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Returned to Sender (detail) - 2000/2007
Mail Art project
4" x 9.5" each

In May 2000 I sent out a survey to about 300 individuals named Michael Klein all over North America to collect information to be used in the Michael Klein Project. This project has resulted in various exhibitions and web projects. The envelopes in the exhibition are ones that were unable to be delivered and were returned to me, each altered in some different way as they traveled through the postal system.

The Michael Klein Project (MKP) explores my own identity in relation to representations of my name or “brand”. MKP began as a mail art project. A Michael Klein logo was created a by using recognizable fonts from well known companies and products. Surveys were sent to hundreds of Michael Klein’s in an attempt to collect information and create a profile of the typical Michael Klein. A screensaver animation was made from signatures received from these Michael Kleins. Hundreds of images of men named Michael Klein have been collected.

Exhibitions including work from this project:
Wish You Were Here - Gladstone Hotel. Toronto, 2009 (Curated by Katharine Mulherin)
Goin’ Postal - Art Metropole. Toronto, 2007 (Curated by Miles Collyer)
Slideshow (for Instant Coffee Nooks) - Mercer Union, Toronto, 2007
Centre of Attention - A Tete-A-Tete Exhibition. Toronto, 2004
Alchemy and Mysticism #2: The Instant Coffee Painting Show - In the Urban Disco Trailer, 2003
Caffeine Screens: The Instant Coffee Screensaver Show - The Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, 2002
Eine Klein Sighn (with Cecelia Berkovic & Germaine Koh) - Luft Gallery. Toronto, 2002
13 Canadians in NYC - Star67 Gallery. New York, 2001
Miniature Show: Urban Disco Trailer & Everyone (Instant Coffee Project) - Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2001
Friendly Fire - Project. Toronto, 2000