Ulises Carrión | The I want to be in your catalogue no matter what the theme of your project is Card

Ulises Carrión

The I want to be in your catalogue no matter what the theme of your project is Card

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Other Books and So Archive, 1982

4 x 6"

Edition size unknown

“One of Carrión’s last mail art projects, The I want to be in your catalogue no matter what the theme of your project is Card from 1982 could be interpreted as a sardonic dig at the “junk mail” and “quick-kopy crap” that dominated the mail art network in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The postcard did not invite responses, and this might be read as reflecting, Carrión’s dissatisfaction with the mailers networks model of collective authorship. It is equally possible however, the postcard was not just a humourous attempt to poke fun at the network, but an expression of earnest support for it. The very act of circulating the postcard (or any mail artwork) is what creates the network, and the gesture of participation is as important as, if not more important than, the content produced. “How can we measure the intention intensity of our knocking" Carrión and asked in 1978. His answer "by the echo reproduce, obviously.”

- Zanna Gilbert, Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond (see next post)