In the above video, one of the Archive's curators, Emma Harper, explains the significance of some curious postcards she found recently. They're from a largely forgotten period in the history of the postcard - and demonstrate how change often happens from below. Many thanks to Emma for sparing the time to show me them.
A postcard collection is never stable, never entirely complete.
Ten years ago, artist MaryAnne Francis played with the challenge of ordering her collection of postcards in her work 'Unsorted'.
Rather than showing an ordered collection, she exhibited her postcards in the process of being classified. According to MaryAnne, the installation showed someone “attempting to arrange – sort out – a collection of sorts… but: how to sort a type or type a sort?”
I’ve come to realise that just as a collection reaches some kind of order, it seems to call out for more of a type and then, inevitably, more of a sort. -----
Image of artwork in video courtesy of the artist: installation view of 'Unsorted' at e1 gallery, London, 2002 Artwork sourced from Jeremy Cooper's 'Artists' Postcards', Reaktion Books.
I admit, though, amidst the high of getting the piece published, it's been disconcerting seeing my collection of cards on display and in print. Perhaps it's something to do with what Jean Baudrillard observed: that ultimately you collect yourself.
The thought I've been most struck by, however, is how seeing any ordered collection makes it appear inevitable - in this case, as if the cards were bound to end up together. I realise this reaction could be just my own, only too aware of the legwork the collection has required.
But heck, back to enjoying the publication! There is a quick slideshow, above. The voice is me (albeit a little more serious than normal) but all the editing was done by HT's web editor, Dean Nicholas. Thanks Dean. PS In the article I mention I'm giving a tour of the Charing Cross Collectors' Market in London on 8 June. It's a small fair specialising in postcards, coins, and other ephemera. We're meeting at 10am at the northern entrance of Embankment Tube Station. It's free, so if you're in London that day, come along.
It's a video blog this week. Too much going on to type!
In the video I mention a new project 'In Between Postcards'where I'm sending a postcard a day from my mobile phone, and asking if this is the future of the postcard.
Finally, a pic of June's History Today. My article on Edwardian postcard culture will be inside. Really looking forward to seeing what people make of it.
The card on the front is of actor Lewis Waller. The HT editors chose it because it's such a good example of the 'undivided back': the message is scribbled in the margin around the picture of Waller, as the other side had to be kept free for the address. Although, I'm guessing the fact he's carrying an iPad also came into the reckoning.
Fascinating putting it together. Three different perspectives on producing secret art.
Thanks to David Bailey, Pete Fowler and Maggi Hambling for sparing their time. And to Sue at the RCA for helping to make it all happen.
I thought I'd share a few more photos of Maggi and Pete taken by the ace Katja Medic.
And here are a few bits that didn't quite make it into the article...
Maggi Hambling on being an art student in 1960s London: "Telling people you're a painter can be so tedious. I used to say I was swimming pool attendant at Tooting Bec lido."
Pete Fowler on the lightbulb full of water on his studio ceiling: "I think I'm going to keep it!"
Finally, from Bailey, the Lennon/McCartney postcard:
PS If you're going to the show, look out for the Alys card below. By chance, one of this year's submissions is a torn half of the card given out at Alys's Tate exhibition.
At the end of the exhibition, cards will be sold off for £45 each. Post purchase buyers find out who made their cards.
Photo of the RCA Secret from 2011
Of late, I've been reading Jeremy Cooper's Artists' Postcards, an excellent compendium of how the postcard has been used by different artists since 1900. It's quite a book. And I bet more than a few RCA artists refer to it as they create their cards for 2013.
At a pace, Cooper takes you through the canon(?) of postcard art: René Magritte's postcard magazines, Gilbert & George's Post Card Sculptures, Paul Morton's Thatcher Therapy (a dot-to-dot postcard suggesting you draw a pencil mesh over a photo of the ex-PM), Joseph Beuys' wooden postcards, Rachel Whiteread's hole-punched cards...
Two cards stood out, though. It's always the personal connections ultimately, isn't it?
The first, a 1908 Donald McGill postcard titled "In the Asylum". The image shows a red-nosed man, grinning from behind the bars of a cell door.
Above him is a sign:
CAUSE: Picture-postcard collecting
CONDITION: Up the pole
REMARKS: Thinks he's a Gibson Girl
How cruel Donald!? How cruel.
The second card was made by Belgian artist Francis Alÿs. I first came across Alÿs when a friend showed me this film of him painting a line in the middle of a road in Panama. I love it.
The card caught my eye, not just because it was made by Alÿs but because of the contrast with a Rough Sea postcard I bought recently.
The Rough Sea series was one of the most popular in Edwardian Britain. Published by Tuck's, some say it tapped into Britain's island psyche, others that the cards have a deep erotic charge.
While I really like Rough Sea cards, I resist collecting them. One thing I have learnt is that to avoid ending up in McGill's collecting asylum you have to set some limits.
Rather than buying it for the image, I bought it to add to my collection of old postcard messages. Specifically, I bought it to add to a new category of cards I've noticed: empty postcards, postcards without written messages.
Increasingly, I'm coming to think of them as secret postcards.
RCA Secret opens on Thursday 14 March at the Dyson Building in Battersea, London. The sale takes place on Saturday 23 March. If you're going, good luck!
