John Held, Jr. Papers Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Key to the Collection: Correspondence 1976-1995 Part VII (Conclusion) Spiegelman, Lon (Los Angeles, California ) I don't know anyone who took Mail Art more seriously than Lon Spiegelman. "Mailart is the portent of whether or not man will survive on this planet in his present form. Just take a look at the current atomic world situation to see if this is on the money or pure bullshit. The name of the game is communication. Communication is the name of the world that we are living in this year of 1984, and it is projected to grow further in this direction by most of the learned minds in the present-day cesspool...Every study and survey and projection that I read dealing with the future, all refer to 'communication' as the wave of the future, from the satellites spinning around the earth to computers which specialize in everything from dating to resources of everything for everybody. It's all information- the gathering of information and the disseminating of that same information. Mailart is synonymous with 'correspondence art'- sharing information. The world has really gotten small since the atomic bomb of 1945 and the resultant communication satellites projected into the heavens on top of these rockets. Anyway, the world is smaller and we communicate more. BUT, THE BOTTOM LINE IS, 'We in the east have to make friends with those in the west' if we, as a people, are ever to convince our respective governments into the realization that we are family, living on the same speck of creation, and when the toilet flushes, it flushes for all. Now, name me one other 'art' whatever in the world today that comes closer to accomplishing this reality than 'the international mailart network'" (July 2, 1984). Not that I needed convincing, but it was always great to have Lon around, just as loony about the field as myself. And if I ever got too serious about anything, Lon would always bring me back to earth. This file is as penetrating as any in the Collection, both to the major events that shaped the field in the eighties, and the reasoning and machinations behind them. The publication of the Mike Crane (see file United States) Correspondence Art book, Inter Dada 84 (see file United States), the Franklin Furnace/Artists Talk on Art controversy with Dr. Ronny Cohen and the Mail Art Congresses of 1986 are all discussed and analyzed by Spiegelman in detail. Famous for his phrase, "Money and Mailart Don't Mix," which has been greatly misunderstood and maligned over the years (see Dorothy Harris, United States), Spiegelman clarifies his own stance. "You know, when I talk about 'Money and mailart not mixing' all I'm basically referring to is the operation of mailart shows and periodicals where mailartists have to spend the time creating a piece of work and then sending it free of charge to a show's host or a publication's editor. That's really all I mean by that statement. I'll do a piece and send it to you free of charge. What I expect in return is a catalogue or a copy of the publication without any begging for money to produce the finished thing. It's like every mailartist does the work and sends it in at his/her own expense. That's one side of the street. The other side of the street is that the originating artist gets a catalogue or publication in return, free of any money entanglements. That's what I mean, by 'Money and Mailart Don't Mix'" (July 2, 1984). Lon had more sage advise for me on the subject of writing about Mail Art. "I had a desire, which I have had for a long time, to write a book about mailart...I feel that I could do a good book on the subject, which is perhaps (one of) the most difficult subjects to write about in the world. How does one formalize a book on a subject, which by its very nature is informal and anti-classification in its philosophy. It's a real enigma-a subject which has to be handled very carefully, if not to destroy its own subject matter in the process. Takes a special kind of person and approach to handle a job such as this. Not just documenting what has gone on in the past, but someone who has the contacts, deep into the bowels of the beast in order to make future contacts and extract information to fill in the gaps, from people who really don't want the gaps filled in. It's no easy job, and one, which I still to this day have not decided whether or not is proper to do. Any attempt at formalizing mailart will kill it...On the other hand, I feel that mailart should be written about and somehow documented. It's a very nebulous ambivalent feeling which I have, and one which a lot of other mailartists have which we are all finding very difficult to deal with. There isn't any easy answer to this conundrum" (March 3, 1985). Mail Art lost a great friend and  philosopher when Lons' beloved wife Linda died, and he retreated to a world without mailart. 