New year new collaboration

In the wake of 2021 I have been lucky enough to start the first few days of the new year with a brand new collaboration, with Gordon Coldwell. Gordon is an artist who has worked with mastering digital images over the years and makes strong political work commenting on our societies current issues. Myself and Gordon met via mail art and have decided to challenge the notion of mail art with a digital alternative, this experiment is mainly because Gordon lives remotely and can not easily get to a post office to send artworks. 

Working in a digital format is completely new for me working within the realms of Photoshop and image editing is something I am not confident with at all. But this experiment will build new skills within these areas. Making mail art that only lives on email attachments and a collection of pixels opens up conversation for digital art. Working in this way opens up a faster exchange of images and texts between us. We are two days in and also two exchanges in, the making process maybe a lot faster than waiting for something to arrive via the postal system. 

Gordon and myself have similar interests but very different ways of making working.By working with Gordon I am excited to see how this work develops and changes over the coming weeks. For me it will be a fascinating issue of when to say that's it I am finished. Working in a collaborative sense may mean one thing to one and one thing to the other person. While speaking with Gordon we questioned if exchanging art has become individualized. Artists are precious about the work they make and especially today when less physical work is readily available. Sending someone a piece of work you have given time to on being trusted to someone else. From my experience some works haven't allowed for any addition but needed a response to them. Is this because we are living a more ego leas individualized way? This is something myself and Gordon are trying to question and explore with our digital exchange. 

Having found my feet with mail art and exchanging mail via the postal system, this has been a way to keep making art during the testing times of Covid-19 pandemic. Mail art has been a great way to make art with people who are very different to myself, including add and pass works as well as responding to individual pieces. 

Over the coming weeks I will keep a log of the additions to the digital artwork. Once an end has been reached I will share the final results.