RECEIVED: Gasmask Collage from I'm A Superhero I Can Fly & Shit (Iowa City, Iowa, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member I'm A Superhero I Can Fly & Shit (Iowa City, Iowa, USA)

 

June 14, 2011 - From the U.S. heartland, a new mail-art star is rising in the form of a character who calls himself I'm A Superhero I Can Fly & Shit.

 

He seems to be cranking out at least several collages every day. The piece he sent me above is digital, and Superhero is doing what strikes me as significant work to push digitally composed collage forward. We all know it will have an increasingly important role. I think image retrieval technology is going to help especially.

 

The colors and overlays in this post-card size mail-art are fantastic. I like the gasmask image; it reminded me that gasmasks have been used as a subject consistently in mail-art for decades. Is there any particular reason for this? What resonance does the image have? Some member of the IUOMA who knows the history well might be able to provide some insight. On the reverse side Superhero included some of his asemic writing:

 

In addition to art, Superhero has started a global FREE ART movement at the IUOMA. Lots of great ideas are involved. Especially, though, he has a very clear distaste for copyright laws. This one-person challenge to increasingly restrictive copyright laws around the globe seems futile, a screech of powerlessness. Yet somehow it is admirable.

 

Many must surely be with him at least in spirit, the vision of free art. Of course, copyright is complicated; it protects individual artists as well as corporations. I think it's great that Superhero is increasing awareness. He is motivating people to discuss this subject. Copyright and intellectual property are very important for all of us; it helps greatly to understand them because they impact what we do.

 

So I look forward to following the FREE ART movement and the ideas it generates. And I look forward to trading more mail-art with Superhero. He has a blog that explains his work and his viewpoints:

 

http://moomoosuperhero.blogspot.com/

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

thanks for this beautifully written post! ;-D