Artist Talks during Correspondence Collective exhibition

As part of the Correspondence Collective Restriction Exhibiton, we are hosting a series of Artist Talks that explore the lives and practice of artists who use mail art within their work.
All of the talks are free to attend and will take place on Zoom.
Eleanor Matthews @postart_uk
6th May 13:00 – 14:00 * BSL interpreted by Catherine Hall
Eleanor Matthews is an artist, creative strategist and mum. Since March 2020, she has worked on numerous projects involving sending art works via the postal system to a setting up a street gallery, using people’s homes for display as part of an arts trail for sitcfestival across Seaham and Durham.
Book your place here
Jennifer Collier
10th June 13:00 -14:00 * BSL interpreted by Catherine Hall
Paper pioneer Jennifer Collier creates exquisite sculptures from vintage recycled materials in conjunction with stitch; a contemporary twist on traditional textiles. The papers serve as both the inspiration and the media for the work, with the narrative suggesting the forms. Through this marriage of unlikely materials old papers are transformed into something truly unique, delicate and complex.
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Michael Leigh
8th July 12:00 – 13:00 * BSL interpreted by Catherine Hall
Michael has taken part in hundreds of mail art shows around the world, printed lots of postcards, little books, pamphlets, made hundreds of rubber stamps etc and made lots of lovely friends around the world. This talk will explore those connections and collaborations and the opportunities that working within the mail system brings.
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Online Zine Making Workshop with Dizzy Ink
20th May 10:00 – 15:00
This online zine making workshop revolves around the idea of junk mail.
This may be interpreted as many different things from pizza vouchers to love letters from your ex – we’re looking closer at the bits and pieces that come through your door, to recontextualise and develop something radically more beautiful.
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25th March 13:00 – 14:00
The Bruton Correspondence School is a [slow] mail art exchange project established by Chris Roberts and Rebecca McClelland, partly in response to the impact of the worldwide lockdown and their attempt to connect with a wider audience on the most basic and meditative level.
Artists, designers, photographers and other practitioners are invited to engage in an exchange of ideas and collaborate on miniature artworks through a mail art project inspired by the great Ray Johnson.
During this talk we will be learning about the inspiration behind the @brutoncorrespondenceschool, its success as an artist network and its international reach, as well as how it has been developing during the pandemic by keeping artists making during lockdown.
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Gordon Coldwell
30th March 14:00 – 15:00
Gordon is a digital artist and has been involved in a digital mail art exchange, which raises questions over what makes an art collaboration? Does mail art work digitally? This is what he will be exploring throughout this talk
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Carl Middleton
1st April 13:00 -14:00 * BSL interpreted by Catherine Hall
An award winning visual artist working with language, communication and form, Carl Middleton has a studio and print workshop in Somerset. Carl has been involved with mail art for many years, as well as working with print and letterpress. The connection to language and communication in Carl’s work is something that has come across within mail art and communicating to other artists on an international level which is something he will share with us during this talk.
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The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society
6th April 14:00 – 15:00
Established by Dinah Johnson, The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society is a way to bring together people who love to write and receive handwritten letters, and to stop them from becoming a lost art. The hope is that handwritten letters will go on forever and ever. And if the Society encourages just one person to write a letter to a friend or relative or someone famous, it will be a triumph! There has been a boom of people joining the society since March 2020 and its founder Dinah Johnson, will be joining us in this talk to explore that interest.
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This project has been kindly supported by Arts Council England
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