For Par Avion, Sydney-based artist duo Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro acquired a small Cessna 172 airplane, from a scrap airplane merchant in Roma, Queensland, Australia. The artists then deconstructed the entire body by cutting it into small pieces and applying postage directly to the surface of each. The 69 parcels were then sent onward to Frey Norris Gallery in San Francisco by airfreight over a period of a week and arrived by a much amused and occasionally confused postal carrier.

The final installation at Frey Norris Modern and Contemporary was comprised of the discrete parcels (cut up pieces of the Cessna) assembled in the configuration of the original plane within the gallery. Par Avion, or Airmail, is French and the phrase often appears on a sticker or label indicating a letter should be sent by air. The artists believed that it was apt that such postal etiquette should be placed upon the small parcels that once comprised a vehicle of air travel.

The initial impetus behind the piece lies within the literature that brings together ideas of individual freedom of movement and modern transportation. Fictional tales such as

Around the World in 80 days by Jules Verne, semi-fictional works such as On the Road by Jack Kerouac and non-fictional works such as From Peking to Paris by Luigi Barzini, put forward the idea of a global individual capable of spanning great distances in mechanised transport. Par Avion visually re-introduces the societal forces which make these travels possible: the Cessna is able to span the globe but only by reducing itself to components no larger than 90cm long.

The wreckage of the plane that no longer has the capability of flying will be given new means of movement. The speed, maneuverability and size were once the distinguishing features of the aircraft. But these have now been stripped away, and the object of these qualities arranged as isolated components. The method of delivery might perhaps bring some order out of disorder, or lay to rest some of the intrinsic purposes of the original airborne machine.

Since taking the first route from Roma, Queensland to San Francisco, by airmail, the Cessna 172, has since been posted to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and then onto Brisbane, The University of Queensland Art Museum, and then back to The MCA where it awaits it’s next destination. Each time the parcels are sent by airmail, the postage paraphernalia will build up onto the surface of the airplane, displaying its journey via airmail.