Collage by Svenja Wahl +! New Zine Announcement (Call for Mail-Art) (Heidelberg, Germany)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Svenja Wahl (Heidelberg, German)

July 29, 2014 - I am thrilled to share mail-art received plus exciting news from Svenja Wahl, one of my fave German collage artists. Svenja graces my humble blog today with beautiful and thought-provoking, post-card size work. Here is the reverse side of the opening piece:

That cool stamp deserves a close up!

I can safely surmise that Svenja Wahl carefully and deliberately searches for and finds old books, magazines and related paper ephemera to use in her compositions. This adds a haptic and textural dimension.

Here is a classic example of Svenja Wahl’s art. Might the application of a feminist reading (above) yield insight? I am certain it could but leave the application to you, should you wish to pursue it and ponder. And the reverse:

This batch reveals an emphasis on text and calligraphy from various eras of the 20th century. And here is the news that threatens to overshadow the amazing art received:

Yes, Svenja Wahl has launched Excavations, a new mail-art zine! This is an assembling zine that is, I believe, in the spirit of recent triumphs produced by Cheryl Penn (South Africa), TIC TAC (Germany) and others. The assembling zine appears to be alive and well. Those who wish to participate should note, “Please send 22 originals” as well as page size specifications. Contacting Svenja if you wish to participate might also be advisable.

Excavations has a website. What’s needed now is YOUR best work!

http://excavations-mag.com/

All of the above was enclosed in a wonderfully decorated envelope:

Svenja Wahl favors animal images and imaginary creatures. I like the gorilla on the reverse side a great deal:

I am very happy to receive mail from Svenja and offer congratulations on the launch of Excavations. Count me in on this one, as long as I can muster 22 pages of original material. I look forward to following the issues as they appear.

[Gü]

I got a quick and thorough response from Svenja! To avoid a game of chinese whispers I'll let her answer your questions! I'm eager to get started but have a couple of projects to do first then I'll get to it.

[De Villo Sloan]

Contacting Svenja is a good idea, Gina. I'm going to do that myself, as I'm going to try to give this one a shot too. I wrote to her once but need some further clarification.

With some of Cheryl's books & zines, I would create one master page & make as many copies as required. I know a lot of book artists want to make every page one-of-a-kind. Cheryl was flexible & didn't mind either way. I'll refrain from speculating about what Svenja might be thinking.

[Gü]

Thanks DVS, That's very nice of you to say, I hope I'm not setting my sights a bit high since I haven't participated in one yet. I've sent Svenja an email of interestI 

[De Villo Sloan]

Gina, I hope you consider Svenja's zine. Your work seems a natural for that format; you have some affinity with Svenja's style as well. 22 pages is daunting for some but effortless for others. I know I gained a lot from contributing to Cheryl Penn's books & zines, which used the same process. Assembling zines can be amazing, if you have ever seen any. They are the sort of thing that turns up in rare book collections.

[Gü]

Svenja is one of my favs for collage too! I spied her call for Excavations recently, it might be just the challenge I need!