In the world of email, Facebook, texting, and now the horror that is Twitter, the lone letter sent at a snail’s pace through the postal service has lost its charm. Or has it? One of my most nostalgic memories from childhood is the day that I received a letter from President Clinton.  Months before, I had painstakingly crafted a letter asking him what I believed to be poignant and searching questions.  It was only years later that I realized my treasured correspondence with the President was a generic letter probably written by someone who had never even met the guy.   Despite this realization, I still believe that there will always be a unique pleasure in receiving a personal letter.  There is something very exciting about seeing your name written down in someone else’s handwriting, or the personal touch of a stamp glued slightly askew.

  This is why I was so thrilled to find out about Radik Shvarts’ idea for an upcoming art project.  One that would finally put snail mail on trial.  One that would decide once and for all the merits of the debate: snail mail versus email.

Radik Shvarts has an interesting history. Brought up in a military family in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Radik has been a Looney Tunes t-shirt designer, a web designer at PBS, and a DJ. As a young artist in Lvov, he dabbled in the “bohemian lifestyle” and “shared [his] time between painting imaginary landscapes and drinking with friends for recreation.”  A self-prescribed hippy in his youth, Radik was first introduced to mail art by an exhibit advertised in “Ogonyok” – one of Russia’s oldest illustrated magazines. The exhibit featured an artist who asked his pen-pals to mail him pieces of their favorite clothes. He then turned them into fiber pulp, then into paper that he sent as thank-you notes.

Today, Radik designs websites including his own www.ycrop.com/ - a website for creative individuals of Russian background living in New York.  He has continued to be active in the arts and with the help of a minigrant from the Center Without Walls Project of COJECO, he has created an interactive art project that uses a unique medium – the postal service.  Radik’s mail art project is called “Ticket to Jerusalem” and its concept is deceptively simple.  On a piece of 8 x 3’’ paper, Radik asks artists and creative individuals to create the “perfect” airplane ticket to Jerusalem.  Submissions are mailed in and posted on the website www.tickettojerusalem.com/ .  The best tickets or boarding passes will be exhibited internationally and featured in a book published at the end of 2009. The creativity of the pieces is limited only by their size. Radik writes, “With my project I'm trying to bring participants from inside and outside of the mail-art network. The project should be popularizing the concept of mail-art through people's connections to Israel. And popularizing Jewish causes among young people interested in conceptual and contemporary art. It's a cross-promotion of two things that I'm personally very enthusiastic about.” 

Mail Art is an art form that has been around ever since Cleopatra rolled herself up in a carpet and sent herself off to Julius Caesar.  It was popularized in the 1950’s by the Mail-Art Network and recently reached new heights with the explosion of www.PostSecret.com – a project that asks people to anonymously mail in their secrets on a postcard.  The appeal of Mail Art is in its tangibility – it is art that can be touched and molded into anything.   It can also be done by anyone.  It works with a medium that can be utilized by everyone and effectively transforms correspondence into a higher art form. 

The debate between email and snail mail will most definitely rage on even with the addition of my own two cents.  In all honesty, there will probably not be a winner. Mail Art is more likely an evolution of the relationship between art and communications.  But despite any eventual conclusions, I hope that the next time you receive a letter in the mail (not a bill!)  you take the time to really look at your name printed in bold and see if your heart doesn't go a flutter. 

For more information on Ticket to Jerusalem or if you would like to submit an entry please visit www.tickettojerusalem.com/.  

If you would like to find out more about the Minigrant Project or if you would like to apply please email me at Rikagx@gmail.com.

Rika Gorn

CultureShook Editor