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Mail Art

© Suzanne Hill

In its classic definition, Mail Art is artwork sent through the postal system to a network of people participating in a group exhibition. Mail art stays outside the conventional means of commercial display in galleries or museums. Thus it becomes a sort of "anti-art." It creates direct exchanges of art and inspiration between artists in different countries and different disciplines without using the established art market. It's a medium that provides a refreshing alternative to traditional art. Its message is communication. Each participant acts as a contact point for the creation of communication, ideas, and information.

It works like this. A group of artists develop an idea for an exhibition. They send out a notice or invitations to the artists in their network. They may have specific rules for art creation, or they may have no limitations regarding technique or materials. Mail artists often work in collage, rubber stamps, faux postage stamps, post cards, tags, paper arts, or objects d'art. The artists may create drawings, paintings, virtually any visual art that can be placed in an envelope. They decorate the envelopes. They may not use envelopes at all. The emphasis is on the visual content of the piece of mail. The criterion is typically to create new work, related to the exhibition's theme, that can be mailed. When the artwork is received, it may be put on display in a gallery.

In a variation, other mail art calls are hosted by someone who swaps the artwork among members. Each participant receives a new original work of art in return. In this way, the art form is more private and contained.

The object of mail art is to respond creatively to the challenges of the unique melding of "mail" and "art." To create mail that is artistic. To create art that can be sent through the mail. It is interesting to note that despite mail art's counter-cultural desire to remain outside the conventional system of galleries and museums, it often makes use of traditional things like catalogues, exhibitions, deadlines, and publications.

So, mail art is a creative process using a network of communicators. Everybody is welcome. All participants are equally worthwhile. All contributions are shown without any jury selecting the works of art. The exchange of ideas is invaluable, as artists get inspiration from exposure to new ideas, new techniques, new disciplines. Mail art helps overcome the artist's isolation. A self-contained universe, it is based on interpersonal cooperation and eliminates official selection, hierarchical attitudes, and evaluation of an artist's work.

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