Call for Mail Art
The mail art submissions that the project received included a wide array of artistic media, as seen in the two submissions. Some submissions included writing and contextual information about the work’s inspiration or its creators, while others leave that interpretation entirely up to the viewer.
Featuring a simple ink and watercolor illustration of a brown paper bag, this postcard is entitled grocery bag, series #1. The illustrated grocery bag encapsulates the complicated feelings wrapped up in the once-so-simple exercise of going to get groceries during the pandemic. Early on, many experienced anxieties being out in public, and grocery stores across the country faced shortages as people stockpiled supplies. Grocery shopping wasn’t so simple anymore.
The concept of “place” also took on a significant meaning over the pandemic. Particularly during the early days, people were stuck in place, confined to their homes and geographical regions due to the uncertainty that shook the world.
The colorful marker illustration on this postcard shows a bright, tropical locale with fiery orange, red, and yellow houses, surrounded by green foliage and set against the backdrop of a large red setting sun. Is this the imagined place of its creator, the calming reprieve they dreamed of during those early days of stay-at-home orders and isolation? Or is it the actual location where they lived, worlds apart from the geographical landscape of midwestern America’s Ann Arbor? There is no way to know for sure.
Recurring themes emerged across the works and the exhibit is split up into a few of the subjects that repeatedly presented themselves. A little background and contextual history will also be provided about mail art in general and the connections this movement has to the specific region of Southeast Michigan.
Global and Local History of Mail Art