Last Post - Guerrilla Garden

 

Guerrilla Garden at ST7 108

Last Post - The Book

Hand-bound book of reproductions of all contributions to Last Post

'Petroglyph' by Elise McWilliams, Oxford, UK

"This is a painting I did of a Petroglyph found in Petrified Forest National Park, in Arizona, US. Petroglyphs are kind of like the 'Last Post' of the Native Americans who originally lived in this part of the US. They were carving these symbols into the rocks until they left this area, around 1000AD. I found all of this information when I was an Artists-in-Residence there this summer. Wonderful experience, and I made this painting while there." Elise McWilliams

'Ways of a Postman', Andreas Horn, Bremen, Germany
'Gedanken sind der Anfang von Taten' 'Thoughts are for the beginning of deeds'

Stoke-on-Trent's oldest post box (1860) in The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Hanley. It is still in use - collections at 3.30pm, daily.
"A rare First National Standard letter box, it was manufatcured in 1860 at Cochrane and Co's Woddside Ironworks, Dudley. This historic letter box is one the oldest in the counrtry, produces just eight years after the first pillar boxes were erected in Jersey in 1852. The box stood for nearly 100 years outside the Parish Church at Blurton, until it was taken out of commission in 1956...Visitors are often surprised at its colour. It is not painted the familar pillar box, but 'bronze green'. This, research has shown, was the original colour. Pillar box red was not introduced as the official colour until 1874, to increase their visibility."

Ornate Victorian Post Box, Edinburgh, Nicholson Street/South Bridge area. EH1 136, From The Brown Family, Edinburgh, UK

Post Box Closed

Bit too late for this box at Edinburgh Railway Station, Unique Code EH1 98, From The Browns, Edinburgh, UK

Where will the mail go?

'Where Will The Mail Go?'

Postcard from ARTE CORREO CORREO, c/o Vanessa Strubbe, CT, USA

'Retired Postbox' from Isobel Haysom, Cornwall, UK
This post box once stood at 67 Fish Strand
Unique Post Box Code TR11 67

Artists post marks
Ryosuke Cohen, Osaka, Japan

'Endangered Species' by Deepa Ojha, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Air Mail

"Not much in the way of blue sky to be seen in Manchester yesterday morning - but his made up for it."

Tracy Cushing, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

Unique code M3 12

Lessness for All!

 

And the award for best ink stanp goes to Wolfgang Gunther, Germany, whose contribution, reassuringly contains 'NO ALCOHOL, DRUGS OR ANTRAX ETC'  

Lost in the Post

This contribution from artist/postman Kevin Boniface is "..the result of a 'brainstorming session' trying to identify areas into which the Post Office might diversify should their core business suffer too greatly - lets hope it never comes to this!"

Kevin's musings and observations on the extraordinary he observes in the ordinary and the everyday can be found on his website, blog and in two books 'Lost in the Post' and 'The most Difficult Thing Ever'.www.victorygarden.co.uk

Do take a look. It's both funny and poinient

Letter form America

Connie Jean, Titusville, FL 32780

More of Connie's wonderful mail art can be seen at mulletmail.blogspot.com

"Oh my love - you could have used the 'post box' and sent me a card then I can read it and look at it and remember you more - and then I would write back!"

Kate Bevan, Bolton UK

Laminated encapsulated litter
Mute Sound, Pedro Bericat, Spain
www.mutesound.org

This is the last phone box on Hornsey Road, North London - looking pretty dusty and forlorn.
Gandha Key, London

Two post boxes with a floral backdrop thanks to the Council!
Unique box numbers ST1 120 & ST1 192

Dear S,

I really liked your book format letter. It remined me of the puzzle letters I used to get from a pen pal who was doing his National Service in Germany many years ago. Some had to be read with the aid of a mirror and others were like jigsaws etc. Wish I had kept them now! He used to spend hours of his time off planning and writing them. I've never thought of those letters that I received well over 50 years ago unitl your letter arrived. Thanks.

Love M

Postbox and dandelion garden, Breeden-on-the-Hill, Derbyshire

Unique postbox code DE73 294

From Dewi, Tornto, Canada

"It seems like every year our mail box gets farther and farther away!"

'Flower Post Box Garden" 

by John Jennings, Galway, Ireland

Mail Art Call Out

As the Post Office attempts to close down under-used pillar boxes, you are invited to play a 'Last Post' for the post box. The one shown here has been adopted as a 'guerilla garden' to give it a new use. Responses on a postcard (or any postable item) to the post box's identity as an endangered species, arcane relic and all things postal or flowered welcome. Or adopt your own local post box as a guerilla garden and send a postcard BY POST ONLY to 'Last Post', 25 Talke Road, Alsager, Stoke-on-Trent, ST7 2PW, UK

Include: name, address, country, title of work and email address on back.

Deadline 31 July 2012. No return, no fee, no jury

All work to be documented here at: www.lastpostmailart.blogspot.com

Last Post - First Post

'My' George VI Red Post Office pillar box at the end of the road. Treatened with closure. Its been adopted as a 'guerilla garden' with meadow seeds scattered on the dirt at the side. But it can't just be an ornament can it? Do post boxes have a use any more?