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Your REAL wall from Bryndís Þórhallsdóttir from Iceland

Hi Andy. Here is my tribute to My Real Wall. And there is a drawing in the
picture. I just didnt want to take it down.

From: Bryndís Þórhallsdóttir
Date: 2009/11/29

[my Postcard is the Black and White Beatles one there - Remember that if you have a postcard from me, stick it up on your wall and send me an email of it and I'll put it up right here in the your REAL wall section of the site! Andy]

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my REAL wall - 27 November 2009

It's Friday and we're back on my REAL wall in my bedroom in Goldhawk Road. Tomorrow my REAL wall is off to Munich for the weekend, and most of the cards on the wall now will be coming with us.

Only 2 more weeks of this view, as me and Elena are aiming to move into our new place by the 11th of December. I believe the new place has better lighting, so that's something to look forward to.

I'll be sending out the new address on a postcard (obviously) to everyone who has ever sent me mail soon.

Obviously this may take some time, and I never like to discourage people from sending post of course but for now, if you could all hold back until we get to our new place then flood us with new post for the new wall that would be great!

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my REAL wall - A gecko in the gaff

In a move to widen participation and variety on my REAL wall, today we bring you our first ever guest photographer REAL wall from my best mates Stalex.

Guest photographers get a pile of postcards that have been sent to me and can put them up wherever they choose. I'm really keen to see other people's interpretations of my REAL wall and as you can see from the notes (click the image and go through to the flickr site to see these) I am rather enjoying playing the "Guess that card" game myself here!

This first wall is in Stalex's gaff (house for those of you not from London), showing their gecko along with appearances from a host of established mailartists that won't be surprised to find themselves up on the REAL wall again.

In order of appearance (from the top left going anticlockwise) are mhmedia, Boo Cartledge, Stalex, a postcrossing, Dumpsterdiversanonymous, Felisha, Another postcrossing from Singapore, Tim McCool, Rebecca (Y)our Sky, Goodnight Little Spoon, TicTac and in the centre, Rachel.

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my REAL wall - World Toilet Day 2009

It's November 19, 2009 and we all know what that means don't you?

Today is WORLD TOILET DAY! World Toilet day is organised by the World Toilet Organisiation, which is is a global non- profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide.

Apparently poor sanitation kills 1.8 million people a year, so the organisation aims to raise awareness of the importance of this sort of thing, so why not go through to their site and then consider yourself aware.

That was one free plug, and I'll try and keep free plugs to charities on my REAL wall. As you all know this is a non-profit organisation!

Another plug I want to put in today is for The Plains Art Museum in North Dakota, who sent me and Elena a pair of free tickets and a load of postcards in thanks for the REAL inspiration that my REAL wall has given them for a mailart gallery. Personally I can't wait to see what the dudes at the museum come up with, and I love the idea that people may have a public gallery for their mailart, so I'm dead proud of myself. Hopefully I'll get to use these tickets one day (just as soon as a big airline picks up on my REAL wall and decide to nick it as well...)

Oh by the way if you look really closely, you'll see a piece by a great new mailartist I discovered on IUOMA the other day from Korea called Cross Ryu. I believe she uses Indian Ink to create the most fantastic colours in her art and visiting her Pics on IUOMA sent shivers up my spine. Here's onoe to watch in future I would say!

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my REAL wall - 16 November 2009 - Your postcards take a shower in Goldhawk Road

It's been a while since I took a shot in the bathroom, so today's REAL wall was put up in our shower.

As many of you may already know, my REAL wall is moving house very soon as I managed to buy a house! I have to say, I won't miss the skanky black mould on the shower walls and I leave behind a legacy of blu-tac all over the bedroom walls too.

Today's best postal surprise came from Okadascat, my REAL wall's resident knitting correspondent, who sent a knitted flower through to Elena, which made her squeal with delight. Elena says thanks a lot and continues to squeal with joy.

Note to Okadascat - Elena has put this little trinket in her personal top 1, joint first place with this piece from the mighty Ubon, which is a hell of a statement! Nice one!

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my REAL wall - 16 Nov 2009


my REAL wall - 16 Nov 2009, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

Elena scores the points for this one, having changed the calendar at about 11:55 on November 15th, while I was uploading the REAL wall from Vienna, then sneaking into bed and pretending to be asleep while I threw a tantrum.

