O.K. A difficult statement. I know I will cause some negative reactions for sure. But not all mail-art I get is good. Sometimes just a confirmation that my mail-arrived and the request to send more. The complete essence of mail-art is forgotten. A creative interaction between two artists using a communication-system. That was what mail-art should be about.
What to do with such mail-art. I hope I don't upset you. I tend to just throw it away. Someone invested a postagestamp for that piece, but it is more honest not to reply and to move on. If I would reply the same way: "Thanks for you mail-art, please send me more". How would you feel? Somehow it is impersonal isn't it. Much better is it to build up a correspondance and then you know with whom you are dealing and what you mutual interests are.
Another example. Someone send me a bundle of ATC. I don't like ATC, only rarely produced a few, and don't collect them or exchange them.......
I know all intensions are good, but I can''t answer all thise things. The postage rates don't allow it.
Ruud
7 comments:
What ever happened to . . .
No Judging
NO Expectations
NO Guilt
?
A gift is a gift, whether it is appreciated, recycled, or tossed in the circular file.
Saying that it isn't good is a Judgement.
I think the attempt to communicate is always good, regardless of whether the receiver is happy with the results or not.
Therefore . . .
all mail art is good.
Deciding not to reply should be a factor of postage affordability, time available and/or desire to continue the dialogue.
P * T * D = MA
I understand kiyotei's point, but it's unavoidable that we judge. We cannot help it. I'm less visual that most mailartists (and more visual than most poets), so some people don't appreciate my stuff. And that's fine. They stop responding to me, and I understand that. It is a judgement, equally so as a gallery's choosing what to show. Different, tho. The mailbox is the gallery, so we get to the gallery no matter what!
geof
To follow up on Kiyotei and Geof. What happens is that the mail-artists that DO answer your mail establish a contact that culd last for years. This way you build your own network with people you enjoy communicating with. Some come to that, some go away, but you are the center of this network.
That also means every mail-artists has his own network, and all these networks aren't alike. I correspond with a specific group, others do the same.
I must have met thousands of people in the P.O. Box, but only a selection continues correspondence over the years.
Facts of life.
All mail-art good? Maybe the intention of the sender is good. But some doesn't say me anything, and I decide not to communicate.
I receive too much mail-art without asking for it..... Sometimes not answering is the sollution. I know this will make some mad. But I am only human. Not an answeringmachine.
Ruud
Well, I see now why I received no response to some mailart I sent to Ruud. It is not good, I did not reveal enough of myself to deserve a response, and he has too many friends in the mail already and the only way to thin this situation out is simply not to respond. I was told by another mail artist that is wasn't about penpal-ism. I had been sending little letters to this person along with my art, telling some selected details about my life and my interests, just little ramblings worded as cleverly and as thoughtfully as I could. Being new to mailart as a community of expression and someone who is trying to "fit in", I decided it must be better to just send only the visual aspect of the communication, no penpalism! But in the images I sent I felt there was something there to read. Even still, I can relate to the judgement aspect of receiving other people's ideas and creations in the mail. I was a classically trained artist, my eye certainly tells me a lot about what I think I see. It has taken me years to move to the side of all that training toward something semi-original, semi modern. And, I have had some of my own work returned to me with holes punched in and stickers attached and not a single stroke of ink or paint added. It seemed more like a mutilation rather then an artistic add and pass. It was interesting to watch my reactions, my judgements. I decided to strip everything off the piece that felt and looked like mutilation to me and send the thing back to it's sender with a little bit of my own superior add-on as an example to the other artist. HA! How arrogant and how human can I be? Well, just about as arrogant as the next guy. I totally understand what all three of you are saying. It is all so very true.....even that geof's stuff is really puzzling! But, it is fun puzzling. By the way - has anyone seen the documentary on Ray Johnson called "How to Draw a Bunny"????? It is GREAT!
Another example of "good". When you receive a piece of mail-art you know someone has worked on for days. What should you do when you don't have time to respond? Just send him/her a card with on it "Thank you, send me more!". Return it? Answer it when you do find the time (months later)......
Answering my mail has nothing to do with good or bad. I just can't answer all.
Responding to Jassy: I used to always write notes with my mailart. I'm a "writer," after all. But I noticed that this caused some people not to respond. That's fine because we need to find people whose work and habits interests us.
One of the things I enjoy about Roy Arenella's mailart is that it is correspondence as well. There is almost always an elucidating note, a micro-essay of some sort.
All I can say about Ruud's not-being-an-answering-machine comment is this: Thank goodness I'm not as famous or active as he is. I couldn't manage it.
Jassy, about manipulation of one's mailart by another, I've learned to understand that that's just another means of expression, and that sometimes it's an anti-art stance. No problem. It's their way. When I received that card of mine back from you, I was surprised (I learn slowly) and assumed that you didn't like the card. But it doesn't matter really. You made something new out of it. That was your way.
And my last note:
Wait, this list of people responding to this blog entry is my mailart network!
Geof
Post card'zZ may suck, but I still love ta git 'em.
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