The Royal Cambrian Academy

Academi Frenhinol Gymreig Open Call: A Book About Death

An International Art Project exhibiting at the RCA
Organised by Sonja Benskin Mesher RCA UA
A Book About Death Wales Website (online catalog)

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH was launched as an underground, global art project in September 2009 at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in New York City, New York. It was conceived and curated by American artist Matthew Rose as an open, unbound book on the subject of death. Taking the name, A Book About Death from the artist Ray Johnson, Rose paid homage to the founder of mail art and at the same time offered artists to explore the theme of death through post card sized works in an edition of 500; thus the “book.” The NYC exhibition was extremely well attended and set off a series of exhibitions around the world – ABAD – numbering thus far, 27, the most recent taking place in Australia. With an archival set of the New York ABAD show (487 works) new exhibitions touch upon particular, local themes but draw from a growing and global well of artists. All exhibitions invite artists to mail in their works, usually in post card format.

How to Enter:
Open call for art work from visual artists and writers etc to create a postcard size artwork 4 x 6 inches based on the theme of Death.

All work will be exhibited and archived and the artwork will not be returned but become part of the project.

Please post your artwork to address below by 30th September 2014

Work in the first instance to be sent to:
Sonja Benskin Mesher, Y Stiwdio, Tynllan, Llanelltyd, Dolgellau, Gwynedd, LL40 2SU
sonja@sonja-benskin-mesher.com

Please, send your works well-packed and write NO COMMERCIAL VALUE on the envelope. The organisers are not responsible for any damage during the transportation.
There is no participation fee and the work may be exhibited in the future.

An online “live” archive will record the work and other details of the exhibition as the works come in.

Exhibition dates: October 18th to November 15th 2014
The Royal Cambrian Academy ABAD show in Wales will be the 28th ‘A Book about Death’ exhibition. Included will be the work from the initial New York exhibition, as well as works from from ABAD Wales, at MOMA Machynlleth.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Ryosuke Cohen's Brain Cell [51]

The Japanese artist Ryosuke Cohen, who for decades has been sending out waves of his Brain Cell sheets of rubber stamp images across the planet, picked up on Peter Dowker's mailing (below) in his edition No. 752. The sheets are typically A3 size and something of a magazine of the various logos and phrases and images in rubber stamps that pour into the artist's studio.

Writes Peter in explaining why Ryosuke didn't directly contribute to the project: "I think he has a mission to produce 150 copies of these rubber stamp prints every 10 days and he doesn't stray too far from that. But the fact that he chose this to include over anything else on the card shows that it didn't go unnoticed." [See Peter Dowker's website, FLIP FLOP MAIL ART].

Peter sent a detail of the Cohen piece: "It's strategically located next to a great OH BOY Ray Johnson stamp "Eating Toejam."

Ryosuke Cohen is something of a mirror of global mail art activities. See his web site and blog here: http://www.ryosukecohen.com/

Cohen writes on his site: "Recently, I have observed many signs that make me feel as if Mail Art is drawing to a close, and that there are many past publications that could be seen as 'compilations' of Mail Art. Quite a few predecessors of Mail Art have passed away, including Ray Johnson (USA), the Father of Mail Art, G.A.Cavellini (ITALY), Robin Croziel (ENGLAND), Robert Rehfeldt (GERMANY), G.Deisler (GERMANY), Carlo Pittore (USA) and others. This is probably also because exchange by mail in the age of computers is considered primitive, and after the end of the COLD WAR between the East and the West, the necessity of correspondence between those two different worlds has been lost. On the other hand, I have been regularly receiving mail art by mail and fax, in response to my BRAIN CELL PROJECT dating from the year 1985, which has been numbered issue No. 652, as of June 2006.

Every time I receive mail art, I am pleased to see more and more new participants. After making them a collage of their drawings, designs, logos, seals, stickers and the like, I make it a rule to send the finished project back to each participant.

Mail Art is far from finishing. I appreciate the role of collaboration in Mail Art. It is important to have new participants each time, but it is more important to be evoked by other mail artists' ideas from within the large and deep Network with a diverse range of expressions and concept. I can make mail artists' ideas more interesting by actively availing myself of seals and stamps and other materials sent from others and through my own printed matter. What is more, I can give other mail artists the feeling that they can utilise other's art and collaborate their ideas."