Going Postal Gallery
Image of the 2020 exhibition postcard set, DIVINE DELIRIUM.
MADE IN BED’s Editor-in-Chief, Emily Crozier, interviews the Founders of Going Postal Gallery, Alexandria Pang and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, alumna, Talia Pockhai. Going Postal Gallery’s “exhibits” are experienced via a set of physical, printed postcards (with each postcard a high quality reproduced image of an artwork).
The impact of the current global crisis and consequent travel restrictions was the inspiration for this new art business venture. New York-based Alexandria and London-based Talia laugh at the irony that their business concept is grounded in the analog, and yet they have had to rely on virtual communication to launch their business- a lot of FaceTime calls to compare paper quality for the postcards, studio visits, et cetera. Nonetheless, the mission for Going Postal Gallery is to share art in an intimate, physical way without physically being together. Alexandria and Talia seek to make more mindful and meaningful moments with art in a personal yet accessible way, while bringing greater awareness to emerging artists. It’s a whole new take on “travelling” exhibitions.
Image of the 2020 exhibition postcard set, DIVINE DELIRIUM.
Emily Crozier: Can you please tell us about Going Postal Gallery and how you came up with this concept?
Alexandria Pang: Going Postal Gallery produces curated “exhibitions” that are experienced via physical, printed postcard sets featuring artworks by emerging artists. In this era of accelerating digital dominance, we wanted to go analog.
Talia and myself have spent nearly a decade of our friendship constantly sharing new artists, works and shows with each other on Instagram, text, and WhatsApp. As the art world migrated online with COVID-19 we found ourselves scrolling online viewing rooms, our Instagram feeds and direct messanger, digital art fairs, and felt that sense of “OVR overload”- feeling our digital interactions with art and with each other growing more passive and more transient.
We have also always loved postcards- often purchasing them from travels and museum gift shops. It always feels more exciting to receive a postcard versus a text or view an Instagram story/post.
Talia Pockhai: So, we combined two things we loved - the humble but noble postcard, and art - to create mindful and meaningful experiences that don’t require a screen, but still build connections. We also wanted to uphold that spirit of accessibility in experiencing art that the digital often carries, but with high quality postcards.
We wanted to make art accessible and inclusive. The original artworks on the postcards are available for sale through us, but for people who want to enjoy the work, have it in their homes, and share it with others, the postcards are an affordable means to do so. The postcards act as a mini version of the artworks for everyone to enjoy. For those who are interested in purchasing the works, the postcard exhibition sets act as a catalogue delivered to your home and a tactile alternative to OVRs (online viewing rooms).
Josefina Ayllón, Untitled (2019), Oil on canvas. 73cm x 60cm.
EC: Can you tell us about your inaugural exhibition, DIVINE DELIRIUM, and your selection process for the artists?
AP: For our inaugural exhibition, we wanted to present an exhibition that really referenced the origins of this project- which are very much pandemic related. DIVINE DELIRIUM is in many ways, a display of our own emotional and biological response to the pandemic. This idea that every aspect of our lives jumbled, collapsing into a singular space and sculpted into something unrecognizable- maybe grotesque, fantastical, and definitely weird... dissolving us into a fever and high of delirium, perhaps even divinity.
TP: The pandemic caused everyone to be forced into unprecedented situations, forced isolation, mandated lockdowns. This has affected people in the ways they view themselves and the world around them. And maybe even if these perceptions differ by person, the experience of distorted realities has affected us all. We wanted to make a show that wasn’t pandemic related, but also was relatable and a momento to the current times we are living in.
We chose artists that reflected this whether it was through distorted figurations and abstractions, strange saturations of colours and textures, and disoriented perspective - works that together would instill a simultaneous sense of descension into hysteria and transformative transcendence into other beings and worlds.
Eden Seifu, Hey Guys So This Is My Self Care Routine (2020), Acrylic on paper, ~71.1cm x 50.8cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Deli Gallery, New York.
EC: All profits from DIVINE DELIRIUM postcard sets will be donated to Art of Elysium. Can you please tell us a little about this charity and what it means to you?
TP: Art of Elysium is a non-profit that pairs volunteer artists with communities to support individuals in the midst of difficult, emotional life challenges like illness, hospitalisation, displacement, confinement, and/or crisis, offering 100+ programs a month, serving 30k+ individuals a year. We are living in a time when some of these life challenges are even more pervasive and augmented, so we wanted to support an organisation that addressed this explicitly. Art of Elysium is also founded and spearheaded by an incredibly inspiring woman, Jennifer Howell, which we truly appreciate as a female-led project. We also deeply appreciate her enthusiasm for our mission.
James Dinerstein, Early Rising (2012), Concrete, ~91.44 cm x 53.34 cm x 63.5 cm.
EC: How long will this exhibition be available to the public and have you begun plans for the next exhibition?
AP: DIVINE DELIRIUM will be available through to January 31st, 2021. We are always thinking about art and naturally are brainstorming next exhibition ideas, but we don’t want to give away too much!
EC: What are your future plans for Going Postal Gallery as lockdown restrictions ease and we return to a life that resembles normality?
TP: We believe that certain habits and values formed during the lockdown will become more permanent post-pandemic. Social media and digital technology will still be here and be addictive. But simultaneously, so will this focus on wellness/wellbeing. Often we say if social media is the new smoking, could (postcard) writing be the new wellness? We believe that the practice of looking at an art postcard, and writing a letter, this is a practice that is mindful and meditative, and therefore positive even post post-lockdown. It also feels so much better to receive a postcard versus a text or an image of an artwork in your DMs.
Image of the 2020 exhibition postcard set, DIVINE DELIRIUM.