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"Twenty-Four Cents: An In-depth Experiment in Mail Art"

( Show Runs: July 16th - August 3rd 2007 )
( Reception : Friday, July 20th from 7:00 - 9:00 PM )

Welcome to Twenty-Four Cents, an in-depth experiment in mail art. The work, which I am exhibiting, is a collection of mail art gathered over the course of the year, created by members of my community and myself. Mail was once something that was considered extremely important, precious, and rare. People traveled miles to deliver it and it was often people’s only form of communication with loved ones. Today, mail has lost much of is value. It comes more often than it once did but it is no longer very important to people. The Internet allows us to do online exactly what we once did through the mail. Bills can be paid and love letters sent electronically. Tangible mail is now something that people put up with rather than look forward to. Many artists, however, have recognized the value of mail. Artists like Ray Johnson used the postal service to collaborate with others and make community art. They explored the possibilities of the postal service itself, such as who can receive a letter and who cannot or how far one letter can go before it can no longer be mailed. The collected work in this exhibition is a sampling of modern mail art.