💾 Archived View for gemini.spam.works › mirrors › textfiles › politics › SPUNK › sp000331.txt captured on 2022-03-01 at 16:18:11.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
INTRODUCTION TO THE CATALOGUE FOR THE 1991 INTERNATIONAL SHADOWS
PROJECT SHOW, KENOSHA, WISCONSIN
by Karl Young, Mail-Art Curator
When the first atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945,
people within three hundred meters of ground zero were vaporized by
the heat, leaving behind nothing but faint shadows on nearby surfaces.
Survivors outlined these shadows, and these shadows and outlines have
become increasingly important symbols of the evil we cannot allow to
endanger our species. Shadows Projects, memorials to the first victims
of ultimate evil and warnings against premeditated armageddon, have
proliferated around the world during the last decade. In many cities
during August people now go from place to place outlining each other as
a reminder and as a warning. Related art exhibits, concerts, readings,
etc. have also been held to commemorate Hiroshima Day.
Participants have included practitioners of all arts, at all levels.
Their main purpose has been to help others understand and imagine the
disappearance of life through nuclear war. Participants include
artists from Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the U.S.S.R. who have
used Mail Art as a means of subverting the censorship imposed on them
by totalitarian governments. Many U.S. Mail Artists see the genre as a
means of circumventing less violent means of censorship. These artists
set good examples for us, both as artists and as responsible members
of the human community. As well as making devastation tangible,
Shadows Projects point out what will be lost if nuclear insanity is
allowed to continue. Some of the most moving pieces have been lyrical
evocations of children playing or elderly people watching them.
Shadows projects often unite the two dynamic and egalitarian genres of
this century, Mail Art and Performance Art. In the U.S., John Held,
Jr. has been indefatigable in such efforts. Ruggero Maggi of Milan,
Italy has also been particularly active.Closest to most Mail Artists'
hearts was the 1988 International Shadows Project Show held in
Hiroshima, organized by Shozo Shimamoto, Maggi, Held, and others. This
show was international not only in its content but also in its
organization and in the number of participants from all over the world
who came together for this event.
The show mounted in Kenosha included work from previous shows
organized by Maggi, including the Hiroshima Show. Some pieces go back
to the beginning of the decade. It would be interesting to chart the
course of these older pieces which have circled the globe several
times in their course from show to show. Work from a 1989 show in
Calexico, on the U.S.-Mexican border, sponsored by Harry Polkinhorn,
and a 1990 show in Milwaukee under my curatorship were also included.
The global postal system established after World War II was a crucial
factor in the growth of Mail Art from a limited genre practiced by
Schwitters, Duchamp, the Paris Dadaists and their cousins the Italian
Futurists into a decentralized, global, grass roots movement. It is
interesting that while Mail Art has been expanding, two other
movements have followed along similar lines. One of these is crane
projects. In Japanese tradition, cranes are symbols of longevity, and
anyone who can make a garland of a thousand cranes will live long.
This was the belief of a girl named Sadako who tried to make such a
garland out of scrap paper as she lay dying from radiation in a
Hiroshima hospital. She had not quite made it to a thousand when she
died. Her family and friends completed the garland and started making
others. This practice spread and today people all over the world make
these garlands and send them to the children's memorial in Hiroshima
or to other peace groups. Like Mail Art, cranes projects work through
the mail.
Following another Japanese tradition, Hiroshima survivors have made
lanterns with messages for dead relatives written on them to float out
into the Ota River and the Ocean on the evening of Hiroshima Day.
This, too, has developed into global practice, with participants all
over the world making lanterns to send to other people in other
countries to memorialize Hiroshima and to promote world peace. Not
only do these lanterns go through the mail, they often initiate long
term correspondences between practitioners.
Last year, a number of crane garlands were included in the Milwaukee
Show. This year lanterns were lent to the Kenosha show by Lanterns for
Hope. Mail Art, Cranes, and Lanterns have been passing each other in
the mail for years without connecting. We are all working from the
same impulse, the same need, the same hope. I hope cooperation between
these movements can grow in future projects. I had opportunity to lend
material from the Milwaukee show to a Dia de los Muertos (Mexican Day
of the Dead) Show curated by Russell Bloch in Detroit last fall,
suggesting that the shadow was not only a new icon but one that
changed the significance of skeleton imagery. I also made photocopies
of about forty pieces to be used in a Performance Art Shadows Project
organized by Luigi-Bob Drake in Cleveland. Avoiding galleries
altogether, the photocopies were used as the basis for posters mounted
throughout the city. Possibilities for collaboration with other,
unjuried, uncensored, noncommercial events will probably continue to
present themselves. At a time when we seem to be moving out of a
binary political system where two giant antagonists threaten each
other to one in which the dangers of nuclear disaster are more widely
dispersed, it is good to increase our efforts at enlarging our
contacts with each other.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
CONTRIBUTORS TO THE 1991 SHOW
A.
