Received: Soluble fish mail-art from Kiera Pannell (Montreal, Canada)

[De Villo Sloan]

September 30, 2010 - Kiera Pannell, an object constantly in motion during the summer, seems to be settled for a while in the UK. She always told me she was from Canada, and the mail-art from her is addressed from everywhere else in the world. IUOMA members who were here over the summer might remember Kiera traveled across Europe and was sending mail-art to people while she was in transit (I think doing the postcard-a-day thing). It was actually pretty amazing. I believe Arttower tracked it for a time but gave up. What remains is this journal in mail-art. Grigori and I had a disjointed debate about whether the card you sent him depicted W.H. Auden, J.D. Salinger, or Stephen Spender. Kiera, if you read this, can you finally settle it? The front is nice too:

Kiera, great to hear from you and I'm glad you're somewhere. I hope we stay in touch - I know I owe you something. I was just waiting until you turned up somewhere for real. Kiera has a most excellent blog where she posts mail-art. And, Kiera, the quote is by Lautreamont. I called this soluble fish mail-art in honor of the surrealist journal Soluble Fish. Other than that, this has nothing to do with surrealism. Please don't be a stranger.

http://www.thisisart.ca

[De Villo Sloan]

Kiera, that is classic Grigster dialogue - even if reconstructed. And you know, I don't care who it is either. I don't think your purpose is to save the Euro-American literary canon. It's aboout the art. And he started nit-picking over this issue at a time when there were other things going on. And I was like, Grigster why are we discussing this? Anyway, it was a blast no matter what. Well, not to talk about whomever is not in the room. I think he'd enjoy it. And he's free to comment. You're a breath of fresh air. Keep up the good work.

[K Pannell]

You know, in regards to the W.H. Auden thing, I told Grigori ages ago that it wasn't Salinger. I think that if I were to paraphrase the conversation it went something like this:

Grigori: I love this portrait, and it kinda looks like Salinger. Could you let me know who it is?

Kiera: Actually, it's W.H. Auden.

Grigori: Cool. But you know, I actually like Salinger better, so I think I'm going to say that it's Salinger.

Kiera: Ok.

Because, honestly, I don't care about WHO the person is as much as I care about the aesthetic qualities of their face.

[De Villo Sloan]

Kiera, this is great! You fill in the narrative. I think doing the mail-art on your way across Europe was just a unique contribution to what you can do with this medium. I know it wore on you at times, but some of the spontaneous stuff you did in unusual locations and when you were tired and pushed to your limits, I think, was really interesting. Books now? Yes, keep me posted. A lot of book stuff going on here at IUOMA so there are others as well. Auden! I knew it! I knew! He kept writing messages about Salinger under that one pic of yours. No more to say about The Prague Incident. I was sure you were in Montreal, but the address threw me. We're practically neighbors. Don't worry. They won't let me across the border. "Free political prisoners" - Diane Di Prima. I like what you did on your blog with the month of September. Really nice work. So great to hear from you! We have not heard the last of Kiera.

[K Pannell]

Oh, Mr. Sloan -

First, to finally resolve the dispute between the creator of Sloanism and yourself, the portrait in question was of W.H. Auden.

As for my transient existance - I lived in the UK for two years, but am assuredly Canadian. I have actually moved back to Canada. My new addess is:
4131 Clark St
Montreal, QC
H2W 1X1
Canada
I think that this was one of the first cards I sent from Canada, before I had a return address over here. I felt no compunction about leaving my old address as I had all of my mail forwarded to a friend's house here in Montreal.

I'll be honest - sending a postcard a day while on the road was harder than I thought it would be. I was carrying around more art/computer supplies than I was carrying around clothes, and it required a lot of planning. However, it was worth it. I'm never sure how long I will last at my project of sending a postcard a day - and deliberately don't put a time limit on it, as it is something that could become just too much work. However, I have no desire to give it up any time soon.

Pretty soon I am also going to be starting a back and forth book project, so let me know if you would be interested in participating. I'm making a series of 10 books (although who knows, there could be more) out of recycled paper to go back and forth between two people until they are complete. Right now I'm in the process of sewing the covers (because I decided that all the covers had to be hand stitched as a way of linking them together) and collecting bits of paper that will make up the guts of the books.

Oh, and as for the fish - this particular postcard was made in Prague. I sprained my ankle while in Prague (a long story) and spent a day convalescing and making fish stencils. I've become really obsessed with fish stencils, and am waiting to see where this obsession will lead.

Arttower was following me? How nice! For the record, I visited Brussels, Bruges, Tournai, Antwerp, Frankfurt, Prague, Vienna, Berlin, Potsdam, Cologne, Paris, and Mons. It was quite the vacation.

Hope all is well on your end, Kiera