Apparently changing the calendar date before midnight is ok if she does it I'm told, but NOT ok if I do it. I'm not really sure I understand the rules but if Elena says so then it must be true.

Today's REAL wall features contributions from Courtney S, Pizzacat, Beenebag and AmyMC, the prolific swap-botter!

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my REAL wall on the Austrian Parliament in Vienna

It was so refreshing to be in a city so rich in culture and so friendly.

As an example, when we were at the Parliament building, we just strolled around and posted up your postcards on the wall without any hassle whasoever.

Oh H&F council would have hated that.

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my REAL wall - Above the seedy underbelly of Vienna

Elena and I had just arrived in Vienna and made our way to our hotel, just to the north of Westbahnhoff, the Western main train station.

As we tend to do when arriving in a new country, we looked around innocently for a nice place to put your postcards, all the while looking for our hotel and wondering why there were so many martial arts shops and sex shops in the area.

When we reached Burggasse Stadthalle station, we noticed a long flight of stairs leading upwards to a point above the city and we mounted these, knowing that a good shot awaited us, but not really knowing quite where to point the camera.

So we set this one up and shot it quite innocently, not realising that the magnificent artistic capital of Austria that the world knows was behind us in the opposite direction. What we actually shot as the backdrop was Austria's red light district.

Whoops.

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my REAL wall - The End of the Hammersmith and City Line

I find it strange that tube stations can be completely empty in zone 2, but Goldhawk Road station, which is just next to my house is often a ghost town. I think most days it has one person working on the ticket office, who goes home at about 6pm, leaving the station empty and operated by robots.

So when you roll up to Goldhawk Road, your announcement is done by a recording, which tells you to mind the gap and all sorts. I can't help but feel when a pre-recorded announces that your train is late that they sort of expected it, and can never quite shake off this idea that in some way the pre-recording of an announcement that your train is going to be late is somehow responsible for it being late.

Because the station was so automated and inhuman, I felt a need to inject a bit of human contact into the surroundings and that's how this wall was born.

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my REAL wall - Lunch break in the park

Over lunchbreak I decided to get in a REAL wall showing the grounds of where I work. I think that the university has really excellent grounds, and one of the reasons I chose to work here is that I came here myself to do my degree and fell in love with the grounds. It's easy to see why.

Mainly on show today are mailart pieces, they just happened to be at the top of my pile, so appearances are made by StudioN, Jennifer Zoellner, HeebeeJeebee, Eduardo Cardoso, David Berube, Barbara Cowlin, and Dummpsterdiversannonymous among others.

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my REAL wall - 11 November 2009 - Retro Edition

Another popular social networking site on the internet is often criticised for changing it's layout and not offering it's users any option to do anything about it. Not here on my REAL wall folks!

For those of you who haven't liked the snazzy new upgrades (and what's not to like about Okadascat's awesome knitted banner!), today's wall will be a breath of old stale air and you'll love it!

Today sees us return to the original slanted wall above the radiator, complete with my socks and underpants for those weirdos amongst you who enjoyed watching my weekly ritual of running out of clean undergarments.

To accompany the return to the retro feel of the wall, I decided to dig out some old favourites and take you for a trip down memory lane.

Who could possibly forget the "Is it a Banksy?" saga, or the very odd wrestler piece from Hugo Porcaro

Also in the fray are pieces from Mim, celci, Blair, as well as new pieces from Sam, Neil, Risa, AmyMC and Sheila

Hope all the older viewers enjoyed the trip down memory lane, and for those of you who haven't seen the archives of my REAL wall yet, go take a look at them RIGHT NOW, then pick up a pen and paper and write to someone!

The status update refers to a lovely email I received last night.

In recent weeks, I have been told by a few art specialists that I am an "installation artist", which I graciously accept. I guess I never really viewed myself as an artist, but I suppose that my REAL wall can be considered a form of art in itself.

As such it seems that my REAL wall has caught the attention of the people who work at the Plains Art Museum in North Dakota and someone from there emailed me last night to say that they were going to look into working on their own REAL wall there, based on my REAL wall!

From being a chap who just wanted to get back in touch with REALity, to the giddy heights of artistic recognition by REAL artists and all in under a year, and it's all thanks to you out there who keep sending me stuff! Thanks to everyone and keep watching your mailboxes!