David Abel (U.S.A.); M. Acosta (U.S.A.); Fernando Aguiar (Portugal);
Peter Ahlberg (Sweden); Castelli Alberto (Italy); Ernesto Alberto
(Mexico); Charles Alexander (U.S.A.); Daniele Alfani (Italy); Flavio
Almado (Brasil); Reed Altemus (U.S.A.); Lary Angelo (U.S.A.); Michael
Andre (U.S.A.); Mark Amerika (U.S.A.); Komives Andor (Romania); Antler
(U.S.A.); Avelino de Argujo (Brasil); Atmosphere Controlled
(Denmark); Avajo (Australia);
B.
Kum Nam Baik (Korea); Ken Baker (U.S.A.); AA Balk (Sweden); Anna
Banana (Canada); Claudine Barbot (U.S.A.); Gerard Barbot (U.S.A.);
Dennis Barone (U.S.A.); Vittore Baroni (Italy); Umberto Basso (Italy);
Keith Bates (England); Ciro Beltran (Chile); Guy Beining (U.S.A.); Pop
Bela (Hungary); John M. Bennett (U.S.A.); Carol Berge (U.S.A.); Pedro
Bericat (Spain); Guy Bleus (Belgium); Mike Bidner (U.S.A.); Giovanni
Bonanno (Italy); Phil Boiarski (U.S.A); Guido Bondioli (U.S.A.); Anna
Boschi (Italy); Joaquim Branco (Brasil); Cesar Brandao (Brasil); Hans
Braumuller (Chile); The Broccoli Bunch (U.S.A.); Caroll Brooks
(U.S.A.); McCanon Brown (U.S.A.); Joseph Bruchac, III (U.S.A.); Equipe
Bruscky & Santiago (Brasil); Rex Buckingham (Australia); Sergio
Burguez (Mexico);
C.
Iara Cabral (Brasil); Jorge Caraballo (Uruguay); Glauco Lendaro
Camiles (Italy); Elliot Cantsin (U.S.A.); Bruno Capatti (Italy); Joe
Cardella (U.S.A.); Michael Castro (U.S.A.); Anne Fox Chaudonnet
(U.S.A.); Frank Clark (U.S.A.); Ryosuke Cohen (Japan); David Cole
(U.S.A.); flavio coltri (Italy); Geoffrey Cook (U.S.A.); Norman
Conquest (U.S.A.); Raimondo Cortese (Australia); Costis (Greece);
Daniel F. Courtney (U.S.A.); Ruth Cowen (Australia); Raimondo Cortese
(Australia); Robert Creeley (U.S.A.); Giancarlo Cristiani (Italy);
Robin Crozier (England);
D.
Daniel Daligand (France); Guillermo Deisler (Germany); Wally Depew
(U.S.A.); Desireau (Italy); Marcello Diotallevi (Italy); Desirey-Dodge
(U.S.A.); DROP (U.S.A.); Matthias Dreyer (Germany); Mike Duquette
(U.S.A.); Andrzej Dudek (Poland); Christina Duchaump (U.S.A.);
Francoise Duvivier (France);
E.
Yutaka Edo (Japan); ENDWAR (U.S.A.); Epistolary Stud Farm (U.S.A.);
C?sar Espinoa (Mexico); Ever Arts (Netherlands);
F.
FaGaGaGa (U.S.A.); Woody Farlee (U.S.A.); Luce Fierens (Belgium);
C?sar Figueiredo (Portugal); Michael Fox (Germany); Fluxus Inc.
(Belgium; Willy Forster (Germany); Kimmo Framelius (Finland); H.R.
Fricker (Switzerland); Tetsuya Fukui (Japan); aFUNGUsBOY (U.S.A.);
G.
