|
|
The
Mailart-O-Matic ticket is simply a thank you for mail art received and
a reminder that the network has no hierarchy, everybody's work is gratefully
received, "You are number 001". Just in case, however, the Networker Guarantee
card accompanies mailings that may prove unsatisfactory.
The
Swiss artist H.R. Fricker believed that the logical development for mail
art was the direct personal contact, visiting. I found the suggestion
that we should swap our stamps for suitcases rather élitist because
mail art is open to anyone for very small expense, whereas the gospel
of Tourism might only appeal to the affluent, 'the upwardly and outwardly
mobile', or artists free of home or work commitments.
Some Ersatz Ephemera
pieces protested that Mail Art Tourism should not become an expectation
or obligation. The French mailartist Jacques Massa suggested an alternative,
'Inner Tourism'. My responses have included a Luggage Label Not To Be
Removed from the Wardrobe (I believe H.R. Fricker still has one hanging
in his wardrobe), a Platform Ticket which functions as a platform for
my view that staying at home is OK too, and a Bates Motel bookmatch with
shades of Psycho, a thinly veiled threat against uninvited guests arriving
at the door of my hermitage. |
|