Three out of five fake stamps created by Chicago artists Michael Hernandez de Luna and Michael Thompson make it through the mail. These canceled veterans of postal adventures, framed alongside sheets of unsent stamps, are selling for nearly $1,000.
Hernandez de Luna calls his stamps "art for the proletariat," and they have been exhibited at several museums and galleries in Chicago. The point of the work is to reach the receiver as well as the collector, says the artist, who sees the stamps as a means for "people to get art pieces in the mail."Thompson told Metropolis magazine that the artists try to keep the Postal Service "at arm's length. I make a point of not knowing my mailman."
Hernandez de Luna seems to think the stamps have a positive postal impact. "You hear so much about postal workers being disgruntled with the repetitiveness of their jobs," he told Metropolis. "So when a guy sits there all day and then suddenly sees one of our stamps, I think he lets it go because it breaks up the day with a little gentle humor."
The stamps' "gentle" humor includes images of: guns, Abraham Lincoln on a Ford's Theater commemorative; the Leaning Tower of Pisa on a faux French stamp marked "Paris"; Batman; Mao Tse-tung; the Marilyn Monroe love triangle stamp, with "Joe," "Bob" and "John" printed on the side.
More information is available at (312) 563-0554.
- Leah Garchik