RETURN TO SENDER

You know what's super exciting to me? That I get to write about my guitar-hero of a friend, Marissa Paternoster, in a way that highlights one of her other major talents. She's a rad artist, in case you've been under a rock for the past two years. Her work with Doodle Drag and otherwise has been popping up in my posts at Hyperallergic of late.

It’s been nearly a month since we dismantled our mail art show, Presents: Three Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ, here at Hyperallergic. The show was a first in a lot of ways: me and Hrag’s first collaboration, Hrag’s first zine-making experience and my first time curating a show outside of my own initiatives.

Hrag and I responded to the temporality of mail art by placing a rule on our exhibition catalogue/zine: patrons were not able to receive the zine in person, they had to get it through the post. We sent out our entire first edition within a week of the show opening, which sold-out quite fast. We even sent our copies of the zines to each other.

Read the full story here.

Presents: 3 Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ

Reposted from Hyperallergic.

We are excited to announce the details for Hyperallergic’s very first mail art show! 

The exhibition, titled Presents: Three Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ, will include mail art in the form of sculpture, installation, video and works on paper. The show’s catalogue will be in the form of a ‘zine.

Co-curated by Kate Wadkins and Hrag Vartanian, Presents will draw on the 100+ mail art works that have been sent to Hyperallergic since our initial request for submissions to our Mail Art Bulletin in March 2011. The show will include everything from practical jokes to prayer/envelope flags. They represent a range of materials and subject matter all emphasizing the tangible communication from one individual to another. 

Please join us for our opening party Friday, June 17 from 6pm to 9pm at Hyperallergic HQ. We will also have gallery hours during Northside Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday June 18 and 19 from 12 noon to 6pm. 

Hyperallergic HQ is located at 181 N 11th Street, Suite 302, Brooklyn, NY 11211.
You can RSVP to the show on Facebook. 

Image: A work by Bernard Klevickas for the Mail Art Bulletin.

P.S. Here's our listing on the Northside Open Studios site, as well as the opening.

ANNOUNCING: MAIL ART SHOW AT HYPERALLERGIC

Photo courtesy of Hyperallergic

In tandem with Northside Open Studios, Hyperallergic will be curating a Mail Art show from June 16-19, 2011. Hyperallergic HQ will be in the midst of the action during the four-day event, and the Mail Art show will be displayed in our space.  We want YOU to submit your mail art to be featured in the show and of course, we will also be pulling from the submissions we have already received.

We are looking for a wide range of submissions, so be as creative as possible! Mail art as a medium has the potential to include layers of meaning and performance, due to its temporal qualities. Consider all the different piecesthat make up mail visually and manually: stamps, envelopes, paper, and/or non-traditional contents and containers; plus the acts of opening, unfolding and reading.

I will be curating this show at Hyperallergic HQ and can't think of a better way to kick off the summer! Submissions are due June 8th, read the full story here.

NOTE: To clarify, your piece becomes mail art as you submit it to Hyperallergic via the postal service. You do not need to dig up older mail art works / the work does not require having been sent to another recipient aside from Hyperallergic.