From Postcard Poet Denny Stern:
Taiwan Etudes Series
Visiting Taipei in March we stumbled upon a post card intensive solo exhibit by Taiwanese artist Apex Lin, Pang-Soong. I estimated there to be between 1700 & 1800 hand drawn and written postcards by the artist on display. He has hand drawn, written printed and painted these cards over a number of years and mailed them to himself. That’s why he was able to amass such a voluminous collection. Many look to be thematic and feature images of animals or bottles. One recurring theme is the shape of the island of Taiwan. His handwriting is quite wonderful as well but I can’t read what it says. These photos I took of some his postcards on display in the exhibit may give you an idea of Apex Lin’s postcard practice.
Thank you Denny! We hope these postcards by Apex Lin, Pang-Soong excite and inspire you for the 2025 Poetry Postcard Fest. EARLYBIRD REGISTRATION IS STILL OPEN! Tell your loved ones and share the love of postcard poems.
Denny,
The layout of the postcard exhibit reminds me of an installation by Rebecca Louise Law that I saw at the Honolulu Museum of Art. She gathers flora where her work is installed as well as ships in dried flora from previous exhibits. Not only are the suspended pieces worthy of attention, but being able to move through the work and see it at different times of day to see light and shadow changes. Thank you for capturing a moment with your photos…
Alo-HA Denny and Sally what a wonderful suggestion…sending postcards to yourself…I will incorporate this very simple process into y writing…in fact, I will begin today….StanleydelGozo
Wow what serendipity to find this in Taipei! Grateful you thought to share this with us in our “Post Card Season” …very inspiring!
Someone should write a history of postcards.
It’s an old medium but I’m not sure how old.
Ad Reindhardt, 1913-1967, known for his minimalist paintings and clever cartoons, also made & sent many postcards, many of them art cards & some specifically designed as anti Vietnam war protest pieces.
The NYS artist & poet Joe Brainard also used postcards as a medium.
The artist Ray Johnson studied at Black Mountain College, where Olsen, Creeley, Cage, DeKooning & many other seminal modern artists taught. Johnson was an innovative user and expander of postcards as a medium.
He was known as New York’s most famous unknown artist
Check him out here
Mail Art & Ephemera – Ray Johnson Estate
Postcards used to be the way to send quick greetings from afar economically. Although that particular function is mostly obsolete, they still offer a venue from which to extend normal messages ( & or eccentric ones) to others in whatever creative way one might device that our USPS may deign to deliver. I’ve designed postcards to be hung as mobiles or to stand on their own on a desk or flat surface. I’ve also used recyclable packaging materials like small flattened tomato cartons & the like. Even sandpaper cut to size, thin plexiglass, balsa wood or whatever looks to be of a suitable size, weight and durability might work. I’ve also painted on card stock, made larger paintings & cut them up to size. Sometimes it’s advisable to send such creations in an envelope as they tend to be more susceptible to damage. It’s also completely fine to just use any old commercial card.
Postcards as combiners of text and imagery are naturally suited for ekphrasis, writing about art, and narratives associated with the images on the cards or inspired by them. Indeed one might write a novel on postcards, a history, memoir, biography or long poem upon on a number of postcards. Recipients would receive little pieces of the longer work curiously excised from a larger whole or context.
Just because postcards are naturally suited to quips, cartoons or haikus doesn’t mean one must limit oneself to such devices though it’s perfectly fine to do so. A big part of the fun is the whole process itself and not knowing where one is going with any of it. Possibilities are endless and worthy to explore.