"Pieces of Eight" Concept Mail Art by RCBz (St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

“Pieces of Eight” : Mail art by IUOMA member RCBz (St. Cloud. Minnesota, USA)

 

August 6, 2019 - Any IUOMAn who has wetted her/his feet in the Eternal Network sufficiently (say a year or two) has probably encountered the very talented but elusive RCBz.

After close to a decade, I can’t claim to have learned all that much about RCBz, but I have gained an appreciation of his art. I do know that a number of networkers whom I deeply respect consider RCBz to be one of the finest digital collage makers out there. (That is, the collages are composed digitally but distributed via snail mail.)

RCBz has graced the humble pages of my blogs before. Yet time has been passing on the dusty, winding trail without so much as a smoke signal from my “Ol’ Bud” (as the great Fike calls a Camerado). Then I received this wonderful “Pieces of Eight” work from RCBz.

I call it “concept mail art” because RCBz built the composition(s) and mailing around a concept: He inter-connects himself & eight others through art. I believe this is the kind of “concept art” that makes mail art a great experience for participants & a unique genre.

Ironically, while the piece encourages unity & connects people who might not be ordinarily connected, it is achieved through fragmentation. (A “chance operations” element is built into the concept too.)

The concept is original – no question; but it echoes other concept pieces based on the dismembering of artwork by, for instance, Ray Johnson & Cheryl Penn (who cut up entire paintings & mailed the pieces all over the world).

Deepest thanks to RCBz!

 

 

Samantha Price

Thea Hollister

De Villo Sloan

Jayne Birket Lyons

Pamela Suzanne Lashbrook

Fast Eyes

Jorge Martin

Stan Askew

 

The envelope:

 

 

 

 

Scannerbed debris collab by RCBz & De Villo Sloan