Mail from Ejva - Shanghai - China arrived

The envelope sent by Ejva from Shanghai, China, arrived in Breda without any problem. Also part of the ZALOP project running on the IUOMA network. I even made a small video from the envelope so everybody can zee how it looked like:

Mail to Ejva Nsva - Shanghai - China

Mail to Ejva Nsva - Shanghai - China ARRIVED!

On The IUOMA Platform Ejva Nsva published a digital copy of the envelope as it arrived in Shanghai. Glad to know mail-art actually gets through. Also funny to see that some 'damage' during the long way was visible. A postage and priority sticker somehow got off...

News from Ejva Nsva - Shaghai, China

an update on Chinese postal systems:

today i mailed three packages that were not precisely flat. one work had a small plastic child's ring attached to it, another contained the wrapper from an eyeshadow package that was re-filled with paper, and the last was a piece of stiff paper that had been folded into a triangle shape.

after being questioned about the contents and their value, i still had to fill out a customs form (i think there may have been a fee in the total, but i didn't get a breakdown) for the ring and the eyeshadow. they let the folded paper pass without customs after i demonstrated the folding with a piece of scrap paper.

in the future, i think i'll stay within the bounds of flat paper unless i'm prepared for snafu. i also wonder if the reverse will apply - if someone sends mailart with irregular shapes/attachments, will it be questioned by customs on the Chinese end (would the artist in China never receive it, or have to pay a customs tariff)?

has anyone tried sending unusual items in envelopes to China? another experiment may be in order!

News - "Not" Chinese Mail-Artists

The latest news is quite strange. On the IUOMA-platform there are two mail-artists active who claim to come from Shanghai, China. They both have websites that I reserached and are hosted and paid for inside the USA. So I suspect these artists are USA-based (or maybe the same person?) and play the role of Chinese Mail-Artist. I will research this more and confronted both members of the IUOMA that I discovered their websites are based in the USA.

On Internet anybody can take the identity they choose. Only proper research shows the basis of the work. An example. On www.whois.com you can check on whose name a website is hosted. Searching on enja:nsva's website called: http://songshi.info I discover that it is based in Georgia, USA, with address and phonenumber of the artists building the website. Judging the texts on the website, it must be an american artist.

More mail-artists received mail-art from china. So somehow this american can go to china, or mail to china and get things to us that way.

So we are warned that mail-art in china isn't that easy. There are a lot of artists in china for sure. But I now need more proof for believing someone actually comes from China.

Latest details: Ejva replies and explains she is an american artist working for some time in china as a teacher. She is exploring the mail-system from inside China and testing how mail-art can go and travel from China. So Inside China we have now someone making contacts with chinese artists as well, sharing them the knoledge of what Mail-Art can be. A first mail-art project in China (Shanghai) is started now and we will see what that brings....

Mail that Test Tower received from Enja-Nsva

Heebee Post #491 - EJVA-NSVA - Sonjaing, Shanghai- China
The Affair has never had a submission from China - this is the first of what I hope to be an interesting exchange with EJVA. This charming Hippo is expressing his delight as he trolls for love in the tumultuous river of desire.

Nice to have you here EJVA. I like the 'Field Study Romance' aspect of your card. You don't have to look too far to find the mojo of the Affair going on everywhere.
EJVA has mentioned in a note, that she is desiring Mail Art from other countries. She writes:
"So I would say, for China, send something radical for fun or experiment, but anything you really want to be sure of, send in a plain envelope. Also, most of the homes are in high-rise apartments, the mailbox slats are small, so I would say it is best to send something less than 5 inches wide, 3 inches tall - to make sure it gets stuffed in the box."
"Do not worry about what you send - unless it is something absurdly anti-Chinese government, there is not a problem as far as I know. There is even some prominent Chinese art which deals with gov't contemporary viewpoints in the gallery - so I don't think mailart will be a problem for anyone. Any trouble, I think, will be the idea of what the Post Office will accept as 'mail'"!


**So, the cryptic label above is a 'copy, print and paste' address for anyone who would like to send her something interesting. We are thrilled to have EJVA on the Affair. Thank you so much for the mail art and we shall be finding our way to you in the mail soon. The mail carriers in Shanghai will be amused by the colorful "Fluxus Affair" postcard I will be sending. See you soon.

Posted by Test Tower at 10:14 PM
source: http://heebeejeebeeland.blogspot.com/2010/12/heebee-post-491-ejva-nsva-sonjaing.html

Mail to Ejva Nsva - Shanghai - China

A first experiment with an envelope to Shanhai in China.