Wikipedia describe Mail Art like this: “Mail art is art which uses the postal system as a medium. The term mail art can refer to an individual message, the medium through which it is sent, or an artistic genre.”
I separate Mail Art into two categories: Art sent by mail, and the art of sending mail.
The first one is pretty self explanatory, so I would like to concentrate on the second one.
What exactly dose it mean “the art of sending mail”? Well, it could be art related, like sending a letter in a decorated hand made envelope, creating fake postage, sending a hand made postcard, maybe an altered CD made into a postcard, but it can also be about pushing the boundaries of what you can send by mail.
Obviously I’m not talking about size, but about content and shape, or rather the combination of the two of them. John Windsor is telling of his experience with mail art, that includes receiving day to day unwrapped objects in the mail, including an orange, a lemon, a coat hanger, an egg, chopsticks and some time traveling tickets among other things.
This all sounds very exciting, I decided I must try it myself. So I started a swap of my own on swap-bot. In this swap I invited people to join me in swapping decorated unwrapped cups in the mail. Notice I added the “decorated”, this way I cover both Mail Art categories.
There are still a few days to sign to this swap, and you are all welcome to join me in this experiment.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted on it’s results.
D.
nice post. thanks.