RECEIVED: Trash Talk from Richard Canard and the Limits of Cerealism (Carbondale, Illusion, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illusion, USA)

 

August 31, 2011 - Mail-art friends might remember I recently received material from Richard Canard, which I blogged here at the IUOMA, including the page of New York Correspondence School icons, the wonderful visual poem for Ray Johnson, and a piece of a cereal box.

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/received-ray-johnson-n...

Mr. Canard then sent me this delightful card filled with wordplay that also addresses my contention that mailing cereal boxes (or pieces of cereal boxes) is a mail-art tradition, which I thought deserved the title cerealism (as in surrealism). He is a wonderful correspondent (although the dialog remains one-sided as I still ponder in a kind of semi-paralysis what to send him). Here is the note he wrote on the reverse of the piece above:

 

I shall continue to research cereal boxes in mail-art. I believe my sources are reliable. Mr. Canard has carried on a wonderful correspondence with Batgirl (aka Elaine the Librarian (NY, USA), that I have followed with great enjoyment. In the fall of 2010, Batgirl sent me the most complicated cereal box mail-art I have ever received and ultimately could not decipher or assemble properly. 

 

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/received-batgirl-dumpster

With the growing popularity of Trashpo in the network (first introduced by visual poet Jim Leftwich (Virginia, USA) in 2005) I have grown accustomed to people from all parts of the world mailing me their trash in unaltered form. Mr. Canard's cereal box further confused me because many FluXus artists these days have reduced the movement's name, as a form of shorthand I assume, to a simple X. When I saw Mr. Canard had scrawled not one but two Xs on his cereal box, I wondered if this was an expression of some affiliation with the movement, although I had not placed him squarely in that territory.

 

With all these isms and the mixing of art and life, must mail-art now go in the direction of T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland"? In other words, should I have hoped Mr. Canard attached footnotes and a bibliography to his work? Certainly not, of course. I always look forward to receiving his missives and exceptional art and look for to an active correspondence in the future. Many thanks

[De Villo Sloan]

Yes, Mr. Canard is the Marlon Bran-do of mail-art. Could cerealism also be considered fiber art?

[DKeys]

I did Nancy--trash overload? never. I find all your lists very amusing particularly the one about "Don't forget to pick up a Mother's Day card" Yes, Fall-Apart is "The Man" at his worst.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Who knew? You got a piece of that same brand cereal in the trash overload, Diane (I think). Of course, it wouldn't have had the wisdoms and witticisms of Mr Canard on it, unfortunately. You'll just have to try with all your might to provide those yourself.

Agree with the Walmart assessment completely. The buildings themselves all look like the prisons they are. Ugleeeee, acres and acres of blight on our landscape.

[Bifidus Jones]

yeah we're all ridin the wave of something, that's for sure

[De Villo Sloan]

And, seriously, today it has morphed into trashpo & found art - a good theory any way. Cool pic DK!

[DKeys]

Lost in my Life boxes by Rachel Perry Welty

[De Villo Sloan]

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks Kat & DK, Richard Canard's cerealism has made me wonder just how far back in time this cereal box mailing goes in mail-art. I suspect very far. I found several sources saying it goes back to Ray Johnson himself.

 

It makes sense. Especially during his era encouraging kids to cut coupons from cereal boxes, win prizes, and save boxtops to earn prizes were all a big part of cereal marketing. It's still done today, but it is more web-focused. The cereal box mailing would have been a great concept for mail-art. Here's vintage image of cereal box marketing I found. There are many others, of course, old and new:

 

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Great cerealism from Richard Canard! There are many US mail artists who use cut up cereal boxes as recycled cardboard for their collages. But this work is inspiring because the cerealistic cut piece IS the art ;-) 

"Love the Tiffany Lamp postage next to"Uncle"..perfect!

[DKeys]

yup--they sell cheap crap for less with the blood of sweatshop workers on their hands. Plus they are huge on mind control, surveillance (of shoppers as well as employees to keep them from forming unions), silent sound systems supposedly for preventing theft. They are like a disease and I can't wait for the day they go under. But that's just my conspiratorial take on it all. Richard Canard is just fantastic and I love that he has all these dialogues going out with a chronicle of what he consumes.  The whole "X" thing is enlightening. I never knew that.  I need to send something to him as well.  Thanks for posting DVS