V. Gabriell (Yugoslavia); Kathy Gagliardi (U.S.A.); Kenneth Gangemi
(U.S.A.); Pedro Gonzalves Garcia (Spain); evvy garrett (U.S.A.); Jayne
Garrett (U.S.A.); Karl Gartung (U.S.A.); Jesus Romeo Galdamez (El
Salvador); Joan Gelhaus (U.S.A.); Keiko Matsui Gibson (U.S.A.);
Morgan Gibson (U.S.A.); Gino Gini (Italy); Rafael Jesus Gonzales
(U.S.A.); Artful Goodtimes (U.S.A.); Coco Gordon (U.S.A.); Edward
Grothus (U.S.A.); Dan Guenther (U.S.A.); Pedro J. Gutierrez (Cuba);
Vince Ferenc Gyorgy (Romania);
H.
Kristof D'Haeseleer (Belgium); Mark Hamilton (U.S.A.); Mary Alice
Hammond (U.S.A.); Josef Hampl (Czechoslovakia); Mayumi Handa (Japan);
Lotte Rosenkilde Hansen (Denmark); Hardbound Ed (U.S.A.); Wm.
Harrington (U.S.A.); Mike Hazard (U.S.A.); He Me [Beauty Surrounding]
(Japan); Jan Heinrich (U.S.A.); John Held, Jr. (U.S.A.); Scott Helms
(U.S.A.); C. Henry (U.S.A.); Tom Hibbard (U.S.A.); Crag Hill (U.S.A.);
Alexandra Holownia (Poland); Honoriartist (U.S.A.); Tyler James Hoare
(U.S.A.); Jim Huck (U.S.A.);
J.
Janet Janet (U.S.A.); Miroslav Janousek (Czechoslovakia); Leavenworth
Jackson (U.S.A.); Ko De Jonge (Netherlands); Rene Joseph (U.S.A.);
K.
Kowa Kato (Japan); Judy Katz-Levine (U.S.A.); Peter W. Kaufmann
(Switzerland); Bill Keith (U.S.A.); Dr. Ken (U.S.A.); Kenosha Alliance
for Peace with Justice (U.S.A.); Roberto Keppler (Brasil); Bliem Kern
(U.S.A.); Kingdom of Edelweiss (U.S.A.); Karl Kempton (U.S.A.); Jen
Klimala (U.S.A.); Eckhard Koenig (Germany); steen krarup (Denmark);
Fanny Kriegel (Brasil); Zvonimir Krtulovic (Yugoslavia); Ilmar
Kruusamae (Estonia); Katherine Kuehn (U.S.A.); Arto Kytohonka
(Finland);
L.
LaFollette/Silver Wind (U.S.A.); Fredy Lapenna (Italy); Valeria
Landolfini (Italy); James Lawrence (U.S.A.); Harold Lehnardt
(Germany); Pascal Lenoir (France); Carmen Leon (U.S.A.); Joyce
Lieberman (U.S.A.); torbjorn lime (Sweden); Oronzo Liuzzi (Italy);
Chris London (U.S.A.); marco lorenzoni (Italy);
M.
Jackson Mac Low (U.S.A.); Ruggero Maggi (Italy); Olga Maggiora
(Italy); Bande Magnetique (England); Reima Makinen (Finland); Malok
(U.S.A.); ManWoman (Canada); Roberto Marchi (Italy); Graciela
Gutierrez Marx (Argentina); Alina McDonald (Australia); Melart
(U.S.A.); David Meltzer (U.S.A.): Ruth Miles (U.S.A.); Bob Miller
(U.S.A.); Cynthia Miller (U.S.A.); Angela & Henning Mittendorf
(Germany); Kenneth Mood (England); Emilio Morandi (Italy); Ikuo Mori
(Japan); Caroline Muchala (U.S.A.); Nathan Muchala (U.S.A.); Rodrigo
Mu?oz (Mexico); Kazunori Murakami (Japan); Roman Muzyinski (Poland);
N.
Sigeru Nakayama (Japan); Joe Napora (U.S.A.); J.P. Naud (France);
Steve Nelson-Raney (U.S.A.); Jonas Nekrasius (Lithuania); Mogens Otto
Nielson (Denmark); giorgio nelva (Italy); Rea Nikonova (U.S.S.R.);
Kjell Nyman (Sweden);
O.
Aloys Ohlman (Germany); Gil Ott (U.S.A.);
P.
