JCM THE MUSEUM LIBRARY
"Art is (postage) stamps, art is artistamps!" - Guy Bleus
ART IS STAMPS
by Guy Bleus
- During their whole life some artists or networkers have been obsessed by
specific artistic medium - as to me a painting, a photograph, an installation,
a performance, an artistamp, etcetera are nothing more or less than
opportunities to hold a concept, forms to contain substance or content,
incarnations of ideas - from a philosophical point of view I was always
fascinated by the essence of things - what are the conditions "sine qua non"
to indicate a certain thing - for instance, what "is" an artistamp? - what are
the necessary attributes and what can be missed? - is this text an artistamp?
- certainly not- but why? - are the perforations, the glue or the dimension
the necessary conditions? - the question of definition is not as simple for an
artistamp as it is in the case of "art" - the paraphrase of a statement by Don
Judd: "if somebody calls it an artistamp, than it is an artistamp" may sound
good, but it doesn't work.
- Perforations & glue: not every "perforated" image or object can be
called an artistamp - & not every "gummed" image is a postage stamp - even
the combination of the two doesn't please - since some artistamps are gummed
& not perforated, others are perforated & not gummed.
- A postage stamp or an artistamp is "meant" to be sent - therefore the
(hidden) "intention" is the point at issue, is the quintessence of an
artistamp - artists' stamps are a part of communication art and/or mail-art -
but the meaning is in the use - for instance, using artistamps for fax
communication is rather meaningless - because electronic mail art doesn't need
a postage stamp - unless the meaninglessness (of the artistamp in this
context) is the (new) meaning.
- It's a platitude to say that postage stamps are the most distributed works
of art in the world - everyone can buy these little multiples - in plastic
arts (from dada to post-neo-dada) postage stamps have been used in collages,
assemblages, etc. - also ex-libri can have the "shape" of a postage stamp -
maybe ex-libri are related to Books, as artistamps are related to philately.
- Philately is not an artistic activity - mostly it is a kind of investment:
collecting monetary values - yet the postage stamp as a postal value is an
anachronism (probably maintained by philatelists)- on the other hand the
artistic & intrinsic values of the postage stamps are not explored
completely - the research of the correlations between postage stamps &
artistamps, between creative philately & artistamps, new horizons can
emerge.
- As far as I can remember my first artistamps were the futuristic
"interplanetary" postage stamps, meant for the use of the autochthons of the
planet Mars and the visitors or tourists from Earth - I designed these postage
stamps during the period that the question "whether there is or isn't life on
Mars" was a very hot issue- that was in 1977 when I also designed the identity
cards of the red planet- on the postage stamps of mars there was the image of
the greek god of war,"mars" the second series of Mars-artistamps had the
capital letter "m" it was the same emblem as the "m" during a Belgian
promotion campaign for milk.
- I've never made a complete list or chronology of my artistamps - but maybe
it's a good idea to do so some day- the first artists'stamps that have been
called the "miniature paintings" did never really interest me - since
reduction is not a technical problem anymore, I don't see (for myself) the
need to work on such a small basis - I admire the devotion of these
miniaturists but I can't see meself as a medieval monk - likewise I never
really liked in the mail-art network, the colorful postcard or artistamp
reproductions of paintings or collages above the aesthetic aspects I prefer
the conceptual elements of an artistamp - the use and misuse of the artistamp
concept in the process of communication.
- The artistamps I liked the most to make were my "scents stamps" in the
late seventies & early eighties - they were perfumed postage stamps and
artistamps - or postage stamps and artistamps to be perfumed by the receiver
or addressee - together with Vittore Baroni, we made the "gloomy-scent stamps
series (for best results scratch and sniff in total darkness)" - they were
published by near the edge editions(sheet b&w n.1/1983) - the
perfumes added a new and unexpected direction to the artistamp communication.
- Another series that I appreciated were the artistamps to write a complete
letter on - the artistamp as the container of the whole information: "write
your letter on this stamp" - so the envelope became useless - the only thing
one needed to post was the postage stamp - it is a pity that this artistamp
couldn't be issued by the Belgian postal services as a real postage stamp -
just as my annual request that an official "mail-art" postage stamp be issued
by Belgium has been rejected for nine times or so.
- Postage stamps have often played an important role in my performances -
E.G. The destruction of full sheets of postage stamps & artistamps, real
identity cards and real Belgian money via a paper shredder - meanwhile, I was
wearing a suit of authentic Belgian paper money (of 5o francs) that I removed
and set on fire - the performance was called "value shredder" (Brussels,
1982).
- During another performance in 1986 I was wearing a complete suit made of
official Belgian postage stamps (50 cents value) - I cut my moustache in the
shape of an angular artistamp - enlargements (a3 photocopies) of Adolf
Hitler's moustache were hung on a wall and covered with postage stamps - it is
an historical mistake to believe that hitler's moustache was real - it was
fake, because it "was" a postage stamp - one can verify it through a
magnifying-glass - then the hair on my upper lip was shaved and replaced by a
real postage stamp - like hosts, postage stamps were placed under the noses of
the public - after this, I covered a naked girl with strips of postage stamps
- the strips looked like feathers - from the photographs taken during this
performance, new artists'stamps were made & sent through the mail-art
network.
- Destroying to create - since the early seventies I love to tear to shreds
official (cancelled & uncancelled) postage stamps from all over the world
- at first to make collages, later on to create with the tiny paper pieces new
artistamps - a series of these artists' stamps was edited in 1988 - I do the
same activitity with official rubberstamps under the name "the broken stamps
of bureaucracy"
- For the Hungarian project "world art post" of artpool (Budapest) I used an
earlier concept (April 1981) of a performance where I was stamping my own body
- so the idea was that I myself (= the image on the artistamp) cancelled the
artistamp - in other words, it was the ultimate act: the artistamp that is
cancelling itself
- Until today I curated three artists'stamp exhibitions - the first one
"philately and mail-art" in "de media" in Eeklo in 1986 - the second one
"kunstenaarszegels" was held in "Il Ventuno" in Hasselt in 1988 - the third
one "the artistamp collection" in the Begijnhof, Centrum voor Kunsten in
Hasselt in 1995.
- A fascinating phenomenon of the conceptual aspects of artistamps is
synchronicity - mail artists or networkers living thousands of miles from one
another and having at the same moment the same idea to realize a specific
artistamp - it is always a pleasure to search all these resemblances and
coincidences in the catalogues of artistamp projects.
- When a work of art becomes the subject of a postage stamp or an artistamp,
this means an official or semi-official acknowledgement that it is well
respected art - so there is no doubt about it: art is (postage) stamps, art is
artistamps!
For more information contact
The Administration Centre - 42.292 /
mail-art archive / Guy Bleus
P.O.Box 43/3830 Wellen/Belgium
Phone &
fax: (+)32-12-74.14.15 (night and day)
E-mail address: [email protected]
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