Fluxus vs Mail Art
フルクサス / メール・アート／郵便芸術
Both sit in Avant-garde, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Fluxus
Values the act and the participation above the finished piece, working in scores, boxes, cheap multiples, performances and events until the border between art and daily life gives way.
Mail Art
A network art practice that treats envelopes, postcards, stamps, rubber stamps, addresses, postmarks, and delivery time as compositional parts. The work is a system for reply, forwarding, addition, and arrival rather than one finished sheet.
| Fluxus | Mail Art | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | early 1960s–late 1970s | 1960s–present |
| Family | Avant-garde | Avant-garde |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Event scores / Boxes and multiples / Everyday actions / Anti-art humor | Envelopes, postcards, address fields, and postal frames structuring the page / Artistamps, rubber stamps, typing, and photocopy layered together / Folds, abrasion, postmarks, and dates from transit retained / Instructions or space for a recipient to reply, alter, or forward |
| Best used for | Works and programs written as instructions that exist only when someone performs them. · Cheap multiples boxed and circulated hand to hand as small scale publishing. | Growing a work through exchange among people who cannot share one venue · Making invitations, editions, and records one sequence including the marks of delivery |
| Type | Write each instruction as one imperative line and print it still open to reading. | Separate address, date, and instruction with typing, handwriting, and stamps while following postal reading order. |
| Composition | One item per card, with the order of the deck left unfixed. | Keep delivery information on one face and artwork plus reply area on the other, composing around folds and stamp position. |
| Material | Found objects, paper, wooden boxes, cheap printing, no signature or scarcity. | Use postcards, thin paper, envelopes, photocopy, rubber stamps, and artistamps without erasing transit wear. |
| Caution | Imitating random instructions and plain boxes settles nothing about ownership, authority and the audience's role, and a score framed on the wall without ever being performed loses the premise of action and participation. | Do not publish private addresses, signatures, or postmarks without consent. Avoid designs mistaken for valid postage and materials that obstruct postal handling. |