Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Showing Off


Mail art is based, among other things, on so-called 'gift culture.' In other words, most mail artists refuse the commercial side of art and prefer instead to send each other their own creations as gifts - which, admittedly, is not a difficult thing to do as our exchanges are based on friendship, not money or interest.




Speaking of friends, the t-shirt in the photo was sent to me by my dear amigo Joan Puig aka John Mountain from Barcelona. JOMO is a relatively recent addition to the mail art network, but he is very well regarded for the quality of his correspondence and his intellectual and artistic works. Actually he is not widely known, for the simple reason that he prefers to cultivate a small personal network of close friends whom he likes to spoil with unique gifts. Like this very limited production t-shirt that features his latest obsession: finding a new paradigm shift to save the world of (mail) art from its current condition. I don't really know how to contribute to his mad quest, but at the very least I can show off his precious gift.