Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 22:52:47 -0500 (EST)
From: malgosia askanas <ma-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: appropriation/free art


Honoria wrote, and then Saul wrote:

>> The values that mail art thrives upon
>> - free exchange, no sales, documetation to all,mutual respect, no jury -
>> are values that breed variety, experimentation, fringe connections,
>> trust....friendships, a global open studio.

> For the most part they are also the values of late capital at least in
> terms of culture.  It allows for free experimentation, marginalization
> Globalism. the only difference is that in the end corporations appropriate
> the most successful forms and styles. Imagine mail art just like the WEB
> and the net are a labortory for  capital in which the idealists work for
> free given that theyhave been convinced that they should not  sully their
> self-expression with commerce.

I have a question: why this concern with "appropriation"?  What does it matter
whether corporations appropriate something?  

The issue of working for free has more resonance for me.  If one works for
free, then (assuming one isn't rich) one has to make a living doing something 
else, which means that one may not have enough mental breathing space 
to do the kind of art one wants.  There is also a kind of self-marginalization
involved: one accedes to not necessarily doing the art one wants, and to
relegating these activities to the status of "hobby", something that can
be done "on the side" -- as opposed to "big", institutional art, which is 
a full-time activity.  I would be very interested in hearing what kinds 
of in-betweens there are: ways of making a living at art without having 
to institutionalize oneself.  Bartering one's work for various life-stuffs
is one way; selling it in the street is another.  What else?


-malgosia 


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