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Veronica Reeves

painting the post-natural

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correspondence art

The Magic Cloak

2020-06-29 by V2R2 Leave a Comment

The Magic Cloak, April 2020

The Magic Cloak collaborative art project

Initiated in April 2020, The Magic Cloak is a collaborative project inspired by the mail art concept of an Add-and-Pass. An Add-and-Pass is a relative of the exquisite corpse from surrealist games, and mail art a non-commodity art form associated with Fluxus, noted for its playful experimentation with art.

What is an Add-and-Pass?

The Add-and-Pass begins with an individual who sends a piece of paper with a stamp, a doodle, collaged image, or other mark with empty space intended for other artists to fill. Sometimes there may be a framework or theme to act as a guide, or the recipient may ignore this completely. Generally, there are no guidelines. The first artist includes their name and address with an indication to have the filled Add-and-Pass returned to them by whoever deems it full, then sends it to a second artist. Each artist might include their address so that artists further down the line can add them to their contact list. The path of the Add-and-Pass meanders unscripted and may or may not eventually return through the mail.

Artists Add to the Magic Cloak

The aspects of the Add-and-Pass that are apparent in this project include primarily the physical passing of the piece from one artist to the next after each individual adds what they will. Typically the Add-and-Pass is on paper, or in booklet form, the additions made can be rubber stamps, drawings, collage, limited only by imagination. In The Magic Cloak, recipients expand this to fabric dye, paint, glitter glue, (and I’ll keep adding to this list as the project grows).

Magical Activation

In addition to having surface changes added to by the magical beings creating the Cloak, I have asked everyone to document an act of magic, to magically activate the cloak. This is open to personal interpretation. At the end of the project, my hope is to be able to share this documentation along with the new physical cloak.

The artists participating in this project each add their own magic to the cloak as it travels among them. In this way, the magic cloak is a spell of directed, collaborative energies, and the result is transformation of this humble cloth which began life as a curtain and will assume its re-birthed form by the end of the chain of artists.

This project began as a creative challenge that would hopefully reinforce a sense of hope and connection between artists during a period of lock down due to COVID-19, but when the social revolution against racism and police violence emerged it became apparent that this project also speaks to the power of collaborative transformation. Hanging over us is also the calling of the Earth for healing, a call for transforming our society to have renewed reverence for our planet and all life here with us. I hope that The Magic Cloak inspires artists and other magical people to direct their energy to a similar co-crafting of our society in a way that honors both the individual and the collective.

The circle of artists involved, in order of how they will receive the cloak, include:

  • Amy Bay
  • Rachel Rosenkoetter
  • Bre Gipson
  • Cassandra Lucine
  • Alanna Risse
  • Derek Watson
  • Kelly McGovern
  • Katy Zimmerwoman
  • Min Jung
  • Jason Berlin
  • Sean Barnes
  • Dan Ma

Filed Under: Magic Cloak Tagged With: add and pass, collaborative art, contemporary art, correspondence art, mail art, the magic cloak

Dispersal: Call for mail art

2016-09-06 by V2R2 2 Comments

Call for participation in an international mail art show!

 

Dispersal: mail art show

curated by Jason Berlin and Veronica Reeves

Opening Reception October 5, 2016, 6pm – 9pm

Rainmaker Artist Residency

2337 NW York St.  #201

Portland, Oregon, USA

Artists anywhere are invited to mail pieces of any media/content on paper.

 

Artists, please mail 8.5 x 11 or smaller pieces to:

Jason Berlin
Jason Berlin

Dispersal

℅ Jason Berlin & Veronica Reeves

RAINMAKER ARTIST RESIDENCY

2337 NW York St.  #201, Portland, Oregon  97210

 

Include your return address and contact info on the back of your work if you would like to receive something in return.

 

Deadline: Oct. 1 (your piece of mail art must arrive by Oct. 1st to be included!)

 

What do we send out into the world and what comes back to us? There are things we wish to share because they bring joy and others we wish to shed because they bring grief. Everyday, we are sending parts of ourselves into the world and receiving pieces of others in the form of emotions, ideas, text, images, and molecules. Dispersal is a practice in sending with the expectation of receiving, like conscious breathing, the idea of separation between individuals dissolve and human consciousness becomes more like water.

Dispersal is a celebration of mail art, with its roots in dada and the fluxus movement, artists seeking something antithetical to the pretention and consumerism of the art world. In contemporary times, the tactile communication of mail art becomes antithetical to the short attention span and disconnected connection of digital communication.

This international mail art show beckons artists from all over the world to share and shed what they will, on view for an in person show in Portland, Oregon, USA, before being dispersed again. Artists who participate will receive an exchange of mail art. Attendees are invited to participate in making a piece of mail art to be sent in response to a piece in the show.

Dispersal is organized by artists Jason Berlin and Veronica Reeves in Portland, OR, USA.

For more information about Dispersal please email Jason Berlin jasonberlinart[at]gmail[dot]com or Veronica Reeves: v2r2please[at]gmail[dot]com 

For info about Rainmaker Artist Residency, please visit: http://www.rainmakerartistresidency.org/

Filed Under: Art Shows Tagged With: art, call for artists, correspondence art, dispersal, international, mail art, Oregon, Portland, rainmaker residency, usa