Handle With Care,
Postage Art,
by
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
August 2020
This project is inspired by the mail art movement, which was popularized in the 1960s but eventually dwindled with the advent of email. Historically, mail art has been used to build community. Gay rights groups such as Les Petites Bon-Bons used mail art to grow their movement by reaching people who were living in isolated places or were marginalized in their communities and back in the ‘70s when mail art was more commonly circulated, hundreds of thousands of post office workers were striking in protest against low wages and poor conditions. This image is not dissimilar from our current reality, as thousands are protesting in the streets and the U.S Postal Service is in a state of crisis. The resurgence of mail art makes sense now more than ever. As the pandemic disproportionately affects people of color and low-income communities, mail art circumvents much of the elitist, exclusionary, commercially-focused aspects of the art world (i.e galleries) and instead opts for D.I.Y, artist-centered production. Sending letters has become somewhat of a lost art ever since the ubiquity and efficiency of email and text took over as primary communication tools. Now, however, many people have more time and are looking for alternative ways to connect outside of their screens. Mail art is social-distance friendly and seeks to address the lack of connection everyone is experiencing. Anyone can participate, as long as they have a stamp and an envelope. This project aims at fostering community, maintaining long-distance relationships, and supporting the continuation of the U.S. Postal Service. The purchase of stamps is a vital revenue generator for the U.S. Postal Service, and while Amazon retail therapy or unemployment checks stir excitement, nothing can equate to receiving an unexpected, handmade letter.
Throughout this project, I sought to blend the virtual and the tangible to demonstrate how our “offline” and “online” selves are able to coalesce. While these letters are physically reaching their recipients, I am also sharing scans of these envelopes online. My hope in doing this is to inspire other people to send letters of their own. The art on the envelope further augments the thrill of receiving a letter in the mail, but it also catches the attention of USPS employees who are working during the pandemic. I hope that seeing art on their daily commute will provide them with some solace and joy.
Because our lives are more virtual than ever before, the physical and tangible carry new meaning. A burgeoning virus paired with the rapidity of digital media (24-hour stories) leaves us in a state of constant adaptation. It feels as though very little is certain, constant, or reliable. By returning to a more outmoded form of communication—a physical letter—I sought to bring about some constancy, and something for others to keep and hold, in an age in which touching and holding has new implications.
This project considers multiple audiences. There is, of course, the person the letter is addressed to. But there is also the USPS worker who might look at the letter on their daily commute, as well as the person who is reading these words right now. These letters are addressed friends and family, as well as to government offices to demand reform, as so many messages are being deleted in the flood of emails for the Black Lives Matter Movement. This project seeks to re-examine the “lost art” of letter writing and to participate in an alternative form of “sending a message”—one that isn’t trapped in the echo chamber of like-minded followers and doesn’t disappear from an Instagram story within 24 hours but passes through the multitude of mail carriers and any of those who hold and see the letter in transit.
