Bradshaw has a set of works which confirm her resolve to add layers of meaning to an already rich surface: two sheets of postage stamps of her own design, and NOT part of the Post Office’s make-your-own-stamps program (photo.stamps.com). One of them, a two-center, depicts Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, the urinal he signed a fictitious name to and claimed as his own art in 1913. It is a howlingly unlikely subject for a US postage stamp, but there it is, tiny and deadpan, complete with all the proper marginal stamp sheet markings. The other stamp sheet features a photograph taken by Bradshaw of a woman on whose back is written the names of the elements that make up the human body, with the size of the letters reflecting their relative proportions: carbon, hydrogen, etc. But she has taken it a step farther in the mischievous spirit of Duchamp: she has used her stamps to mail real letters, a form of performance art that is as subtle as it is subversive, managing to fool the USPS, which has threatened her with fines and jail. And for a [nominal amount] she will send anyone a letter with one of her stamps. This is more personal than a dedication. Her envelope sent to herself with her own return address and a cancelled stamp is framed under glass on the wall. Considering the risk of prosecution she runs every time she mails one of these, it’s a steal.

Joel Simpson