Mail Art - Range of Activities

Range of Activities

The ethos of Mail Art is one of inclusion, both in terms of participants ('anyone who can afford the postage') and in the scope of art forms beneath its big umbrella. Although there are materials and techniques which are commonly used and frequently favored by mailartists for their availability, convenience and ability to produce copies, Mail Art’s potential to surprise and delight is in part due to the unregulated wealth of media and styles employed by myriad mailartists.

Unsurprisingly, Mail Art has adopted graphic forms associated with the postal system. The rubber stamp officially used for franking mail, hardly an established or esteemed art medium but already utilised by Dada and Fluxus artists, has been embraced by mailartists who, in addition to reusing readymade rubber stamps, have them professionally made to their own designs, and also carve into erasers with linocut tools to create handmade ones. These unofficial rubber stamps, whether disseminating mailartists' messages or simply announcing the identity of the sender, help to transform humble postcards into artworks and make envelopes an important part of the Mail Art experience.

Mail Art has also appropriated the postage stamp as a format for individual expression. Inspired by the example of Cinderella stamps and Fluxus faux-stamps, the artistamp has spawned a vibrant sub-network of artists dedicated to creating and exchanging their own stamps and stamp sheets. Artistamps and rubber stamps, have become important staples of mail artworks, particularly in the enhancement of postcards and envelopes.

Some mailartists lavish more attention on the envelopes than the contents within. Painted envelopes are one-of-a-kind artworks with the handwritten address becoming part of the work. Stitching, embossing and an array of drawing materials can all be found on postcards, envelopes and on the contents inside, where genuinely personalized stationery adds real character to the letters and notes that often accompany mailartworks.

In addition to appropriating the postage stamp model, mailartists have assimilated other design formats for unique and printed artworks. Artists' books, decobooks and friendship books, banknotes, stickers, tickets, artist trading cards (ATCs), badges, food packaging, diagrams and maps have all inspired individual and collaborative work.

Printing is ideally suited to mailartists who distribute their work widely. Many forms of printmaking, in addition to rubber stamping, are used to create multiples, and copy art (xerography, photocopy) is a common practice, with both mono and color copying being extensively used within the network. Black & white copies of artwork have sometimes been regarded as too easy and impersonal, and ubiquitous 'add & pass' sheets that are designed to be circulated through the network with each artist adding and copying, chain-letter fashion, have also received some unfavorable criticism. However, Xerography has been invaluable to the many short-run periodicals and zines about Mail Art, and for the printed documentation that has been the traditional project culmination sent to participants. Inkjet and laserprint computer printouts are also used, both to disseminate artwork and for reproducing zines and documentation, and PDF copies of paperless periodicals and unprinted documentation are circulated by email. Photography is widely used as an art form in itself, to provide images for artistamps and rubber stamps, and within printed and digital magazines and documentation.

The wealth of materials, techniques and formats available ensures that mailartists routinely mix media. Collage and photomontage are hugely popular, affording much Mail Art the stylistic qualities of Pop Art or Dada. Mailartists often use collage techniques to produce original postcards, envelopes and work that may be transformed using copy art techniques or computer software, then photocopied or printed out in limited editions. Mailable fake fur ("Hairmail") and Astroturf postcards were marketed in the late 1990s. Printed matter and ephemera are often circulated among mailartists, and items that might seem mundane in one country become fascinating and extraordinary when relocated. Small assemblages, sculptural forms or found objects of irregular shapes and sizes are parceled up or sent unwrapped to deliberately tease and test the efficiency of the postal service. Wit and humor permeate a lot of Mail Art.

Lettering, whether handwritten or printed, is integral to Mail Art. Visual poetry is well represented within the movement. The written word is used as a literary art form, as well as for personal letters and notes sent with artwork and recordings of the spoken word, both of poetry and prose, are also a part of the network. Although English has been the de facto language, owing to the movement's inception in America, an increasing number of mailartists, and mailartist groups on the Internet, now communicate in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian and other first languages.

Having borrowed the notion of intermedia from Fluxus, mailartists are often active simultaneously in several different fields of expression. Music and sound art have long been celebrated aspects of Mail Art, at first using cassette tape, then on CD and today as sound files sent via the internet. Performance art has also been a prominent facet, particularly since the advent of Mail Art meetings and congresses. Performances recorded on film or video are communicated via DVD and movie files over the internet. Video is also increasingly being employed to document Mail Art shows of all kinds.

Recent years have witnessed a meteoric rise in Mail Art's online presence. Mailartists' websites, blogs, and the use of social networking groups for discussion are considered by many to be a natural development, and just as it has become standard to display the documentation of Mail Art projects online rather than to mail printed documentation, so an increasing number of projects include an invitation to submit work digitally by email, either as the preferred channel or as an alternative to sending contributions by post. Mail Art continues to transform itself with the times.

"Cultural exchange is a radical act. It can create paradigms for the reverential sharing and preservation of the earth's water, soil, forests, plants and animals. The ethereal networker aesthetic calls for guiding that dream through action. Cooperation and participation, and the celebration of art as a birthing of life, vision, and spirit are first steps. The artists who meet each other in the Eternal Network have taken these steps. Their shared enterprise is a contribution to our common future."