Networker Statement
There has long been
a practice of artists learning together in schools, forming
groups and movements, and more recently working in collectives. What
fired my
enthusiasm for Mail Art back in the early 1980s was the peculiar idea
of people
working in physical isolation, giving, receiving, bouncing ideas off
artists they never
meet.
I still find
the interplay between distant networkers the most fascinating aspect
of Mail Art. It is, afterall, an aspect which anticipated working patterns
made possible
by new technology. Yet, not only is the solitude of mailartists uncelebrated,
unexplored and undocumented, there is also an historicist assumption
that the
Personal Contact is the natural or logical development for Mail Art.
For the upwardly
and outwardly mobile, Mail Art has become the letter
of introduction and the passport to something else. I don’t like the
something else.
Join with me,
the Eclectic Hermit. Investigate the physical isolation and
conceptual affiliation that is Mail Art. I do not want to meet you.
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