27 letters 6 postcards 1 loose note Stangroom, Jonathan (Newton Centre, Massachusetts) I met Stangroom twice, when he traveled to New York for exhibitions I curated at Printed Matter (see file United States) in 1997 and 1999. These letters describe some other meetings Stangroom had with Mail Arts. In 1992, Stangroom traveled to New Hampshire to participate in Crackerjack Kid's (see file Chuck Welch, United States) Harmonic Networker Congress, with Carlo Pittore (see file Unbited States), Amalgam X, Fernand Barbot (see file United States), David Cole (see file United States), Sheril Cunning and Marilyn Rosenberg. That same year Stangroom accompanied Peter Küsterman (see file Germany-West) and Angela Pahler from Boston to Maine during their Personal Netmail Delivery worldwide tour. In Maine, they visited Carlo Pittore (see file United States), meeting Bern Porter (see file United States) and Amalgam X. 4 letters 1991-1992 State of Being [Reed Wood] (Oberlin, Ohio) The file includes information on State of Being's proposal for a World-Wide Decentralized Networker Congress Mail Art Exhibition featuring a show of Ryosuke Cohen's (see file Japan) Brain Cell project, an exhibition of Mail Art, hand delivered Mail Art by Peter Küstermann (see file Germany-West) and a rubber stamp/Mail Art workshop.  Information is also included concerning State of Being's 1995 EYEreCALL fax project, with a listing of participants. 5 letters 1 postcard 1987-1994 Stendahl, Roslyn [Gummiglot] (Minneapolis, Minnesota) The editor of the rubber stamp zine, Stretch Marks, Stendahl wrote an article on archiving Mail Art for Rubberstampmadness, enclosing an advance copy. "I can't  bring myself to throw out pieces, even if they aren't in line with my personal tastes. The idea of donating these materials to an institution, where others could have access, appealed to me ever since it was first mentioned a year ago at a rubber stamp meeting I attended. Efforts to find a local institution to adopt my collection have been fruitless, but I wondered how other mail artists were dealing with the same problems. I sent a questionnaire to 30 such artists, some well-known to me, others less so. Their responses were humorous, enlightening, and empowering...Libraries and art schools seem likely candidates. But before you begin, realize the politically charge(d) nature of your actions. Currently mail artists are debating the desirability of mail art archives. for a balanced treatment of this debate read John Held Jr.'s article, "Mail Art Archives," in the Atlanta(a), Georgia, Art Paper, May/June 1991. (This issue contains other articles on mail art as well.) Many mail artists are concerned mail art is being turned into a commodity, something mail art is a reaction to in the first place" (October 1, 1991). After the article was published in Rubberstampmadness, Stendahl, writes of the reaction to the article. "I don't suppose you get RSM and happened to read what Anna Banana wrote about my article? She totally missed the point and in a letter so full of bitterness (sad to expose oneself that way I think) chastised me for paying homage to the old-boys network in my archiving article. Boy did she miss the point. It wasn't about who has the biggest archive (a rather male game to play anyway if you don't mind me stooping to her level for a moment), it was about how to archive. SHEESH. I sent a restrained letter about it to Roberta (see file Roberta Sperling, United States) at RSM. (February 6, 1993). 3 letters 1 postcard 1991-1993 Stetser, Carol (Oatman, Arizona) At the suggestion of Leavenworth Jackson (see file USA), Stetser wrote an article about her experiences in Mail Art for a book being prepared on the subject by Chuck Welch (see file United States). "Mail art also taught me the relevance of my own life. The artwork I received fed my brain but the personal notes fed my heart. I loved receiving pictures of my mail art friends, their families, their studios, their homes. I like to hear about their vacations, their jobs, their moods, their likes and dislikes. And I finally realized that my correspondents liked hearing about my life too; that I was as interesting to them as my artwork. Mail art radically changed my perceptions of myself as well as this world we all share. As the world became smaller it became more open and more free at the same time. Mail art is truly communication among friends. That's why I continue to participate in the eternal network." Stetser then ponders the necessity of documenting the Mail Art experience. "But the more I think about it the more I wonder about the motives behind this sudden urge among mail artists to become historians. Those of us participating in the network know why we're doing it. We don't need to read a definition of mail art - we know what it is. We don't need to hear a lecture on its aesthetics, on the origin of its terminology, on its future direction. As practitioners we are already engaged in its present and its future. So why this need for exposition? Who are these books about mail art for? It looks to me like mail art is being packaged for consumption by the art market. Mail art is being turned into a commodity. And turning art into a commodity is what we're all fighting against in the first place...There are as many stories about mail art as there are participants. The pathways of communication are infinite. How can anyone presume to write a 'history' of this network?" (March 28, 1991) After my response to her letter, Stetser elaborates on her feeling about Mail Art archives and histories. "My beef is not with investigations or archives but with the historification of mail art. History implies restrictions if only to fit the complexities of life into a neat outline. Archives, on the other hand, imply openness. As Guy Bleus [see file Belgium] states - his