Clemente Padin (Uruguay); Konstantin Pavlov (Bulgaria); "Rev." Y Paul
(U.S.A.); Shane Paul (U.S.A.); Pavel Petasz (Poland); Michael Joseph
Phillips (U.S.A.); Barry and Eve Pilcher (England); Pips (Germany);
Carlo Pittore (Italy); Natalia Podina (U.S.S.R.); bruno pollacci
(Italy); Michel Pollard (Peoples Republic of China); Harry Polkinhorn
(U.S.A.); Jeff Poniewaz (U.S.A.); Hugo Pontes (Brasil); Andrej Popov
(U.S.S.R.); Bern Porter (U.S.A.); JK Post (U.S.A.); Arto Posto
(U.S.A.); Charles Potts (U.S.A.); Raimondo del Prete (Italy); R. Prost
(U.S.A.); Publishers Group of South West Ireland;
Q.
Julio Quispe (Peru);
R.
Radio Free Dada (U.S.A.); Sherry Jo Reniker (Japan); Tulio Restrepo
(Colombia); Diane Reyer (U.S.A.); Gilda Risso (Peru); Accorti Robereto
(Italy); Childe Roland (U.K. - Wales); George Ronsholdt (U.S.A.);
Waclaw Ropiecki (Poland); Martin Jack Rosenblum (U.S.A.); Sever Rossi
(Italy); Erika Rothenberg (U.S.A.); Jerome Rothenberg (U.S.A.);
Emanuel Rubin (Brasil); Sabine Rubin (U.S.A.); Jimmy and Marsha Runner
(U.S.A.); Rupocinski (Poland);
S.
Mako Sakoda (Japan); Jack Salaga (U.S.A.); Ribeiro Regina Sandra
(Brasil); Vesselin Sariev (Bulgaria); Flora Sartor (Italy); R.
Saunders (U.S.A.); Dave Schmitz (U.S.A.); C. Schneck (U.S.A.); Hans
Schneider (U.S.A.); Helen Schneider (U.S.A.); Erin Schuler (U.S.A.);
Serge Segay (U.S.S.R.); Bernice Serpe (U.S.A.); Jan Serr (U.S.A.);
Christopher Skiba (Poland); Shozo Shimamoto (Japan); Shmuel (U.S.A.);
Elena Siff (U.S.A.); Valter Smokovic (Yugoslavia); Zdenek Sima
(Czechoslovakia); Mariarosa Simoni (Austria); Dennis Smart (U.S.A.);
Maynand Sobral (Brasil); John Solt (U.S.A.); Pete Spence (Australia);
Jan Spiegelman (U.S.A.); State of Being (U.S.A.); Manfred Stirnemann
(Switzerland); Joachim Stange (Italy); Wm. S. Stipe (U.S.A.); Matt
Sturm (U.S.A.); Marcel Stussi (Switzerland); Russel Sunabe (U.S.A.);
Arthur Sze (U.S.A.);
T.
Marlene Tack (U.S.A.); Kazuyoshi Takeishi (Japan); Shigeru Tamaru
(Japan); Ruben Tani (Uruguay); Nathaniel Tarn (U.S.A.); Harvey Taylor
(U.S.A.); Terrestrial Art Post Office (Japan); Thalia (Australia);
Anrej Tisma (Yugoslavia); Larry B. Thomas (U.S.A.); Jean Yamasaki
Toyama (U.S.A.); Nataliya Tretiyakova (U.S.S.R.);
V.
Franco Vallone (Italy); Willem Van Dijk (Netherlands); Jose VdBroucke
(Belgium); Stephen Vicary (England); Alma Luz Villanueva (U.S.A.);
Jules Villanueva-Castano (U.S.A.); Martha Villegas (U.S.A.); Cornelis
Vleeskens (Australia); Edgardo-Antonio Vico (Argentina);
W.
Joy Walsh (U.S.A.); A1 Waste Paper Co. (England); Tamotsu Watanabe
(Japan); Achim Weigelt (Germany); Don Wellman (U.S.A.); Matt Wieler
(U.S.A.); A.D. Winans (U.S.A.); Franz-Milan Wirth (Austria); Phil
Woods (U.S.A.);
X.
Madam X (U.S.A.);
Y.
Bernice Young (U.S.A.) ; Karl Young (U.S.A.); Darlene Yeugelowiz
(U.S.A.);
Z.
Alexevena Elena Zenoba (U.S.S.R.); Zephyr (U.S.A.); Paul Zelevansky
(U.S.A.); Anatoly Zmigalov (U.S.S.R.); Biro Zozsef (Hungary).