What do you do with the mail art you receive?

[Emily Kays]

I'm just a bit curious - what do you do with the mail art you receive? How do you store and/or display it? I'm interested in how you exercise your creative minds in this sense :D

[Valentine Mark Herman]

This is timely!

Last night I took a big box of received Mail Art to my storage room, and added it to another big box. I must have well over 1500 pieces of Mail Art -- I've never thrown any of the items I have received away -- and the two boxes must weigh about 20 kilos/45 pounds.

Currently, I send/receive about 12-15 pieces/week, and there's just too much to display in the very limited space I have available.

I would love to catalogue it all properly*, but now it would take too much effort, that, I feel, could be better spent on the creation of yet more Mail Art. And, if I were to catalogue it properly, well, I would wonder what is the point of the exercise?

So it will all remain (sadly) uncatalogued, unlisted, unsorted, un-anythinged.

But I do look at the boxes from time to time, especially when I want to retrieve an item, which is usally a major task, as it is, inevitably, right at the bottom of the box.

Val

*If anyone would like to catalogue it for me, they are more than welcome to do so.

[karen Arp-Sandel]

wow! that's a Lotta mail art! I am impressed. I think your storage system sounds fine.

[Emily Kays]

Okay, thank you! Like I said, I was curious to see what some of you did; I like the idea of hanging some, and keeping them secure so none of them accidentally get tossed.

[chimerastone]

wow such a massive collection. I have some pieces of mailart and documentations. Sadly I have no to put them. Normally I keep them that if they will fit in scrapbook, album, visual diary type of book. A habit developed from Foundation art and design. If I see something nice I stick in blank book until it get filled and buy a new and start again. Generally I don't like throwing anything away.

[Emily Kays]

I really, really like the blank book idea. I'll have to keep that one in mind...

[karen Arp-Sandel]

awesome! I like the pix of our displays.

[Jim SantAmour]

I have had a few extraordinary pieces framed (not that I don't love every piece I get...I do love them all...y'all know what I mean though...).  Others I have in a rotating display (IKEA has some nice systems that allow you to simply clip and unclip postcards & photos).  When they're not on display - I keep them in binders, in acid free plastic sleeves, so I can at least leaf through...

I even have a few pieces displayed at my desk at work...

-Jim.

 

However, I DO NOT keep them in a small New England Village -just in case Godzilla attacks.

[Emily Kays]

More fantastic ideas. I like the idea of keeping them in a book, but I wouldn't want to glue them down, because I've received some two sided ones. I'm currently living in a dorm, so new furniture is pretty much a no-go, because or rooms are already so cramped.

And Godzilla made me chuckle.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Oh dear, Jim! We will forgive you --one day -- for buying Ikea stuff. And there was I thinking that yoiu were a man of wealth and taste (as the Glimmer Twins once put it).

[Jim SantAmour]

Sorry..i shop at IKEA cause i'm in need of some restraint...so have some sympathy...-Jim.

[karen Arp-Sandel]

I try & save all the  mail art I receive.. I document my mail art that I send out using a digital archive system( computer). With some of my correspondence, I create displays in my studio. I keep my FeMail archive of collage post cards in a special file and look for venues to exhibit it. My first official mail art collaboration which is 100 post cards called the Curious Tourist Project- is stored in these great repurposed French Biscuit Tins ( between exhibitions)!I am sorry to say some mail art is just floating around my studio amidst the piles of collage fodder there! LOL.

[stripygoose]

Catchy question. I've not been doing this mailart thing long, but in-coming post sometimes gets to be part of a tiny, mini gallery above my desk, and I add a photo of that to my iuoma page. Lots get propped up around the place so I can admire and enjoy them. Then I have some little boxes and empty biscuit tins to store some too. It's sort of an evolving system that is not really a system :>)