living archive is 'based on the democratic principle that 'every' piece of mail...is meaningful in the social-cultural context of the Mail Art circuit' and every artist is treated with the same care. When every person has a file and all works are included in a file, then the founding principles of mail art have been upheld. I don't think anyone will quibble about such an accumulation of material. Problems arise when histories are compiled and some artists and some material are singled out for mention as more important then others. I think this discussion is important because I don't want any of us to blindly kill what we love. I think we should stop taking ourselves so seriously and remember the playfulness that drew us to mail art in the first place...You seem very worried about being ignored by the establishment and desirous of mail art assuming its rightful place in art history. But beware-such acknowledgment is often a death knoll for freedom. The establishment tends to co-opt what it accepts" (April 17, 1991). 4 letters 1987-1991 Thompson, Lowry (Stamfort, Connecticut) The co-author of The Rubber Stamp Album and the founding editor of Rubberstampmadness, Thompson writes in regard to attending a rubber stamp exhibition at Light Work (see file United States) in Syracuse, New York and a future meeting at Jean Brown's (see file United States) Shaker Seed House in Tyringham, Massachusetts. 1 postcard 1981          Tong, Darlene (San Francisco, California) One of the founders of Art Com (see file United States), an alternative artspace in San Francisco, and the co-author of Performance Anthology: Source Book of California Performance Art (Last Gasp Press and Contemporary Arts Press, 1989), Tong is an Art Librarian at San Francisco State University and an active member of the Art Librarians Society of North America (ARLIS). In this letter, asking for information on a paper she is preparing on "New Technologies: Tools for a Global Culture," Tong asks if I am aware of "any mail art activities involving BBS, Fax, or other interactive telecom technologies?" 1 letter 1992 Tostado, John [Johnny Tostada] [Oh Boy Mail Art] (Burbank, California) An excellent and prolific eraser carver, Tostado would usually send me examples of his latest work. Tostado was especially taken with the work of Ray Johnson (see file United States), but was not above tweaking his hero. Writing Johnson after the birth of his son, Dillon John, Tostado relates the following story. "I wrote to Ray Johnson and told him I named the baby Ray Johnson. Well he was so Jazzed, he called me to talk. It was a very fun conversation. We spoke for over an hour about him, me, mailart, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Bill De Kooning, DKA (see file Darlene Altschul, United States), EZ Smith (see file United States) and much more" (May 3, 1990). Many Mail Artists received telephone calls from Johnson over the years (see file Laurel Hall, United States), leading one to suspect that this communication medium was also meaningful to Johnson. 11 letters 3 postcards 1985-1992 Truck, Fred (Des Moines, Iowa) I first met Fred Truck while visiting Jean Brown (see file United States). Fred is interested in Fluxus, and authored the book, George Maciunas,  Fluxus and the Face of Time (Electric Bank, 1984). We met again at Inter Dada 84 (see file USA), where he performed with Jürgen Olbrich, who was visiting from Germany. Truck later set up the Performance Bank, and when Linda Burnham, editor of High Performance magazine resigned, I was appointed to the Board. Truck collaborated with Carl Loeffler, Director of Art Com (see file United States) in early computer and telecommunication artistic activities, and the two later worked together in experiments in virtual reality, when Loeffler was teaching at Carnegie-Mellon University. 12 letters 1 postcard 1 loose note 1980-1992 Wade, Bob [Daddy-O] (Dallas, Texas) The undisputed King of Texas Funk Art, Wade aand I became friendly during my Dallas sojourn. He had a show at Modern Realism, which led to my acquaintance with Stanley Marsh 3 (see file United States). 2 letters 1 postcard 1982-1992 Was, Liz (Madison, Wisconsin) Art and life partner of Michael And (see file United States), Was writes that, "we are examples of artists who do mail art but do so much else it would be limiting to label us 'mail artists'." A sampling of their activities and publications are printed on the letterhead: xeroxial endarchy, xeroxial editions, avant-garde museum of temporary art, Aquatics Ever Tarnish, Audio Muzixa, Anti-Isolation, Xerolage, The Acts of the Selflife, The Floating Concrete Orchestra, The Wakest International Movement. Was and And published a wide variety of artist publications, including a collaboration with Serge Segay (see file USSR). They later moved to West Lima, Wisconsin, founding the experimental arts community Dreamtime Village. 1 letter 1 loose note circa 1990 Waterman, Nanci (Hanover, Maryland) Editor of the rubberstamp magazine, Vamp Stamp News, Waterman writes in regard to a special May 1994 issue on Mail Art. "It is one of my favorite issues. The mail art article is written as an introduction to mail art for people new to the idea. It includes a source list at the end of the article so that readers can learn more about mail art's roots if they'd like. Your Annotated Bibliography is included in the source list" (January 5, 1995). 