L1-1-LEVEL 1 cover-x

Comment

Comment by Brian Callahan on December 10, 2016 at 2:44am

Thanks, yes I have read and enjoyed some of the more recent art and mail art zines from Australia, quite a few were postcard size, some were the larger format. AS Bradford said, there were during the 1980s era when the Level was produced, so many disparate artists and assembly zines - amazing all the neat stuff that came our way, both from other artists and their efforts and also contributions to Level. Toward the later years we always put in a sheet that showed contact and info about any art or mags that we were sent, so others could find them. Hal really did a great job with this edition.

Comment by Toni Hanner -- tonipoet on December 8, 2016 at 1:20am

People are still doing this -- on paper, with copy machines and staplers. Pete Spence in Australia and Anthead (Jeff Olger) in the U.S. make wonderful zines.

Comment by Bradford on December 8, 2016 at 12:16am

FABULOUS, FABULOUS!  Thanks for sharing this zine.

I like your comment about doing something from scratch that you later found out was being done by others in the art community.  The only relevant nexus for all of this activity at the time was, Global Mail and then later Factsheet 5 where you could find similar works to buy/trade/sell.  It was so naïve and innocent in those pre-internet days.  Only the truly committed were active or sought out the odd newsstand which might provide a tangible link to others.

I treasure my zine collection which was the work of so many disparate people.  To hold one conjures up the notion of collation of material from the mails, time spent copying the originals at a print shop or scammed from an office machine at odd ours and then the costly postage from a person of probably meager means, practically donated from the love of wanting to share art.  The only gratification was the occasional kind letter or perhaps a contribution for a future issue from someone who read the zine and wanted to respond.  —  3 Cheers!