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my REAL wall 11 November 2009 (Just after midnight)

Shhhhhhh...

Elena's sleeping and I've just crept out of bed to change the calendar. She is going to kill me for this!

Tonight's midnight guilty pleasure features, from right to left, some older pieces from Rachel Freeman, which is made in some very interesting glassy material which I can't quite place. A real treat for the senses I wish I could get the texture of this piece across in photo.

The bambi with spooky faces piece was an earlier post by Jennifer Zoellner, whose mailart output is prolific and was one of the earliest mailartists to send me stuff.

The elephant is the latest one from Elefantus, whose obsession with elephants really knows no bounds, and finally Dreaming of Tokyo is a pimped photo by the great Dumpsterdiversanonymous

Phew, I've managed to type all of that and not wake her up yet. Now I'm going to try and sneak back into bed without her noticing the date change...

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my REAL wall - November 10, 2009 - YES! I remembered!

As I said yesterday, I have a terrible memory, and always forget to change the calendar date. Last night Elena wasn't around but I still woke up worrying that she would beat me to the calendar, or that I would forget it.

But I know that Elena will be checking my REAL wall today and this is what she'll see.

IN. YOUR. FACE!

Today's post is a Twitter-friend fest, with protest post from @neilgoodall and @feltypants and some old Twitter #mailart from @museumnerd (The Eyes have it 2) and @hardpressed (Altered States)

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my REAL wall - 9 November 2009

Since buying this calendar from Tate modern last week, me and Elena have slowly become more and more competitive and sneaky about being the one to change the date.

Most days, she can rely on my terrible memory and usually just gets up before me and changes it before I even remember what day it is.

Tonight she's working so I get the chance to change the date at midnight myself, if I remember to, else she'll be around later to change it and laugh at my stupidness.

Today the calendar features 2 pieces from Rejin Leys, whose work I became aware of during the first Twitter #Mailart swap in June. From Rejin's own site...

"The postcards are produced, using a variety of media and evincing varied sensibilities. Each piece is a relief print with colored pencils, is approximately 4x6,” and they are part of my ongoing “Theories of Evolution and Connections” series."

The repeating icons and colours used, chickens, rice, internal organs, cockroaches and stars arranged in varying sizes and textures thrill me, and I love seeing how the characters interact with each other.

The one-off talking chicken council protest is superb, and although it will be a shame to have to send it away to the council, I am sure it will make an impression.

The two other pieces are from Marion Bockelmann and Postmuse. Marion's Poe piece is a dark, dank collage, with eerie eyeballs staring out from the depths.

Postmuse is probably the owner of the world's most amazing stationary collection and if there is one thing better than amazing stationary, it's amazing stationary with a personal message on it, which is exactly what this is. Postmuse never fails to bring a smile to my face.

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my REAL wall - 7 November 2009

With the Royal Mail strikes now off until Christmas, I think that the postmen are starting to get back into the swing of things, and the REAL wall mailbox has been bursting at the seams with awesome post.

My REAL wall today hosts works from as far afield as Australia, Sweden, Greece and The Netherlands, as well as old favourites from the US.

I'd like to welcome some new mailartists on to the wall too. Sherri Ayers, from IUOMA sent a breathtaking Intuitive Watercolour envelope with photos inside, which form Sherri's photo album on the left side.

Marion Bockelmann sent an Edgar Allan Poe collage, which really brings a smile to my face as I love that era of writing, being a huge HP Lovecraft fan myself.

Jennifer Zoellner is an artist whose work I greatly admire. She has put together a massive body of mailart and most of it exceptional. Her piece, The Swinging child, harks back to more innocent times, when we all would sit on swings without a care in the world.

Protest post is all over the wall today, and again I send out my humblest thanks to all of you for sending in the support.

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my REAL wall - Protest Tree


my REAL wall - Protest Tree, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

I got a bit of a shock call today from the editor at Westside magazine, who called to say that she was writing the article that is due for the December edition today!

It seems that my REAL wall vs Hammersmith council will indeed make the December paper and online editions, but the edit date was much sooner than I thought.

As a result, I decided to quickly try and get in the protest post from you that I have already received. Over my lunch break I ran outside to the rock garden and found an appropriate Bonsai sized tree and set about sticking all your protest mail to it.

