Is Mail-art Original?

[Lisa Malmar]

A simple question...

 

Should mail art be original... as in one of kind, hand crafted, original, not photocopied or printed via an electronic printer. 

--Lisa

 

[MaryAnne]

heres an uidea

 

 

 

print out rrs reply as above

make it into an envelope

add a stamp and post it to him

 

 

then it might be mail art after all

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Thanks MaryAnne.

I'll contribute €1 to your 'Mail RRN' fund.

Where are we going to mail him too?

Should we ask him first?

Do you know the track 'The Gift' on the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat album?

It's too long to paste in here, but is well worth looking up to discover the fate of poor love-stricken Waldo Jeffers whose auto-mailing ambitions came fatally unstuck.

Regards,

Val

[Plush Possum Studio-Rose McGuinn]

Your postal insurance costs could go through the roof1 And if we send him Registered as well, it might cost quite a chunk of change! Naturally, one would hope the, er, package would be willing to go through such an ordeal. But you could always mail him to the group here at our studio. He can count on good meals, outings into another smokey summer of wildfire danger here in CO (simply scintillating!), along with those breath-seizing views of smoke with fire in one canyon or other. There's so much to recommend such  journey!

;)

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Before we post RR to who knows where we might want to take a look at this -- "The Englishman Who Posted Himself", by John Tingey -- that Batgirl posted yesterday:

 

According to the Amazon.com summary of this book:

The first impression of W. Reginald Bray (1879-1939) was one of an ordinary middle-class Englishman quietly living out his time as an accountant in the leafy suburb of Forest Hill, London. A glimpse behind
his study door, however, revealed his extraordinary passion for sending
unusual items through the mail. In 1898, Bray purchased a copy of the Post Office Guide,
and began to study the regulations published quarterly by the British
postal authorities. He discovered that the smallest item one could post
was a bee, and the largest, an elephant. Intrigued, he decided to
experiment with sending ordinary and strange objects through the post
unwrapped, including a turnip, a bowler hat, a bicycle pump, shirt
cuffs, seaweed, a clothes brush, even a rabbit's skull. He eventually
posted his Irish terrier and himself (not together), earning him the
name "The Human Letter." He also mailed cards to challenging addresses
some in the form of picture puzzles, others sent to ambiguous recipients
at hard to reach destinations all in the name of testing the deductive
powers of the beleaguered postman. Over time his passion changed from
sending curios to amassing the world's largest collection of autographs,
also via the post. Starting with key British military officers involved
in the Second Boer War, he acquired thousands of autographs during the
first four decades of the twentieth century of politicians, military
men, performing artists, aviators, sporting stars, and many others. By
the time he died in 1939, Bray had sent out more than thirty-two
thousand postal curios and autograph requests. The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects
tells W. Reginald Bray's remarkable tale for the first time and
includes delightful illustrations of some of his most amazing postal
creations. Readers will never look at the objects they post the same way
again.

[Steve]

Nowadays I wouldn't consider Mail Art if I couldn't use my PC. Though I suppose I could learn new skills, why spend my time doing that when I can exercise the skills I have already learned

[Steve]

Does the following constitute Mail Art.

 

Many years ago, as a youth, and the UK postage rate was 4p I was out for the day in rural Wales. At the time a few others at school were sending silly items through the post to each other. I found a well weathered sheep's rib bone in a field and having both a stamp and a pen on me I wrote my name and address on the bone, stuck the stamp on it and posted it in the local village. It arrived through the letterbox two days later, with the stamp franked. I may still actually have that bone in a box in the attic or garage.Health and Saftey would be down my neck if I did that today.

I remember one schoolfriend received a package and it was 'wobbly'. Another lad had emptied a pudding into a plastic bag, as served up in the hotel that he and his parents were staying at. He then wrapped it in brown paper, addresses it, stamped it and posted it it.

 

[Lisa Malmar]

Steve, 

I think yes! 

[Carla Cryptic]

Ah, this old debate! ;)

 

As a printmaker and photographer, I can't help cringing when I see it come up again.  My art is, in and of itself, copied more than once.  That doesn't detract from its originality in any way.  I think the world original should maybe be replaced by 'one off' or whatever.  I also draw and paint on paper but, more often as my arthritis develops, I draw directly onto a screen so my work is digitized as I make it.  It's certainly not less original because of that!  It's still my point of view, my hands making it from scratch out of the weird things which come into and then out of my head.  

 

For me, originality is something else... it represents a person's perspective, creativity, intent.  Whatever the medium, whatever the tools, it is the thought and the execution of that thought which counts for me.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

 Hey Rose, look up the track 'The Gift' on the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat album.

It's too long to paste in here, but is well worth looking up to discover the fate of poor love-stricken Waldo Jeffers whose auto-mailing ambitions came fatally unstuc.

No-one made a contribution to the earlier postal whip-round: typical!

Regards, Val

[Ruud Janssen]

Most of what I get is original. That answers the question too, doesn't ik.

People like to send out something original. Even if when reproduction techniques are used, the sender always makes the work personal.