Mail Art

Mail art is art that uses the postal system as a medium. The term "mail art" can refer to an individual message, the medium through which it is sent, and an art movement.
Mail artists typically exchange ephemera in the form of illustrated letters; zines; rubberstamped, decorated, or illustrated envelopes; artist trading cards; postcards; artist amps; faux postage; mail-interviews; naked mail; and three-dimensional objects.
An amorphous international mail art network, involving thousands of participants in over fifty countries, evolved between the 1950s and the 1990s from the work of Ray Johnson.[citation needed] It was influenced by other movements, including Dada and Fluxus.
One theme in mail art is that of commerce-free exchange; early mail art was, in part, a snub of gallery art, juried shows, and exclusivity in art. A saying in the mail art movement is "senders receive," meaning that one must not expect mail art to be sent to them unless they are also actively participating in the movement.
As an art form the early genre produced low- and high-minded works ranging from the comic and satirical through commercial and industrial advertising to the promotion of social causes such as free trade, world peace and brotherhood, and the abolition
of slavery. Examples exist of pictorial propaganda envelopes with patriotic motifs produced by both sides during the American Civil War.


LIVE STREAMING - Action !
20.11.06, 11am - 8pm (CET)

As a performativ act, the organizers (machfeld & elffriede) create within a 9 hours microcosmic studio situation a unique book from the accumulated material.
All participants will be part of the book “MACHWERK”.

Here are some EXAMPLES

Please send us all your material at 20.11.2006 live to : aufzeichnung[at]machfeld.net

Before, the streaming per snail-mail to:

MACHFELD | Studio
Max Winter-Platz 21/1
A-1020 Vienna

We need your material on 20.11.2006!

A cooperative project by: MACHFELD & elffriede


Supported by: BKA-KUNST