Category Archives: inbound

Adam’s Stamps

US-based mail artist Adam Roussopoulos has “passion for making artistamps”. Two sheets of his stamps reached Vienna two days ago and were well received by Gabriele and Gerald. The black-and-white stamps are accompanied by three text fragments: Now here comes the creative part for our readers. We’d like you to develop your personal interpretations andContinue reading “Adam’s Stamps”

Asemic Exchange

Asemic writing is an umbrella term for all kinds of texts that have no explicit meaning. Be it that the characters used do not exist, or that letters are arranged in a way that cannot be deciphered. The invention of deliberate illegible writing is sometimes credited to Tim Gaze and Jim Leftwich who coined theContinue reading “Asemic Exchange”

The Rabbitfish

This strange animal recently entered the house via the mailbox. The story goes that is has been bred by Melissa Wand from the FLUXfish group within the International Union of Mail-Artists (IUOMA). The other side of the postcard is designed as a spade nine, formed by a school of spade fish. Thank you, Sil, weContinue reading “The Rabbitfish”

Wundertüte aus Berlin

Der Berliner Ulrich Kattenstroth vagabundiert durch Kunstsparten, ohne sich viel um Grenzen zu kümmern. Im Juli schickte er einen Umschlag nach Wien, der das Haus des kürzlich verstorbenen Schweizer Künstlers und Aktionisten Hans Ruedi Fricker (1947-2023) zeigt. Auf der Vorderseite befindet sich die Botschaft: FLUXUS IST LUXUS. Was hiermit zur fröhlichen Diskussion gestellt sei. InContinue reading “Wundertüte aus Berlin”

A Watercolor Card

Canadian artist Awyn is a very active member of the mail art community. All the more it is very nice that she found the time to draw two watercolor paintings and send them as a postcard to Austria. The front page that features a folk guitar player on a typical stool is accompanied by aContinue reading “A Watercolor Card”

Post von einer Kunstreise

Schon vor einiger Zeit ist ein dickes Kuvert von Stephan J. Mitterwieser bei uns eingetroffen. Der hat sich zuletzt voll in die Kunst gestürzt, wovon etwa gedruckte Postkarten vom Dada Zentrum Kamenz, Robert Rehfeldt und Ruth Wolf Rehfeldt oder Programme von der Städtischen Galerie Dresden (Cornelia Schleime) und der Galerie Eigen in Leipzig (Neo Rauch)Continue reading “Post von einer Kunstreise”

A virtual Country

Dadaland is a country that only exists within the realm of the International Union of Mail-Artists (IOUMA). It is the brainchild of Predrag Petrovic who appointed himself as Head of Mission of the country’s embassy on the IOUMA server. If you try to find Dadaland on the map, please bear in mind Predrag’s definition: It is located whereverContinue reading “A virtual Country”

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 Vienna 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, mentions that she is a photographer asContinue 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”