Duncan MacAskill's Nervous System

I listened with half and ear to Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time this morning discussing the Nervous System, that network of nerves which allows various parts of the body to communicate with each other, through the brain, with a number of neurotransmitters in action enabling sensation and action. I have at various times had discussions with various friends, but in particular with my friend Duncan MacAskill. He is an artist who lives and works in Vauxhall/Stockwell, as do quite a few others.

http://www.duncanmacaskill.com/

One of Duncan's pieces of work is a continuous mail art piece which has spread out across the world like the various branches of the nervous system.

Duncan MacAskill’s mail art is an open secret that has been going on for years. I count myself fortunate to be amongst many of Duncan’s friends who have been receivers of his postcards. They began as small versions, ‘diminutives’, of his larger abstract work. They were of course works in their own right and they were posted by him to his friends on various days throughout the years as the mark of a birthday, an anniversary, a holiday, an exhibition, a journey, and many other reasons or for no reason at all, just to say hello.

He would also ask his friends, when going on a journey, if they wouldn’t mind posting a few cards for him from wherever they were going. The collection would usually contain a card addressed to the person’s own address. The cards are now treasured possessions and I know of many people who would like to be part of Duncan MacAskill’s mailing list and it is quite some list.

Abstract art is not always easy to understand and it is not an art form that is to everyone’s taste. A work where the artistic content can depend on internal form rather than pictorial representation is not necessarily an easy form to understand or to be moved or enlightened by. That is not to denigrate pictorial forms of art. All artistic endeavours consist of a combination of colours, hues, shapes, balance, depth, composition, scale and context.

I think any artist hopes that her or his particular combination of elements is understood and will lead to some kind of shared emotion or enlightenment. I believe we look at works of art with this in mind. We like to follow the journey and we all like a good story.

This work is part of a much wider project. As well as being a record of friendships, musings, thoughts and images that have travelled around the world, a simple telling of where the names and places of things have meaning. They are also a stamp collector’s dream.

There is something rather special about the creation of this work. It is not just a collection of individual cards and sundry bits and pieces, but a very large and extended work of art. This is mail art participation on a grand scale. Duncan has made each of us a party to his grand scheme. We become extensions of his hands and arms, another pair of eyes. We are the neurotransmitters and the work is a continuing living piece enabling sensation and action throughout the world.

One might be lucky enough to get a number of cards which you find at some point down the line all come together to create yet another story.

Anyone travelling anywhere? If you are interested in joining in the piece post a comment and let me know. I have not told Duncan I am doing this, but what the hell.