This is the REAL wall I sent in, a protest tree with protest mail from RejinL, Mark B, Ruud Jansen, TicTac, Dumpsterdiversanonymous, and Okadascat.

Not sure what exactly what pictures the paper are going to run with, but I'm just happy I brought all your mail to work today. All these pieces and all the pieces I have seen online, like this awesome one from Lorraine Kwan and this piece of social commentary from Feltypants as well as the hilarious footballing one emailed from Neil G, are now in the editors hands in digital form, so let's see what the magazine do in December!

But don't stop sending in, as I'm going to push for even more press coverage, following the revelation that local councils are using actually anti-terrorist legislation to snoop on their residents! This may have some way left to go yet...

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Accessible stylesheet edition

I've recently been thinking about accessibility standards on the web and realised that my REAL wall is perhaps not as accessible to the partially sighted as it could be.

Luckily, Jelmer has sent me a REALLY huge postcard, which came in a REALLY huge and REALLY cool envelope so I have gone and made today's REAL wall in an accessible and readable way.

Whether this is completely W3 compliant is still open to debate but it's definitely a nod in the right direction

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my REAL wall - The protest papers

The first protest letters are in from mailartists on behalf of my REAL wall vs Hammersmith and Fulham bullies council and are so awesome that they have made the front page of The Yomiura Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper I found in my recycle bin.

These gems come from RejinL, with a perfectly executed chicken and rice piece about council fines, which is stylistically in keeping with her contributions for the first ever Twitter #mailart project, in which we met.

The beautiful butterfly piece came from the excellent Dumpsterdiversanonymous, yesterdays featured artist. The piece is called Malachite Butterfly on suburban sprawl and has a message on the back from Carroll of support for the battle with the council.

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my REAL wall - my REAL desktop

Digital Schmigital - I decided to turn off everything electronic on my REAL desktop and get down to reading all your lovely post.

In the foreground is all the mail that came in last night, 9 pieces with 4 of them being protest mail for the my recent Pester my Council mailart call. The pieces are from some great mailartists, IUOMA founder Ruud Jansen (his post is pictured on top of the pile), Dumpsterdiversanonymous (yesterday's featured artist), Ptrzia Tictac, who has supported my REAL wall from the start and the ever brilliant @RejinL. I'll be putting all the protest post on a wall later, so for now just know that they are there!

In the background, REAL post comes from Jennlui, whose envelope took me about 2 days to open as it was so zealously sellotaped and so georgeous I didn't dare open it!

Replacing the iPod in my Pig dock is a piece of REAL bark sent to me by SHMUEL, a new artist who I know nothing about. If you squint you can see that the bark shows a shroud that represents Rose Lee, a famous stripper! If you wish to come to my house and pay your respects this piece will obviously never be thrown away, so do feel free to make a pilgrimage.

The full size piece on my monitor is a bit of a mystery. I know it's a lmited edition 23/26, but there's not a great deal more information than that. It's signed M.A. Blair from Canada, but other than that and an address there's not a lot more info and no contact from the artist. Anyone have any ideas?

Just for trivia, this is my 100th upload to the flickr my REAL wall folder, which features all the shots of my REAL wall since I started to get it right!

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my REAL wall - Elena invades the fridge

Before me and Elena met, some of my friends were very sceptical about the concept of my REAL wall. My brother even said "But what about if you meet a girl who uses facebook and she insists on you being on facebook? No girls will ever go out with you if you keep this silliness up!"

Me and Elena celebrated 7 months together last week and with every passing day I find she gets more enchanting.

As if to prove the doubters and my brother wrong, she is one of the few in the world who doesn't have a facebook or twitter account. When she found out about my REAL wall, far from being repelled, she went and opened a postcrossing account and got hooked, and now she's taken up Origami and quilling, which is an art that involves curling paper strips. Her very first quilled card is featured in the middle of this REAL wall.

This REAL wall is an Elena invasion and features only postcards sent to her on postcrossing, but on my fridge. The cheek of it! She loves it when she gets stuff addressed to her that comes in my postbox so do feel free to send her stuff via me, and she will gleefully laugh in my face about it.

Very soon, some of you who have sent me post may well be receiving some quilled cards or some origami, so keep your eyes on your postbox!

