Exquisite Corpse cut-up!

Months ago I signed up to take part in Keith Chamber's Exquisite Corpse Cut-up.  As with many of the mail art projects I have contributed to, I was a little foggy about exactly what that meant. As it turned out, Keith came up with a nifty schedule and process for each participant's contribution.  We were responding to each other, virtually.

Keith enclosed a note where one thing he said was that he was happy with the end product.  I mean, what Keith did here, taking all these disparate parts and curating them into a complete whole is astounding! And the product is AMAZING! DON'T YOU LOVE IT.

I am chuffed to have the centre-spread. Thank you thank you, Keith.  Now, the rest of you, READ,  look and enjoy. Sorry it's taken me so long to reproduce it.

I think these stamps were also in the mailing… I opened some of my 'pending' mailart and can't remember how it all went together.  More gorgeousness.

 

Pachyderm from History

Ted Trager's postcard arrived towards the end of November.  I remember reading it in the kitchen and swooning.

For me, mailart is communication: visual and textual. this piece also told a story and had historical significance. the way the text sits on the page, the variety of text AND WHAT IT SAYS combine to say something poignant. and then Ted also types my name in red and the stamps are perfect too. 

So zoom in, read the text and then tell Ted why you love this!

 

Trashcan Pamlimpsest 1-4 Ted Trager

Pamlimpsest: a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing. 

something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

Always delighted to receive a series.  These curious, graphic palimpsests arrived on different days. they feel like a cross between billboard and vintage political propaganda.

Thanks so much, Ted.

 

O - Mail Art - Mikel Untzi

O, Oh, I love this A6 sized mail art collage from Mikel Untzilla. I like the colour, the variety of marks, the way it works no matter which direction you turn it. It's satisfying vispo & concrete poetry for me.

Mikel reflects the stamp on the envelope in his collage, in the colour, in the movement. I always wonder which came first.

It arrived in it's inner envelope as I have scanned it above.  It is like a present...

It is a present. It feels Japanese, it is an offering. Beautiful work .  Thank you.

 

Little songs and Ripples from Rebecca Resinski

Rebecca's Boekie of sonnets is a ripple of marks, sounds and motion.  She has sent me two things and the book is echoed in the photo she sent of the marks made in the water while kayaking.

I like the two juxtaposed.  I like the weightlessness of the boekie and its monochromatic, quiet, songs. and I find the shapes and movement in the water and its colour, the perfect counterpoint. 

Each page of the boekie is made of an original arrangement of marks.  There is no repetition. It is a book of symbols, without rhyming couplets.

I also notice the pairing of stamps, the echoes of colour.  Your aesthetic is sensitive and delicate. Beautiful. Thank you for a wonderful mailing. 

 

Meet my 'Webby Rabbitholing' New Friend

 

I'm not sure if I am meant to read the words below the drawing on this envelope.  As it happened, the mail graffiti has printed over the words making them impossible to read now. I suspect it is asemic writing and part of Ted's poetry. The image is also enigmatic but, enticing! I haven't met Ted Trager before.  I notice the restrained colours and appreciate the typewriting. When I turn the envelope over I learn how Ted found me:

I am well, Ted.  I am a little slow responding to mail art these days, and even slower sending it out but I appreciate every piece I get and archive them all in my big mail art collection.  I record all my incoming and outgoing mail in my postal ledger and eventually reply to everyone.

I don't know enough baout ted to put these images in context but notice that each of the four quadrants works as a strong image on its own. It reads as an album cover. Punky Jazz, maybe? The red suggests protest to me and the horn must be playing something sad.

On the back, I find another visual poem. Like making marks with charcoal, I see rhythms of lights and darks and notice the ls, os and js, stroking the white paper. 

I can almost see the character of the person who wrote this. Some day, when I have time to settle down in my armchair, I will try to unpick the exact words in this example from the POG archive for now, I will just delight in the exclamation marks.

Thank you Ted.