1 loose note 1995 Welch, Chuck [Cracker Jack Kid] (Lebanon, New Hampshire) The author of Networking Currents: Contemporary Mail Art Subjects and Issues (Sandbar Willow Press, 1986) and Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology (University of Calgary Press, 1995), as well as numerous other articles on Mail Art, Welch was an active participant in Mail Art projects and events in the eighties and nineties. A major collector in the field, the file contains many references to Mail Art collecting and archiving. Events discussed in length include the Networker Congresses of 1992 and Art Strike 1990-1993. Welch sums up his philosophy of "neonic net-working" in a letter from 1989. "I read your performance reviews with both wonder and excitement. You've found an expressive medium which 'suits' (no pun intended) you well! Nice that you're tying it in to your mail art activities...and using your body as an instrument of and for global peace. I don't see how mankind can continue to poison mother earth...ignoring all of the ominous signs. As artists/visionaries we're obligated to fight for survival. I believe  in the urgency to act NOW because there isn't time to pass the buck to another generation. We are IT. From my viewpoint the politics/philosophy of Jean Baudrillard is one of complacency. In America Baudrillard claims the future will belong to those people with no origins and no authenticity, who know how to exploit that situation to the full. This kind of paradigm is vacuous...it holds no future or hope, except a perpetuation of exploitation. I believe net-working artists like yourself offer a relevant world view... We've gained alot of experience through all of our mail art exchanges, we've grown with it and through it and perhaps beyond it's praxis. I think there's a re-awakening around the corner and net-working is part of that 'wake-up.' I'm fortunate to know and relate with creative net-workers like yourself, Ruggero Maggi, Charles Francois, Guy Bleus, the Barbots and others. -In that spirit, I hope past misunderstandings have fallen by the wayside and that we re-commit ourselves to the communicative process; the woven net which inter-connects us all. Perhaps now, we shall leave our worries about mail art products to those who consume and are consumed through their pursuit of possessions. Is it possible to share an art aesthetic of compassion, of knowledge shared and wisdom gained, of a 'communicative communion' which includes hope and faith to heal ourselves and earth? Well, if you can read this...or understand what I'm grasping for...I'll have succeeded in revealing the essence of neonic net-working..." (June 10. 1989) 51 letters 9 postcards 10 loose notes 1982-1995                       URUGUAY Caraballo, Jorge (Montevideo) Along with Clemente Padin (see file Uruguay), Caraballo was arrested for his Mail Art activities in August 1977. A worldwide protest of Mail Artists lead to their release. In this letter, Caraballo inserts carbon paper to trace the meandering of the "correspon-dance." 1 letter 1989 Padin, Clemente (Montevideo) One of the true heroes of Mail Art, Padin edited the Visual Poetry magazine Ovum in the late sixties, coming into contact with the international Mail Art community. His activities have been constant since that time, excluding his incarceration under a repressive government regime in 1977. A letter writing campaign secured his release, with that of fellow Mail Artist Jorge Caraballo (see file Uruguay). Padin has continued his Visual Poetry over the years, much of it in connection with political and social concerns, such as  stopping Apartheid in South Africa, ending the blockade of Cuba and poverty in Latin America. Responding to my requests for his participation in Mail Art  shows, and his writings on alternative art, Padin supplies a wealth of information, not only reflective of his own activities, but of the development of Mail Art in Latin America. He has been an active participant in major developments in Mail Art, including Mail Art Congresses and Art Strike, 1990-1993, which is reflected in the file. I traveled to Uruguay in December 1991, during my tour of Latin America, and much of the planning for the trip is included in the correspondence. Padin has been a frequent correspondent of mine for over a decade, and his friendship has been one of the most satisfying aspects of my participation in Mail Art.     22 letters 8 postcards 1985-1995 Tano, Rueben and Virginia (Montevideo) Tano  and his six year old daughter contribute a work for the Dallas Museum of Art exhibition and workshop for children I organized in 1985. The verso of the work is bears the rubber stamp impression, "Instituto Chicano de Arte-Correo." 1 letter 1985 WALES Pilcher, Barry Edgar (Dyfed) Performance artist and saxophone player, Pilcher was an active correspondent during the eighties. His daughter, Alice Rainbow, often participated with him in his Mail Art activities. 