“Anna Banana, Renowned Mail Art Pioneer, Passes Away at Age 84”
### Anna Banana: The Pioneering Artist Who Revolutionized Mail Art and Experimental Practice
Anna Banana, born Anne Lee Long in 1940, was a trailblazer in the world of conceptual art, mail art, performance, and alternative publishing. Her playful yet profound work carved out an essential niche in the artistic practices of the late 20th century. Known as much for her exuberant persona as for her art, Anna Banana’s life was a testament to the transformative power of collaboration, humor, and creative resistance to mainstream norms. She passed away on November 29, 2023, in Roberts Creek, British Columbia, leaving a remarkable legacy behind.
#### **A Unique Identity: The Birth of Anna Banana**
The name “Anna Banana” became synonymous with the artist’s identity and unconventional approach to art. It originated rather serendipitously in 1968 when her students at Vancouver’s experimental New School gave her the nickname. Later, an incident involving her “falling into a box of bananas” at a Big Sur party cemented her decision to fully embrace the moniker. She legally adopted the name in 1985, choosing it as both a personal and professional signature.
This playful choice encapsulated Banana’s ethos: an irreverent, boundary-pushing approach to art-making that prioritized connection and community over convention and hierarchy. However, as she noted, reactions to her name frequently highlighted societal discomfort with absurdity and play, two principal themes in her work.
#### **Mail Art and Building Global Networks**
While Anna Banana initially trained as a textile artist, she pivoted towards more participatory practices in the 1970s, which led to her becoming a pioneer in the mail art movement. Mail art, a decentralized and democratic practice involving sending art through postal systems, began gaining traction in the 1960s. The movement aimed to subvert traditional, hierarchical artworld systems by encouraging open exchanges of creativity on a global scale.
In 1971, Anna launched her first newsletter, *Banana Rag*, which served as both an artistic project and a networking tool. Through it, she connected with the International Mail Art Network (IMAN), a loose but influential coalition of artists and creatives. Her playful yet serious engagement with the movement continued when she began publishing *VILE* magazine in 1974 during her time in San Francisco. *VILE* functioned as a satirical response to General Idea’s *FILE* magazine and documented the thriving mail art movement, often amplifying feminist voices within that space.
Banana’s contribution to mail art was not just about creating and distributing works; she also critiqued the lack of recognition for women artists in the field. Her essay “Women in Mail Art,” published in 1984, brought attention to their overlooked contributions, ensuring that the movement’s history became more inclusive and representative.
#### **Performance Art and Parodic Engagements**
Anna Banana’s practice extended beyond paper and ink. She brought her experimental style into public spaces, engaging audiences with humor and absurdity. Her 1993 project, *Proof Positive Germany is Going Bananas*, is a prime example. This performance piece parodied social dynamics in newly reunified Germany, where West Germans famously greeted Eastern Germans with bananas—a once-scarce item in East Germany. Through this project, Banana explored themes of commodity culture, socio-political hierarchy, and reunification, all with her characteristic humor.
By borrowing from everyday life, Banana imbued seemingly simple objects (like bananas) with rich layers of meaning. Her performances underlined the point that art could be directly engaging, accessible, and transformative, often blurring the line between life and art.
#### **Bananas as Artistic Symbolism**
While Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous artwork *Comedian* (a banana duct-taped to a wall) fetched $6.2 million at Sotheby’s in 2023, the art world’s fleeting fixation with bananas as symbols pales in comparison to Anna Banana’s decades-long exploration.
For Banana, the fruit served as both an object of parody and a means of communication. It subverted the seriousness of “high art” and disrupted the commodification of creativity. From her artistamps and zines to her live performances, she used bananas as a way to critique capitalist market structures and to champion non-commercial exchanges. Her work demonstrated the richness of focusing on the everyday and the absurd, proving that art doesn’t need luxury or pretense to speak to universal truths.
#### **Legacy, Archives, and Retrospectives**
Anna Banana’s impact on the art world has been profound, and her influence stretches beyond just art objects. Her work embodies the values of connectivity, collaboration, and critical resistance to elitist notions of art. Her archive, housed at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia, offers valuable insights into decades of experimental practice.
In 2015, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria