Received: Mail art from Angie Cope and STAMMER FETISH anti-art recipe (Port Washington, Wisconsin, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

September 21, 2010 - Angie Cope sent me mail art - we're on round two - and it lifted my spirits in a very dark time. First, is the piece above which I think represents Angie's dog Snooky who is rapidly becoming a mail art icon. But I think it gets even better than that. The pieces below are very different from what I received previously and different from her work I'm seeing posted here at IUOMA:

I really treasure this piece.This also made me think about anti-art. I'll tell you what you could do if you wanted to make anti-art. Starting with the blank paper is okay, but it would be better to rip it quickly so that it tears randomly. Rip it a few times so you have maybe three shreds. Pick one to actually use for your piece of anti-art. Save the shreds, though, you'll need them later. Let's look at this next piece because it's the one I really like:

So you have three pieces of shredded art paper. Above, you made the words "Human Club." Words are okay in anti-art, but "Human Club" suggests that language can mean something and you might have more than total contempt for your audience. The sentiment is nice, but as Antonin Artaud said about suicide, by buying into the idea you'd be acknowledging life actually had significance. The anit-artist wants to shatter constructs. But the idea of two words can work. Quick, easy, and reliable is a dictionary. I'll do this for you. I have one. Open it randomly. Close your eyes and run your finger down the page. Open your eyes. What's the word? I found: STAMMER. Repeat the process. I found: FETISH. This was totally random; randomness is amazing. I mean a number of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets now are just using random word generating software instead of writing. You wouldn't believe the things that happen when you open yourself up to randomness. So now you have: STAMMER FETISH. On the torn piece of paper, spell STAMMER FETISH with stamps. STAMMER FETISH is a part of your art, the title of the piece, and the name of a band you're going to need to start. STAMMER FETISH is so good you might want to put it in the artwork several times. This increases your chances of making a mistake, which is good. All mistakes should be left in because they really aren't mistakes. And this is one-take art. No second chances. If you spell it incorrectly or get letters upside down, that's an added bonus. I mean, you want STAMMER FETISH to look really, really lame. You want the receiver to be puzzled, disappointed, stuff like that. Unlike STAMMER FETISH, which is meant basically to insult people, I like this one of yours a lot too:

So you have STAMMER FETISH stamped on a piece of torn paper. It's really just found language at this point, and you still have a lot of artistic conventions to abuse. So you have several or a combination of options. It has a lot to do with what is around you, in your immediate environment. Maybe you have a cup of coffee nearby. Splatter STAMMER FETISH with coffee. Experiment with setting STAMMER FETISH on the floor and dripping stuff randomly on it. And while STAMMER FETISH is on the floor, stamp on it with your feet. Really work it over. Generally, splatter it with stuff. That can be paint, ink, ketchup, anything. Use your imagination. When you mail it, make sure to throw the scraps in. If you have a lot of mail art to do, stretch it out and just send some people the scraps, right? I mean, this would be a pretty average piece. There's a whole lot more you can do. Then there's the problem of the audience. Unlike most art these days, you actually do have an audience with mail art. So you might give the receiver instructions to destroy STAMMER FETISH either immediately before or after looking at it.

The problem is, you think I'm joking.

For Fluxus Angie: adrift on a sea of indeterminate floating signifiers