX MY SHOE." Some of you are probably tired of this by now because Barbie made the rounds. But here she is again:

JF's response arrived in New York somewhere around September 21. I summarize by saying I mailed JF a shoelace and requested he fix my shoe. He sent back a different shoe lace with a message saying it is not a shoe. There is also a checklist JF attached, which renders critics obsolete. For me, this whole exchange is wonderful; and I have JF's mail-art, which I will make sure survives as a record, a trace of an event that once occurred. Here is the back of JF's piece:

Here's the postcard JF sent:

More documentation:

Front cover:

And not from JF CHAPELLE but I think appropriate here. A reminder of Fluxus past. The glory days of Lithuania when FLUXUS was LUXUS:

JF Chapelle: Thank you!