Category Archives: inbound

Remembering the Sea

Stephan J. Mitterwieser is a newbie to mail art, but he quickly found the right persons to answer his questions, namely Lutz Wohlrab and Ryosuke Cohen. He sent us a beautiful collage that employs painting, stamps, text and even sewing. The text Man sitzt insgesamt viel zu wenig am Meer (One spends too few timeContinue reading “Remembering the Sea”

A Travel Journal

In September 2003, Raphael Nadolny traveled from Poland to Slovakia and Ukraine. On the road he wrote a journal with interesting descriptions and reflections and photographs. It contains his thoughts on borders, folk museums, and history that is inscribed in the layout of a town. He mailed a copy of the musings together with aContinue reading “A Travel Journal”

Death of a Factory

Raphael Nadolny sent a triptych of photos of the old vodka factory Koneser which means connoisseur in English in the Warsaw district of Old Praga.  The industrial complex was built around 1900 and at times employed more than 400 people. After World War II the premises were acquired by the Warsaw Spirits Industry Polmos which hadContinue reading “Death of a Factory”

Finnish Puzzles

Atte Ourie from Helsinki is known for his enigmatic works. The two cards he sent to Vienna are no exception. Maybe they show a pirate’s treasure map which you can’t understand, until you solve seven riddles and cast three dangerous spells. Maybe they hint towards a part of the Kalevala that has been overlooked byContinue reading “Finnish Puzzles”

A Card from Down Under

A beautiful card from Tasmania reached us last week. You can see the appropriate title on the left side: Pamela Parks’ collage has traveled 16,216.34 km (10,076.36 mi) in one month to make us feel connected. Thus, it made roughly 540 km per day. Pamela, who has been to Austria, told us that she is a photographerContinue reading “A Card from Down Under”

By Chance

Melanie Reed from Seattle loves to produce hand-crafted media that reveals the three-dimensional process of its creation. Her excellent paper collages Meeting of Minds and Ship of State II reached me, while I was reading a book about Max Ernst who developed the three-dimensonal techniques grattage (scraping the surface layers of paint) and frottage (incorporating the structuresContinue reading “By Chance”

Colorfull Collages

Two wonderful collages from Seattle reached Vienna on the last day of March. They are works of Melanie Reed, titled New Year’s Eve and Object Lesson. Both images – Melanie calls them “unlikely art visions” – show a strong tension between a static central object and a background filled with colorful objects moving in a variety of directions.

Supplement to 2021

Sometimes things disappear on hard disks. Eventually, they turn up again. This happened to two works of Felipe Lamadrid which reached Austria in June 2021. They were scanned, they were prepared for publication – and then they somehow slipped into the wrong folder. They reappeared a few days ago, and therefore they can finally beContinue reading “Supplement to 2021”

A Mixed Lot from Italy

Bruno Cassaglia from Quiliano, a small town in the province Savona, sent a mixed lot of things. He included a text that proved rather enigmatic. It starts with the lines Quanti cieli oltre i cieli posso pensare?Quali altri universi impermiabili?Solo Dio lo sasolosolosolo mi sento solo Translated: How many skies beyond the skies can IContinue reading “A Mixed Lot from Italy”

Dadaistic Card

The postcard from the French mail artist Zack leaves much space fore interpretations. E.g., the text on the right side says: 20h combattimento. La théorie du cygne noir. In English: 20:00 fighting. The theory of the black swan. Other crumbs of text refer to a young conductor and to the story of Tristan and IseultContinue reading “Dadaistic Card”