Incoming: Lubomyr Tymkiv and Cascadia Artpost

[William M]

A fun card from Lubomyr. Seems a bit vispo to me(which i dig). I love that evil whale(shark?) stamp in particular. There's something special about getting a card or envelope that is so covered with postage stamps that there's almost no room for the address.

A new card from Cascadia Artpost asking/highlighting important questions.

[Ptrzia (TICTAC)]

I just came across this string of comments. if it helps,...Lubomyr is a long time mail art correspondent of mine, he has participated to my zines various times. http://openarchive.com.ua/eng/timkiv/

[Bradford]

Robin, of course!  Nyet means "not yet" doesn't it?

[De Villo Sloan]

Hmm... Bradford has always struck me as being acrylic.

[William M]

jayne, DVS causing trouble? isn't that what mail art is all about? :)

[Bradford]

No protest.  Just marveling at the antics.

[De Villo Sloan]

Bradford "doth protest too much" that he is not our mysterious Ukrainian correspondent?

[Jayne Barket Lyons]

William - is our dear DVS causing trouble here? Haha!

[Bradford]

Wow! Much happens from morning to morning when I check in here.  Apparently someone fired up the transmorgrifier to occasion the blending of identities.  The address I provided for the Ukrainian artist, Пан Тимків, was gleaned from good ol' Fraenz Frisch's site wherein he posted a participant's list and artwork for a call.

I have never contacted Пан Тимків, nor acted on his behalf.  I can attest to his gender which is male based his given name although I might generally refer to him as Sir Ryllic.

[John Gayer]

I would also think that it's never meant to be malicious. My impression is that its focus is more on inventiveness, having fun - sometimes in strangely oblique ways - and just doing some blatantly dumb things at times. Unexpectedly beautiful results also tend to be a byproduct. 

[De Villo Sloan]

Darest No Idea, yes, our friend Bradford is well-known on the IUOMA platform and in mail art, Tymkiv is prolific and known in the network and vispo. Most of us know they simply cannot be the same person. People new to the network might be mystified, of course - apologies.

However, there is a bizarre history of fake identities, impersonations, even the morbid faking of one's death (actually happened on this platform!). Even Ray Johnson continued to send out m-a after he died,

Supposedly a German artist here at IUOMA created a fictional alter-ego in the USA. Mail was received and sent via an address forwarding service.

Pranks aside, mail art is a form of conceptual art, It involves the creation of persona and the construction of identity via words and image. So I don't think it's ever been meant in any malicious way - just making that clear.