BRAIN CELL - RYOSUKE COHEN - COMPILATION

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Comment by Terry Owenby on February 23, 2021 at 9:15pm

Thank you, Jeff Bagato, for the information! I find it interesting to hear how Ryosuke Cohen creates Brain Cell. And to think he has gone through this process every 10 days until now, when there are over 1,000! Wow! He is obviously very dedicated to his project. Yes, a book about him and his project would be most interesting.

Thank you, Heleen, Jeff, and Ruud, for your responses about sending Ryosuke additional items and mail art. I appreciate it. I'll do that the next time I send him a stamped image. 

You have all been very helpful. Thank you! 

Comment by Jeff Bagato on February 23, 2021 at 4:17pm

Here's some info I found on the website https://mailart.pt/permanent_calls :

"Brain Cell is a mail art project begun by Ryosuke Cohen in June 1985. The project is a networked art project where individual artists contribute stamps, stickers, drawings or other images. These are sent through the mail to Cohen, who assembles and prints them as part of each cell. He prints 150 copies (30 x 42 cm) with a small silkscreen system called a Cyclostyle (now out of production). Each participant is mailed a Brain Cell print along with a documentation list of contributors worldwide.

"Cohen keeps a copy for himself. Some of the remaining Brain Cell prints from each edition are assembled into sets of 30 consecutive editions. These set are sent to artists and Mail Art shows around the world."

Comment by Jeff Bagato on February 23, 2021 at 4:15pm

The mystery deepens! I have never seen a "Brain Cell form"! I have only sent him unmounted rubber stamps which he then incorporates into a Brain Cell. Although on #1103 pictured below, I'm *pretty sure* he took the  red devil girl in the upper right from a rubber stamping I had put on the envelope! (It's an image I found in an old book and had made into a stamp for my private use!) This is in addition to the "Halloween" stamp lower down. I usually include some other kind of artwork, stickers, note, etc in the package. I participated in a few Brain Cells in the 90s and they have always been amazing. A book or interview on his project methods, etc would be wonderful to see.

Comment by Ruud Janssen on February 23, 2021 at 7:22am

I send Ryosuke a piece of mail-art every 2 weeks. Sometimes the braincell's come back in batches....

Comment by Heleen de Vaan on February 23, 2021 at 2:38am

Indeed it is amazing! A good question, Terry.

I think many people send him mail art in return, which he replies to by sending a new Brain Cell form...

What I am wondering about, is what he would do with the received mail art, if not sticked to the Brain Cell forms.

Usually I am sending a stamp design (drawn by hand in black and white on a 300 grams water colour postcard-size paper), in an envelope, most of the time a mail-arted (stamped/drawn) one. Who is sending to whom in return remains the question, though mr. Cohen was the first to send a Brain Cell form spontaneously to me, some years ago. At that time I didn’t know about the project at all. And when I learned about it, I so very much appreciated - and of course still do - the fact that he is connecting mail artists of all times and places in such a beautiful way.

Comment by Terry Owenby on February 22, 2021 at 8:35pm

I'm amazed when I think of how much postage Mr. Cohen must buy in any given time period! Does he accept money to help out with his project? Also, does anyone ever send him mail art in return for Brain Cell, as we do with other mail art we receive? Thank you.  

Comment by Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat) on February 20, 2021 at 5:14pm

And just having said that mail is not getting to Japan from Greece...

ha! Now I see that "Orion Soup" arrived by Dec.4,2020 for Brain Cell #1101,

and my "New Year" arrived for Brain Cell #1103, Dec.18,2020. 

Thank you, Heleen for posting these Brain Cells!

Comment by Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat) on February 20, 2021 at 4:57pm

You may send just ONE or more rubber stamp images on an envelope,

and Ryosuke will print it on a Brain Cell.

He does a Brain Cell every ten days, so I send one envelope with a few rubber stamp images for him to chose from during a month or so. However, in my case, mail has not been sent to Japan from Greece during this Covid Era, so my stampings are not on any Brain Cells recently :-(

Others send their artistamps in a series of 50 or more, and Ryosuke then glues these onto each Brain Cell page...but that for me is a lot to send overseas, so i stay with rubber stampings only.

Comment by Crystal S on February 20, 2021 at 3:21pm

I have wondered about this too. I have been sending 1 at a time.  Am I doing it wrong?  I saw my image on a post here of a current issue today not sure what issue number it was. There were a few posted here close to each other. 

Comment by Mel Anie on February 20, 2021 at 2:21pm

Could somebody explain how brain cell works, please? I think I have the general idea but: Do I have to send 150 copies of some mail art or just one? And is there a size limit? Thank you.

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