Mail Art 1979

Curator: Woah. It's a trip. Reminds me of a blueprint for a very intense board game, maybe designed by a particularly hermetic mystic. Editor: Indeed! What you are experiencing is a conceptual piece titled "Mail Art," crafted in 1979 by Oleksandr Aksinin. It exists as a drawing and example of graphic art. What strikes you as 'intense' exactly? Curator: I mean, just look at the density. Every surface seems covered in symbols, patterns, eyes, astrological signs. It feels like a coded message, or some alchemical diagram. Gives me a slightly uneasy feeling, to be honest. What do you make of the title in relation to the image? Editor: Aksinin was a key figure in the 'mail art' movement, so this piece likely played on the distribution networks that underpin the cultural exchange in Mail Art itself. You notice that each triangular tier incorporates the text "Mail Art"? Consider the very act of sending and receiving as symbolic gestures, embedding hidden meanings within the ordinary process of postal communication. Curator: So, the diagram isn't just some isolated thing, but it relates to the social act of sending a message. Hmmm. Still makes me a little anxious. I guess knowing its part of mail art adds layers—like each card you get is another piece to assemble. But that could also be about how sending something has its own special context. Is it an invitation, an attack, a declaration of love. Or just nothing, trash. Editor: The anxiety may arise from that feeling of decoding the cultural unconscious; peering into forgotten layers. The assemblage of different graphic languages and iconography creates something akin to a visual palimpsest of modern life and ancient lore. Curator: Palimpsest… that's the perfect word. You almost expect the symbols to shift, rearrange themselves as you look closer, don’t you? Aksinin really captured a whole vibe, you know? Like something very modern filtered through ancient patterns of meaning. Okay, it doesn't unsettle me now. I feel connected to the possibility, not trapped by meaning. Editor: A welcome evolution. Hopefully, this brief conversation has offered insight to unravel these layers in “Mail Art.” Thank you. Curator: Likewise. Now, where did I leave my decoder ring…