What is a Mail Art?

Mail Art can be as simple as having lots of artist penfriends and exchanging art by post. It's also a bit deeper than that.

Since the 1960s, the Mail Art network has been made up of thousands of artists, each with his or her own group of contacts, and each in a state of flux as artists come and go, and friendships ebb and flow. Like the Internet which followed it, the Mail Art network is decentralised with each participant at a subjective focal point. Mail Art often operates through 'Calls' or invitations which request contributions on a particular theme, often with specific media, size and deadline requirements. There is no controlling authority or leadership, but Mail Art Projects and Shows have their own protocols – no fees, no jury, and documentation has traditionally been mailed to all the participants, though increasingly contributions are displayed online.

I was introduced to this alternative, inclusive club in the early 1980s at an Open University Summer School in Norwich, when I attended a course called 'Networking' organised by the Polish artist Henryk Gajewski. In Mail Art I found the social outlet for my artworks that I was missing, and anyone who could afford postage stamps could join in. I'd also found a source of inspiration and enlightenment that leapfrogged geographical and political boundaries.

Cameraderie – Mailartist Photoportraits

Our current Mail Art project is an online Mailartist Photogallery called 'Cameraderie'. Although many mailartists visit each other, I've tended to shy away from that expectation, so I often don't know what my correspondents look like. The Cameraderie project will create a web gallery that puts faces to the legends; the following invitation is extended to all current and past mailartists.

Please send us a photograph of your face for a web gallery. We will include one photo of as many mailartists as possible.

We would like a good, clear, 'head and shoulders' photoportrait, taken recently or at your most creative time of life. Choose a picture of you at your best - your happiest, your most hardworking, your most serious, your friendliest, your most enigmatic, one with a twinkle in your eye, one that shows your true character. Whether it's a photo taken by yourself or someone else, we want the single shot that best sums you up. A photo that captures you for posterity, for future generations to see.

We would also like to receive the best photograph of each mailartist who has passed away, chosen by a close friend or relative. If we receive several photos of a mailartist we will try to choose the best one.

Mailartist Photoportraits will be documented as an online gallery, pictures added as we receive them, to form a lasting internet archive at http://www.keithbates.co.uk/cameraderie.html
For accessibility, photos will be grouped in albums according to country of residence. This is an ongoing project, photos will be added as they are received and will be freely downloadable. Contact details will NOT be included on the website, only the name of the pictured mailartist will accompany each photo.

emailart
Email attachments should be high quality jpegs, of good size or resolution.
SnailMailArt
Printed images of good size, but no larger than A4. No returns.

Keith Bates and Leanda Ryan
keith@k-type.com   leanda@leandaryan.com
2 Ferngate Drive, Manchester, M20 4AH, England

The project invitation is also available as an A4 size PDF – CameraderieCall.pdf