Ulises Carrión.
Rubber-stamped letter, three postcards with notes + Gossip, Scandal & Good Manners invitation & artists' book.
Amsterdam: Ulises Carrión / Other Books and So Archive, 1981/1985.
Postcards, flyer, staple-bound softcover.
Very good.
Minor toning, edgewear and creasing. One letter and one postcard have stamps and postage marks. Handwritten addresses. Gossip flyer has three small unobtrusive closed tears. Gossip, Scandal and Good Manners has center horizontal fold for mailing.
Scarce and mostly unique correspondence, ephemera and an artists' book detailing the establishment of contact, admiration, trading of work and inclusion in exhibitions between two figures of the seventies/ eighties mail art world.
1. A letter from Ulises Carrión to Smegma magazine publisher Torrid Zone Igloo (a.k.a Alex Igloo a.k.a Alex Hirka) complimenting Torrid's postcards then on view, in 1981, at the ICC (International Cultural Center) in Antwerp and asking for more of the same for the Other Books and So Archive. This letter bears a subtle and cute rubber-stamped design encompassing the majority of its surface.
2. An Other Books and So Archive postcard with a rubber stamp of an oval containing Carrión's face and the news that Alex's work will be included in a show of Xerox at the University of Utrecht.
3. Carrión's Multiple Choice artists' postcard thanking Alex for the inspiring mail and informing him that the magazine Ephemera isn't published anymore.
4. The "I-want-to-be-in-your-catalogue-no-matter-what-the-theme-of-your-project-is" card by U. Carrión with the printed return address crossed out and replaced with Carrión's home address Ten Katestraat 53 and a note informing Alex of a visit to New York in 1985.
5. Flyer in Dutch and English promoting Carrión's lecture Gossip, Scandal and Good Manners. Also featured are two photographs of Carrión, a brief biography and a recommended literature list.
6. The eight page artists' book Gossip, Scandal, and Good Manners produced by Stichting De Appel in 1981 in an edition of 200 to accompany Carrión's lecture of the same name which took place on the 25th of June in 1981.
“Born in San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, Mexico, in 1941, Carrión emigrated to Amsterdam in 1972 and joined a dynamic multinational community of artists pushing the boundaries of artistic practices. He eschewed conventional galleries and museums in favor of collaborative “artist-run spaces” such as his own bookstore-gallery Other Books and So. Carrión also became heavily involved in mail art, a participatory and network-driven practice rooted in the exchange of artworks through the postal system and premised on questions of authorship and originality, that was also an important avenue of communication for artists living in countries governed by authoritarian regimes. Carrión’s community-driven practice fostered extensive cross-cultural exchange between experimental artists working in Latin America and Europe.” –Princeton University Library