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my REAL wall - The departure lounge

I have perhaps the most patient girlfriend in the whole world. While I run around the airport departure lounge squealing how I'm bored like a child, she patiently lets me decorate her with postcards. She's great and I love her to bits!

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your REAL wall on tour - Turku

The final instalment in Stalex's your REAL wall on tour - Sweden and Finland series, this one shows all the postcards I sent them over the last year stuck to a tree outside Turku's castle in Finland

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my REAL wall - November 03 2009 - Total rubbish

When I first had the idea for my REAL wall I had a dream that one day it would become an international art gallery showcasing some of the world's best photographers and artists REAL work, and now I finally have enough pieces of mailart from some of you to make this happen.

Today's featured REAL artist is one of my favourite mailartists on the scene today - Dumpsterdiversanonymous works only with rubbish and recycled materials, but creates some of the most breathtaking and original artworks. I drop by her flickr page almost daily as she has a prolific output rate but never lets this compromise quality.

The pieces are displayed in reverse order of when they were received by my REAL wall.

From right to left, we have "Momma, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys" - a fabulous surreal piece, combining a photography magazine and a flower. I absolutely love the sentiment of this piece.

In the middle is this is a paper status update callde "Noh bugs" updating me on the California.

The first piece that I received, to the right was the classic "Lunar jumping contest", showing a flea taking on a frog on the moon.

Dumpsterdivers sense of humour and skill with her material arrangement is second to none and she is deservedly my first featured artist!

NB - (I've just realised I forgot to add "Dreaming of Tokyo" - a Pimp my photo project that Carroll done for me)

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your REAL wall on tour - on the ferry to Finland

2nd REAL pic taken of my postcards on tour with my best mates Stalex on their recent tour to Sweden and Finland. This one was taken from the porthole of their ferry to Finland

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my VERY BIG REAL wall - courtesy of Nokia

As regular follwers of my REAL wall already know, we had a little trouble from the council recently, who are convinced that this bit of international postcard fun is a business.

I thought I'd send them a little message courtesy of the people at Nokia, who filmed me yesterday at Tower Bridge for their next viral advertising campaign, and I thought I would use the opportunity to make a small announcement to the council and to thank all my super fans from around the world who have sent post for my REAL wall.

Here's what me and Elena saw when we turned up at Tower Bridge for the filming of the Nokia advert yesterday at about 4pm.

A 50ft screen shaped like an arrow was hanging from a crane advertising Nokia maps.

I was scheduled to have the message

"Thanks to all the people who have sent post to my REAL wall. The council will never get us!"


The filming started later than expected and the light was not great by the time the shooting started, and the message had been edited so that by the time it went out it lost a lot, so consider this an insider gag to fans of my REAL wall.

The final message read

"To all the postcard senders"

myrealwall.com and Nokia Viral

"From around the world" (We missed that one - the message wasn't up very long and I was busy being filmed)

"You are all fantastic!"

myrealwall.com and Nokia Viral

"The council will never stop us!"

myrealwall.com and Nokia Viral

"by Andy Hoang"

myrealwall.com and Nokia Viral

I was a little miffed that the words "my REAL wall" were unceremoniously dropped (it was too late to do much about it at the time) and the filming took place so late with such poor light I don't hold much hope of it being screened, but I will be sending the pics to some local papers to make sure that the pen-pushing jobsworth who sent me the demand letter gets the message...

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your REAL wall - shadows and Stockholm


your REAL wall - shadows, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

Stalex are 2 of my best mates who are also avid fans of my REAL wall.

This is part 1 of a series made by them showing the postcards I sent to them on tour with them in October 2009, as they travelled to Sweden and Finland.


your REAL wall on tour - Stockholm

This was the first shot of my postcards in Sweden, taken when Stalex arrived in the country and featuring local protest leaflets in Swedish about pensions.

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my REAL wall - Date obvious - my REAL calendar

Me and Elena went by the Tate last night and picked up a postcard calendar I've had my eye on for a while. When I got home it turned out that one of my readers had sent me a postcard with a Salvador Dali picture on it, which was one of the postcards in the pack. What are the chances of that happening!

Thanks to Bernhard Zilling, Selfcallednowhere, Beenebag (thanks for all the messages this week by the way) and Helmyne for your contributions to this one.