"Mail Art" is hard to define as one thing because every mail artist would give you a different definition. Essentially, it's a big international network of people who exchange artwork and ideas via the postal service. Mail art in simplest terms is one person sending another person something that they have created. In more complex terms, there are mail art shows where hundreds of people send in work according to a specific theme. All of the work that is sent in is displayed in some manner and everyone who participates gets "documentation"--a list of all the artists, and possibly a catalog of the artwork. Announcements for these shows are distributed within the network (often to people who have participated in past shows), and not from any central location. It is democratic art at its best. Pop artist Ray Johnson is considered the originator of the network- in the 1950's he shunned the gallery-dealer-museum system of conventional art and started sending his artwork to people for free, often for no apparent reason. Sometimes he would prompt the recipients to change the piece in some way and pass it on to a third person, setting in motion a chain of contact which continues to this day. Ray Johnson committed suicide in 1995, but some of the pieces which Ray originated are still in circulation. Mail art seeks to break down the division between audience and artist-- anyone can be a mail artist, and have their work shown in a mail art show, regardless of academic credentials or technical skill- all you need is a stamp.
I received two horrible pieces of news on July 12, 2002. The first was an e-mail from David Alvey that informed me of the suicide of Julie Jeffries' son, Jeff Paquette. Julie (aka Ex Posto Facto) hasn't been very active in mail art recently, but she created the brilliant and often-imitated Fluxus Bucks project in the early 1990s. Though I never knew Jeff, I feel a deep sense of sorrow for Julie and all her family has gone through in the past few months. The death of a child is one of the worst things that can happen to someone, and when that death is a suicide, I can only imagine the deep regrets and second guessing that must go through the mind of the parent.
Still reeling from the news of Jeff's death, I received another piece of shocking news when I opened a letter which appeared to be from Ivan Preissler. The letter, however, was from Ivan's Mother, Eva, who informed me that her son had died on April 1, 2002.
Ivan's death came as a complete surprise. He was one
of my oldest contacts, and one who never ceased to amaze me
with his brilliant work. His pieces, which on the surface
seemed simplistic, often had deeper meanings and elaborate
linguistic puns. When Mary and I travelled to Prague in
2000, we met Ivan in person. He was an odd
character--strangely dressed and larger than life.
His English skills were unusual also--He knew a vast number of
difficult words, yet he seemed to lack the basic grammar to
form coherent sentences. As we walked around Prague with
him, he would speak of complex historical and philosophical
concepts, which we tried to follow but found ourselves lost
much of the time. Clearly the ideas he was discussing were
beyond his language skills, but we still had a sense of his
brilliance. The last piece of mail art he sent me, in
January 2002, was this drawing of a tree stump, which
indicates to me that Ivan knew full well he didn't have
long to live. I only wish I would have known...his letter
didn't say anything about it. Of course, that's
what we always say...if I had only known.
Vortice Argentina's memorial page for Ivan.
 Jeff Paquette April 28, 1982 - July 9, 2002 |
 Ivan Preissler April 28, 1953 - April 1, 2002 |
