mail art project: London life
In this project, I made two envelopes with different ideas to present my study and living in London.
I cleared up where did I go all these months and what did I experience in London. To London I have a very complex impression. At first, I was dreaming about go aboard to study and fit in a different culture, because I know that only when I get out of my comfortable zone, I can get a larger view. Then I came London for my friend. I had visited many museums and galleries here, and met a lot of people from other countries. I feel that it is a city which is both traditional and international. Thus I want to tell the story in two ways, that are on a student’s side and on a foreigner’s side.
As a student, we came here for learn more skills on designing, making art works and study the British culture. For me, I am very interested in British history. I am from China. In the place of China, there is a history over 5000 years. Thus we always give respect every country having long local history. I wanted to perform a feeling that this city have experienced a lot of events.
I went to Stamp Centre with classmates to pick some stamps and envelopes as my research. It is an old shop, so I can find so many old version of stamps there.
Helped by The shop assistant in Stamp Centre, I picked 6 group of black and white stamps, 5 pieces per group. On account of that they make me think of old films. The content of stamps are the great events in Britain history, and photographs of Queen Elizabeth. I think that it is enough to present what a great history London has. I sweared to put them to good use. I also bought two envelopes which had been in Berlin and see what ideas they can give me.
I just saw this designers work, it gave me an idea about how to use the stamps I bought. This is a Japanese designer named Yoshita Ryuta. His interests is to design some useless but funny things. These are part of his design. He just reversed the size of usual stuffs in our life. Namely, we can see what will happen when the introduction is big but the painting is small. How about the toothpick and chopsticks? I found that I can try this idea with stamp and envelope.
I did a very quick experiment by using Photoshop. I magnified a stamp and sticked a small envelope in the position where the stamp should be in. But the question is that, it just looks so boring. I was considering about, when I send it to my home, my family can only know , wow there are a woman and a man laughing. They can not actually understand the feeling of history. I need to have a balance between what I want to show and the idea from Yoshita. Then I wanted to make another experiment. But those stamps I bought spent me about 40 pounds. I can not just use them for experimenting. That why I copied them by using a copier, in order to wasted them as I want lol.
I cut all copies of stamps, and used them to make a collage. And I think that is not bad. Thanks god that all stamps I bought are black and white, it makes me easier to ensure the whole envelope is unified. I pretty like those yellow and golden part on each stamps, they let the envelop became not so boring. After all, I still sticked a small envelope in the position of stamp. Honestly the effect is better than I imagined. It makes me feel like there is a long history covered in these heavy stamps. And every culture has countless thing to be learned by student like me, the British culture does too. All great moments are in this small envelope. As a student, that is what I found.
Turning to my second envelope, this time I made an envelope in a foreigner’s view. Actually, I had made an envelope before, in 2018 in London, which is the envelope above. That time I was always getting mad because of the bloody weather in London ( will it be so rude to say bloody, is it a terrible word?), it rains often. So I had tried to restore the situation when I walk on street while it was raining. I just can not see the environment surrounding me clearly.
Firstly I cut the images from a magazine to make a collage, I used lines of text to make the rain. The background I used was very dark as it was in night. At the end, I covered them in a piece of bubble wrap. There were two reason, the first reason was the bubbles just look like the rain drops on the window of car. The second reason was the bubble wrap is usually used to protect things. I want to pretend that it was water-proof, I do not what my letter, also my missing in my mind to be damaged by the rain in London.
In my mail art project in CertHE, I intended to remake this envelope, and see how much I changed in 1 year.
I experienced a so pouring rain. In that rain I tried to talk with my friend, but sound of rain was too loud to hear. I was thinking about to visualize the situation by using texts and material. Note paper is one way for me to record my mental activity. I often write notes to record ideas, sentiments and thoughts. I also used this element in my zine project in CertHE course. And in this project I supposed to use note papers as a kind of pattern of the envelope. I wrote some texts and drew some sketches on note paper and put them together. But I found that after being scanned, I can hardly recognize what is the content on the note papers. If I cover the bubble wrap on it, all I can see is the yellow color. Thus I chose to give up using note papers. Then I thought of writing digitally. I think I am good at using software like Photoshop and Indesign. So the digital working skills will be my advantage in my future study.
I tried writing by using digitizing tablet and wrote down something in my mind. I have considered about whether I use English or Chinese. And I think if I will send it back to my home, my family can know my emotion by reading the content I write. I used the photos in my collection project as the background of my texts. I arrange them by using Photoshop to create this graph. I wanted to tell my family that I have no many friends here, sometimes I was lonely and sad. I will stay strong till I finish my study. But finally I only wrote some simple word just like it was one page in my diary.
‘ I often wake up late at night, and just talk to myself. The noise in my mind is even louder than the sound of rain. I guess the light will keep shining all night.’
I printed the image, and learned how to fold an envelope without glue. This time I did not want to use glue to bind the paper and bubble wrap together. I hope that the paper part can be taken out from the bubble wrap part. And then the paper envelope can just be the letter itself. I tried find materials in my house, then I found the soft iron wire, which is used to bind the plastic bread bag. I thought the soft iron wire was perfect. Because it is black, and so suitable to bind package. I cut the soft iron wire into three parts, one for binding the bubble wrap I cut, other two for ensuring that the paper will not move or come out from it. The content, I chose two hairpins, which are black, and putted them in the envelope.
So this is the final outcome of my second envelope. The effect is what I expect that when I see through the bubble wrap, I can see only parts of the texts. When my family open it and read the words, this mail art can be completed. I was so satisfied with this envelope. It really approached my idea. Compared with my first envelope, this one is more subjective. It links with my collection project, and it is beyond its original version I made in 2018. I started to know that I had found some self-identity as a student and also a foreigner. I can even recall when I was standing in rain in London 2018. Maybe in 2020 I will get another chance to remake this envelope again. I still wonder how it will be.