Ephemera

Growing up in Madrid in the 60s we traded these things called cromos—cards that could be stuck in an album, but only across the top, so you could lift them up and learn all about the item depicted in the image. I don’t even remember what the theme was (probably the natural world), just how Desirable they were, huge swaps going on in the playground with giant stacks of cards, shady deals and so on.

I must be the last person on earth to hear about Artist Trading Cards, which were started by a Swiss artist in 1996. The idea is to hand make an edition of twenty cards or so and send it in, and you’ll get fifteen different ones back. This is a strictly non-commercial unjuried art show, part of Copy Left, intending to get artists to meet each other at Events and subvert the corporate hold on art. At least that’s the impression I get from a random look at the Gallery.

There is no such Event anywhere near here soon, but I might send in a set to Sister Trading Cards. I make such things often in any case: for me it’s part of recycling what’s lying around. Having it make sense on a 3.5” x 2.5” card is a new challenge.