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”
Category Archives: inbound
Art from two Countries
Not all things have gone smoothly for a time. That’s why we have been offline for some weeks. We are back with some great examples of mail art that we received in October:
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”
Last Home
This large card is a work of Raphael Nadolny, who lives in the small Polish town of Mosina. The picture shows a catholic priest visiting a jewish cemetery in 1946. Nadolny calls the photocopy with colored gravestones an archeology of culture.
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”
Night Sky
It was a very nice surprise to find a letter from Canada on my return to Vienna. Inside a found a drawing by Awyn in the mail . I looked at it and a poem by Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906) came into my mind. I only had a vague memory of the text, but whenContinue reading “Night Sky”
Delay…
Jay Block’s Collage reached Vienna some weeks ago, but it was only after my return from Crete that I found it.
Lots of Things
Jean-Philippe Gini from Belgium sent a bunch of small things, prints, readymades, stamps, and photocopies from mail art that he has collected. It all arrived in an envelope made from magazine pages, and it wasn’t all that easy to find the least destructive method to open it. But now it’s all here on the table.
Fascinating Cooperations
Sharon Silverman is an artist and an art instructor. She regularly combines forces with other visual artists to produce books that show art in conversation. In these volumes she responds to works of other artists, an approach that gives the reader / viewer the opportunity to understand her analysis of the works in a direct,Continue reading “Fascinating Cooperations”
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