Received: Trashpo mailart from Erni Bar (Hamburg, Germany)

[De Villo Sloan]

August 14, 2010: Versatile artist Erni Bar finds inspiration for some of his work in the streets of Hamburg. The mailart he sent me, documented below, marks my first experience in what I think could fairly be considered trashpo:

As with all mailart, packaging must be considered carefully for practicality as well as aesthetics. So in this case Erni decided to, as we say in the U.S., "bag it":

After all, he is sending metal. How do customs agents deal with this? Then the outer package must be of a very durable material. And I love this part, it must be very firmly and securely bound with tape. In this case with the sausages, Erni Bar had to enforce, I am thinking of Frank Zappa, "a little discipline":

If you are interested in learning more about Erni Bar's life and work, you might want to visit:

www.erni-baer.de/