Dead Letter Art

dla art projectz

News from Thursday, April 03, 2003 @ 1:40 PM

Mr. Vargas eyed the little envelopes and neatly bundled, but worn packages sitting portentiously on the kitchen table. Apparently, his wife Helen, while having Sunday brunch at the downtown coffee house had "discovered" this suspicious prize. A courier from the Office of Dead Letters, Arts and Measures had been delivering these hopefully to citizens of the small town. The Office, not officially associated with any government organization, but an independently run enterprise, had collected a parcel of "undeliverable" items of artistic interest and without being able to locate the intended owners, and not wanting to merely throw these treasures away, had opted instead to distribute the goods to the local citizenry in good faith – so that the art might eventually find the rightful souls or at least be put to some good by the new owner. At least, that is what the somewhat formal letter attached to the top of the package had said.
Cautiously Mr. Vargas pulled the cords tying the bundle and spread the wrapped contents across the table. All of them seemed a little worn, and at best — he thought — could probably contain only some cheap advertisements or a personal letter of some small significance.

As he opened the first one he was amazed at the fine quality of the drawing he had unrolled from a hand-made mailing tube. A fine work in charcoal – was this an original work of art? Who would abandon such a marvelous piece! With a more fevered determination he tore into the rest of the packages and was astounded by his wife’s miraculous luck in collecting these wonderful works of art!

He continued for the next few days, in fact for weeks, to peruse and pore over the contents of the packages and discuss them with his wife, his friends, and even strangers and other people at the office. Some months later he wrote a proud letter of recognition to the Office of Dead Letters, Art etc.. and extolled the greatness of the works and the profound impact these personalized, yet anonymous, pieces of art had on his daily life.

such is the work of fiction i am attempting, with all of your help, to unleash on the population with the next dla. do not forget that i would like you all to send me art, music, videos, collage, digital files, reproductions, slides, pictures, sketches, drawings, paintings, sculpture, macrame planters, and any other art that you have been doing. how you package and mail it to me is up to you. how it is reproduced – or intended for reproduction – is also up to you. if you have ANY QUESTIONS – PLEASE EMAIL ME!!

[Perishable] – [Osseus] – [BHBW] – [Gene] all know first-hand my intentions from talking with me. sorry i couldnt get ahold of the rest of you when i was in your area. but the intentions of the next dla project should now be more apparent to you! i am looking forward to seeing all that you have been working on and getting it packaged up for others to enjoy!

Speciar Derivery