#4: God Don’t Make No Junk (Mail)
Reduce, recycle, and reuse—for art.
Instructions
Find some “junk” mail.
Pick a standard size and shape, and cut out interesting pieces before you recycle the rest.
Do this for a while–at least a week. Make sure to find plenty with no text.
Once you have collected a bunch, combine some on paper.
Mail your creations to people.
Why the Huh?
My grandmother had a wrinkled photocopy of this taped up in her dining room:
According to the internet, the phrase is attributed to singer and actress Ethel Waters (check out her bio!).
Where was I? Yes, “junk” and more specifically, junk mail. Some people will tell you there’s a thing called “art” and it can only be created using certain materials and processes, and only stored and valued in certain ways. Bogus. I’ve worked in world-renowned art museums and interviewed Important Artists. Some of that is great, but I’m often more excited and inspired by the weird scribbles a kid makes and puts up on the fridge. Put stuff that you and others create up in your space. You are allowed.
Creativity is (secretly) everywhere. Most human-made objects have been ideated, created, edited, and produced by a slew of artisans, designers, and craftspeople. A “junk catalogue” you get in the mail (probably) has had a good number of designers, photographers, and editors work hard to make it with their talents. So use their creativity and effort as a source of inspiration! Corita was big on this culling from everything as a source:
“...she didn’t see a distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, or think that the visual chaos of urban life was a bad thing. Her work embraces and transforms even the most mundane things. In 1965, Corita took the advertising slogan of an oil corporation, ‘Power up’, to make a series of four prints that combine to form a spectacular 3.5-metre work that inspires action.”
The best part about combining images is that you start with material, removing that “where do I start?!” sensation. Start with as little text as possible, preferably none. And then play. Remember Rule #8 from Corita: “Don’t try to create and analyse at the same time. They’re different processes.”
See how the images align or contrast and what new images and stories get created. You can create, as my friend Davi coined it, “benign absurdity”, or work with deep meaning and specificity. And then, mail it to someone! The dearly departed artist Jason Polan took out an ad for the post office that explains it well.
He sent great art in the mail and it was always a treat to get a package from him. Give people that gift.
If you want, I’ll mail you a postcard. Seriously.
***** The bottom part *****
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