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Outline

Title
Abstract
Chapter 1: Introduction
Materiality and the Mail Art Object
Reflecting on the Past, Moving Towards the Future
References
All Topics
Art
Art History

Networking and Craft in Three Generations of Mail Art

Profile image of Laura Dunkin-HubbyLaura Dunkin-Hubby
https://doi.org/10.31979/ETD.K3DK-T5BE
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119 pages

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Abstract

This thesis examines two threads in the history of mail art: a networking approach dedicated to open participation and a crafted approach dedicated to the art object. It then follows these two threads across three generations. Mail art is an international phenomenon that evolved over the past sixty odd years due to the efforts of a dedicated and growing group of individuals. American artist Ray Johnson and the international artistic group operating under the banner of Fluxus are discussed as establishing mail art as a separate form through their creation of the mail art network. The generation that followed Johnson and Fluxus expanded on the free and open ethos of the mail art network, making it a cornerstone of mail art practice and embracing new technology. Finally, this study examines work by contemporary mail artists who have not yet been historicized and who return to a craft approach in the production of mail art. Using Glenn Adamson's theory of craft, this thesis concludes that craft is an equally pertinent aspect of mail art practice and that, although it is underemphasized in mail art's first two generations, it is a dominant factor in the production of mail art today.

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References (130)

  1. Ray Johnson, Untitled Mail Art, No Date. 18
  2. Ray Johnson, Untitled Mail Art, No Date. 21
  3. Ray Johnson, Cover Image New York Correspondance School Exhibition 26 Catalog, Whitney Museum of America Art, 1970.
  4. New York Correspondance School Exhibition Contributors, Whitney Museum of America Art, 1970.
  5. George Maciunas, Fluxus Manifesto, 1963.
  6. George Maciunas, Price List for Fluxshop & Mail-Order Warehouse, Printed in Fluxus Vacuum Trapezoid (Fluxus Newspaper No. 5, 1965).
  7. Fluxus, Flux Post Kit 7, 1967.
  8. Ben Vautier, The Postman's Choice, 1965.
  9. George Brecht, Mailbox Event, circa. 1963.
  10. Unknown artist, Omaha Flow Systems Poster, 1973.
  11. Dr. Ronny Cohen, Call For Mail Art, 1984.
  12. Ryosuke Cohen, Brain Cell Number 827, June14, 2012.
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  14. Cara Mullinary, Untitled, July, 2013.
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  26. Held Jr., in Chandler and Neumark, 97.
  27. Ibid.
  28. Dick Higgins, "Intermedia", Leonardo 34, no. 1 (2001): 49. "The term, an appropriate one for understanding Fluxus, has since spread into common art parlance and changed meaning, becoming associated with hi-tech art." Hannah Higgins, Fluxus Experience (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002), 91.
  29. Ibid.
  30. Dick Higgins, 53.
  31. Ibid., 49.
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  35. Ibid. Really Felt It: The Art of Snail Mail, accessed March 19, 2014, http://ireallyfelt.blogspot.com/.
  36. For more information about Making Mail, see the film's website on Kickstarter. Michael Polk, Making Mail: A Documentary, Kickstarter, accessed March 19, 2014, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/8161373/making-mail-a-documentary.
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  38. Amber Esner, Poster for the Documentary Making Mail. Digital. 2013, accessed March 19, 2014, http://amberesner.com/making-mail/. At the time that this thesis was written, the film had not yet been released. categorize, and then present in a specific format is a form of control that both the Solomon, Mullinary and many other mail artists in my personal network utilize in their respective blogs and/or personal websites.
  39. Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21 st Century Mail Art Exhibition The ability to share and display work online has had a positive effect on the popularity of mail art exhibitions as they still continue to thrive both on the Internet and in real life. However, as the genre has evolved, so too has the curatorial format of the mail art exhibition. In 2008, 24 years after the controversial Mail Art Now and Then exhibition at
  40. Franklin Furnace, another mail art exhibition took place in New York at the Center of the Book entitled Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21 st Century, curated by Champe Smith (Figure 19). 192 Like Mail Art Now and Then, the exhibition was a both a contemporary mail art exhibition and an historical survey of mail art practice that was coupled with collateral panel discussions. 193 The key difference between the 2008 and 1984 exhibition was that Mapping Correspondence was by invitation only and did abide by the typical mail art exhibition format (i.e., all work shown, no entry fee, credit given to participating artists.) 194 In the exhibition catalog, Champe Smith discussed who was chosen to participate:
  41. John Held Jr., Where the Secret Is Hidden, (Sacramento, CA: Bananafish Publications, 2011): 86. 193 Ibid., 89.
  42. Ibid., 91.
  43. For more information on mail art archives and collections, see Chuck Welch, "Appendix 4: Mail Art Archives and Collections", in Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology, ed. Chuck Welch (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1995) 259-269. Additional resources include Oberlin College of Mail Art Collection, http://www.oberlin.edu/library/art/mailart/Default.html; Mail art archive at the Staatliches Museum Schwerin, http://www.museum-schwerin.com/headnavi/science-research/mail-art-archive/; The Getty Research Institute, http://www.getty.edu/research/.
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Welch. 1995. Eternal Network. A Mail Art Anthology. Part I .pdf
Chuck Welch

ETERNAL NETWORK: A MAIL ART ANTHOLOGY is the first university press publication in academia to explore the historical roots, aesthetics and new directions of contemporary mail art. The essays of ETERNAL NETWORK were written and assembled during the early 1990s by mail artist, writer, and curator, Chuck Welch. Published in 1995 by University of Calgary Press (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), the edition contains forty illustrated chapters surveying an international community whose mailboxes and computers were a proto internet bridging the analog and digital world of art and communication. ETERNAL NETWORK includes numerous photographs of mailed artifacts, performance events, congresses, stampsheets, posters, collages, artists’ books, visual poetry, computer art, mail art projects, zines, copy art and rubber-stamped images. The book is divided into six parts: Networking Origins, Open Aesthetics, New Directions, Interconnection of Worlds, Communication Issues and Ethereal Realms. Appendixes include mailing addresses from the 1990s, mail art exhibitions, a listing and location of over 350 underground mail art magazines and a comprehensive record of public and private international mail art archives. The late Judith Hoffberg, founder of Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS) and editor of “Umbrella Magazine,” wrote an astute and prophetic review of ETERNAL NETWORK in March 1995. “Some might think that this is the last gasp of a paper-orientated group of artists, but it is more a testament to the future of alternative art and the role of artists as networker”.

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Related topics

  • Art History
  • Art
  • Mail Art
  • Correspondence Art
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