2 letters 1985-1988 YUGOSLAVIA Bogdanovic, Nenad (Odzaci) I've met Bogdanovic twice, while traveling to Yugoslavia in 1989 and 1994. On my second visit, we did a collaborative performance as part of Bogdanovics' Networker Gallery project. The Serbian artist uses his body as a medium for other artists to work with. He writes, "My body-the gallery is not a cold, insensitive space, a room-an exhibit. My body-the Networker Gallery is an exceptionally communicative exhibitional room-object. It is not closed and limited in co-operation with other artists and artistic groups interested in exhibiting and collective creative work and communication." In addition to his work as a performance artist, Bogdanovic has organized a number of Mail Art shows, and edited the magazine Total, which devoted a special issue to artists of the Soviet Union in the mid-eighties, one of the first incursions of Mail Art into this previously unknown territory. 5 letters 1987-1995 Jovanovic, Aleksandar (Odzaci) A young Serbian cultural activist, Jovanovic became an active Mail Art networker in the nineties, playing an important role in anti-embargo activities in solidarity with his fellow Yugoslavian Mail Art compatriots. He edited the anti-embargo Mail Art zine, Cage, created the conceptual artist book, Unblockade Book, produced artist postage stamps on the same subject, as well as performing with other artists in support of the lifting of the cultural embargo imposed on Yugoslavia. 1 letter 1995 Kamperelic, Dobrica (Beograd) One of the most active networkers in Mail Art, Kamperelic has published the Mail Art magazine, Open World, since 1985, In the Fall of 1999, after the NATO bombing of his homeland, he changed the title of issue 104 to Obscure World. Despite this, the Serbian networker retains hope for a better future. "Next Century+New Millennium must be Era of New Sense, sensibility, open world, open communication, better life all over the world, without any borders/limits, without war (local or global!)...after content analysis of world's trends, as follows, OPEN WORLD makes real. So bearing this in mind, we call all friends (real friends) to make an OBSCURE WORLD nowdays a real OPEN WORLD!!! Join us!" My host in Belgrade in 1989 and 1994 (I arrived just days after the first NATO embargo was lifted), Kamperelic thrives on contact with others, and his magazine reflects this. Taking over where Klaus Groh's (see file Germany-West) I. A. C. (International Artists Cooperation) Newsletter, left off, Kamperelic has become a networking switchboard, collaging news, photographs, and project announcements from the international Mail Art community into a 14 to 18 page photocopy bulletin board. Tracing the information contained in Open World would be the Mail Art researchers best resource in detailing the history and evolution of the medium from the mid-eighties onward...toward the Open World. The letters in this file accompanied the various issues received. 17 letters 1988-1992 Szombathy, Bálint [Art Lover] (Novi Sad) An early Yugoslavian Mail Artist, active since the seventies, Szombathy became well-known under the name Art Lover. He was an active participant in Neoist activities. Szombathy has written widely on the subject of alternative art in the Eastern European press, and authored the book Müvészek és Müvészetek (Forum, 1987), containing an overview of Mail Art, with many color reproductions. We met during my first trip to Yugoslavia in 1989. 2 postcards 1989-1990 Tisma, Andrej (Novi Sad) Educated at the University of Prague, and active in Mail Art since 1973, Tisma is a journalist by profession, but has written widely on Mail Art and other alternative art forms. For my Mail Art Bibliography project, he sent in more than one-hundred articles he had either written or been mentioned in. Aside from his writings, Tisma is an important rubber stamp artist, using the medium to document his performance actions in photostamps. His eraser carved rubber stamps are among the wittiest in Mail Art, and many are imprinted on his envelopes and letters. He has organized many shows in Yugoslavia, and published wonderful catalogs in connection with them. My host in Novi Sad, during visits in 1989 and 1994, he is among my closest friends in Mail Art, and arranged my exhibition, Yugoslavian Portfolio, at the Golden Eye Gallery, Novi Sad, in 1995. Tisma was active with the Cage art group to protest the cultural embargo on Yugoslavia, and wrote widely on the subject. Towards the end of the nineties, Tisma became very interested in the Internet, confining most of his creativity towards this new communication medium.   20 letters 4 postcards 1986-1995 Tomanovic, Milena (Beograd) It is fitting that this letter is the last one included in the Collection. It shows that Mail Art is much more than an art medium. Indeed, it is also a life medium. Tomanovic writes that she was given my name by a Mail Artist in Argentina, "because you know a lot of people all over the world...As you may know, situation here in Yugoslavia is terrible and my husband (also artist) and I decided to move to Greece (it seems that it would be possible). So, I'd like to know some artist there, just as 'moral support,' if  you know what I mean, because it's hard for me to go there without knowing anyone." Letters like this, and from other correspondents like Jacqueline Mir (see file Cuba), Andrew Stepanov (see file U. S. S. R.), are the reasons why Mail Art remains a vital medium and a personally satisfying and significant life endeavor. 1 letter 1993                                                                                                                                                                              Back to John Held, Jr. Homepage