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THE MAIL-INTERVIEW WITH THE UNEXPECTED
Started
on
RJ : Welcome to
this mail-interview. First let me ask you the traditional question. When did
you get involved in the mail-art network?
Reply
on
TU : It was when
you sent me an invitation for sending in Rubberstamp prints to fill your
archive. I never heard of Mail-Art before at the Art-academy. At St. Joost in
If you are looking for a year, I
guess it must have been 1995. In your eyes I must seem very new to mail-art.
RJ : What is the
most extreme difference between what you’ve learned on the
reply on
TU : I must say I
think I do not know enough about Mail-Art to explain the difference. It is more
the feeling that I am now sending my art directly to someone who is interested
in it. But I must say that a lot of persons who call themselves Mail-Artist
would survive at all it the traditional art-world. They work on cheap paper,
don’t follow a certain concept and worst of all claim to be artists although
they hardly know any basic-techniques that an artists should know.
You asked for the most extreme
difference, so there it is: the quality. I’m used to spend weeks on a concept
that results in one piece of art. In Mail-Art I see results where I think the
person who did it spent one hour for making a dozen of pieces.
But then again, some do send out a
lot don’t they. You did the same.
RJ : Yes I did
the same but in the last years I have slowed down a lot and tend to make more
personal items. What kind of Mail-Art do you send out?
next answer on
TU : Well, you
know what I send out. You have some nice example in your collection. I
concentrate mostly on Artist Books and 3D objects. With this answer you will
find some photo’s of some things I made. It normally takes a few weeks to make
one single object, so I am quite selective about whom I send something.
This also counts for projects. Only
when the invitation looks good enough I am tempted to send out something good.
If I get a Xerox of a project that looks like it is just a collector that is
trying to build up a collection I just send them a postcard or a photo of my work.
My normal Artist Books sell for 200 US$, so I am not sending them out for
collectors with no price attached.
RJ : Do Mail-Art
and money mix in Mail-Art?
Never received a next answer.
Address
interviewed person:
The
Unexpected
Tongerlose Hoefstraat 95
5046 NG
Tilburg
e-mail: wow_design@hotmail.com
Address
interviewer:
Ruud Janssen
P.O. box 10388
5000 JJ Tilburg
NETHERLANDS
e-mail: iuoma@yahoo.com