/ home / art / archive / event / encyclopaedia / shop / about us / contact /

> encyclopaedia /

> Memo(random)/Memo(ry) / 

'Memo(random)/Memo(ry)' was an ongoing kind of "add and return to" project from Robin Crozier (England). He send to his correspondents an A4-size blank paper with a hand-written heading containing the title, Crozier's name, the name of the receiver, the date of the sending and the subject. The subject was always "What do you remember about" followed by a past date. His correspondent was asked to write down or express in an artwork what he/she remembers of that date, and return the sheet to Crozier. He made a copy of the completed sheet and passed it on, each contributor received in such way the completed sheet of another artist. The contributor received also another blank sheet to continue the process, often with the date the earlier contribution was send to Crozier.

"please reply this paper to receive another memory from someone else" Crozier, Robin (artist). (1992). Untitled [add to letter]. Tielrode: Sztuka Fabryka Archive

When the received completed form was a writing he made a copy in case of a visual he transposed the complete sheet into a series of memo books. Was the memo book filled up, then he mailed it to the 'Getty Center for the Arts and Humanities' situated in Los Angeles (U.S.A.) a process which has been discontinued at book number 79. Before the 'Getty Center' Crozier sent the copies to Jean Brown but after she gave her complete collection to the 'Getty Center' he continued to send them to the foundation. This until the 'Getty Center' announced Robin that they were no longer interested to receive the 'Memo(random)' sheets.

"Each memorandum contains random memories recording times passing through Robin Crozier who here records the memories for Jean Brown and future times past." (text written in the front of each memo book) Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Vittore Baroni]. TAM Mail-Interview Project [WWW page] URL http://www.iuoma.org/

At the time of his death, in December 2001, he was working on book 91. The project began in February 1983 and there are over eight thousand memories from over six hundred people all over the world. He usually requested a memory from someone as part of an initial contact. The 'Memo(random)' sheets has found their way to several Mail-Art archives and has become collectibles. A large collection of the 'Memo(random)' sheets are archived beside the 'Jean Brown collection' in the 'Getty Center' also in the 'Tate Modern Collection', who obtained Crozier's Mail-Art archive after his death. With his death there came also an end to this project.

Related Topics:
[01] Add to
[02] Crozier, Robin
[03] Memo book
[04] Getty Center for the Arts and Humanities
[05] Brown, Jean
[06] Archive
[07] Collectible
[08] Tate Modern

References:
[01] Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Vittore Baroni]. TAM Mail-Interview Project [WWW page] URL http://www.iuoma.org/ 
[02] Held, John Jr. (1995). Key to the Collection: Correspondence, 1976-1995 [WWW page] URL http://www.geocities.com/johnheldjr/ 

Remark:
We have contacted the 'Getty Center for the Arts and Humanities' to ask if all the memo books Robin Crozier has send, are still in their collection. Yet, we have never received an answer, maybe in the far future we are able to update this entry with correct information. Any help will be gratefully appreciated.

Date last update: 16 April 2003