All Things Trashpo

Comment

Comment by Claire (aka Cleo) on April 24, 2012 at 1:53am

I'm not trying to over analyze cher [though yes, I do love to "think too much!" %_^]. Art history is exceedingly important to me [personally] because I believe creativity is a spirit, a continuum... I love the fact of homage, of duly acknowledging my inheritance... I know that my life would not be, or have been, nearly as rich, nor my vision such a deep and thorough part of me, were I not "standing on the shoulders" of so many great wo/men. [Yea yea, too serious for the Trashpo thread I know %_^... But hey man, art is some friggin' serious as well as fun sh*t!]

Comment by Neil Gordon on April 24, 2012 at 1:38am

I just have three things to say about this trashpo debate: Mertz:SchwittersArt- poem against war a prayer against war,Cornell found things for his object box's on the streets of New York and Thirdly: I learned a lot about the history of trashpo but think we shouldn't do over analysis : Human hate a blank space, there are 40,00 year old cave paintings in caves and France and ancient roman graffiti. As Dkult chaplain, i think we need a Trashpo retreat to get this all sorted out without stepping on anybody! Peace ,Love, And trashpo!

Comment by Claire (aka Cleo) on April 24, 2012 at 12:31am

Oh mon cher, I was NOT disparaging anyone, and I never said "ripped off." I never would! I was just saying, simply, that it didn't start in 2005.

Now, re Vispo, that is a slippery slope indeed I would say. Yet, of course, what definition is not, language itself being utterly slippery [and, to me, thus: utterly beautiful!]?! "Poetry" can be literally interpreted of course, but I've a tendency to vie toward the word as an adjective - rather more subtle, amorphous...open to possibility [of interpretation. etc etc etc]. I am thinking at the moment of Andre Breton's "poem-objects" - '20s-30s. They were Cornellesque I suppose [though I think he was doing them before...? ] He often wrote a bit - a phrase, a stanza in the construction, but it was more about the poem the gathering of the particular objects [and their placement/relation] created. Ie, visual art is often poetry to me. Maybe because I like, particularly, symbolist poetry [eg Mallarme] because it is is not about saying a thing literately, but suggesting it - language as conducive to thought and/or feeling. Conductor [not as strict composition, but guide]; or catalyst. Now of course, I gather you're speaking of the intentionality defining the difference, but folks were doing poetically/linguistically inclined trash art before Jim also. If he came up w/ the name, fine of course, I just don't believe he's the only one who deserves credit for the visual and/or linguistic slant of Trashpo stylistically [as a genre, shall we say].

I'm a bit involved in something else to get too involved here presently, but the term "Po-mo" makes my skin crawl! To me, it's simply modernism w/ a flashy new name invented by academics for the most part; something produced by folks who wanted to pretend they'd created something new. An "art world" product, and a hollow one at that [gimmick!]. [Yea, it is indeed one of her peeves! %_^]

Comment by De Villo Sloan on April 24, 2012 at 12:11am

Yes, it would. I'm a bit nervous, having gone through Asemics 16 debates last summer that got rancorous. That stuff is for graduate seminars & San Francisco Bay Poetry Wars. Mail-art is really a salvation from that. I'm probably just fuelling the fire. Thank you for your openness & not being a Deletist, DK. We're all friends. And Cleo - I like your work a lot. Don't take this the wrong way. I'm trying to explain.

Comment by DKeys on April 24, 2012 at 12:01am

Jim is a member of this group now, so it would be very interesting to get his take on this. 

Comment by De Villo Sloan on April 23, 2012 at 11:36pm

Hi Cleo, I don't think we differ on anything. I understand & am aware of the Schwitters legacy. Obviously, Schwitters is a hero at IUOMA based on all the praise. Most veteran mail-artists are well-grounded in DaDa & Fluxus.

 

Just for the benefit of anyone who might read this, I don't want anyone to think that Jim Leftwich is The Man Who Tried to Hijack Kurt Schwitters. Jim Leftwich did a small number of works he titled "Trashpo" circa 2005.

 

Based on anything I can find, he has never commented in public on those pieces. He has never endorsed or commented on this IUOMA group that uses the word "Trashpo" or my writing about Trashpo. An artist/writer named Lannie Quarles has also used the term Trashpo, BTW. So I guess Lannie ripped off Schwitters too, following your logic.

 

I take all responsibility for having recycled Jim's "Trashpo" in the mail-art (or at least IUOMA) world about a year ago. I was writing about Diane Keys' work, which I think is highly original & literary as well as visual art. I looked around & found Jim Leftwich's Trashpo as a point of comparison. The name is so much fun it stuck. People are doing all sorts of experiments that vary considerably here from the original Leftwich work. I mean, in the end can you tell me what postmodernism is and who invented it?

 

I suppose DK could establish a review board to determine what is & isn't Trashpo & whether work should or shouldn't be posted. Maybe we could call it "The Yale Journal of Trashpo" - that is if the word Trashpo can still be used if it's not replaced by SchwitterPo.

 

But I think the real benefit of the Trashpo Revival has been that the Trashpo concept has inspired a lot of people to produce some fantastic work in the Da-Da-Fluxus lineage when they had been previously intimidated by intellectualizing & the weight of art history. Now the baggage is back on the rack.

 

Trashpo is fun. Anyone can do it. This is mail-art. I like dealing with those ideas better.

 

Perhaps more important, Cleo, is the name Trashpo=Trash Poetry. Notice that word: POETRY = Jim Leftwich does VISUAL Poetry = Vispo. Given those small clues, I think you probably have to consider that the branch of Trashpo is on the tree of Visual Poetry & you have to have some sense of what Visual Poetry is about to arrive at an intellectualized understanding of what Trashpo is about & how it might depart from Schwitter's seminal collages done oh so long ago.

 

The fact that you are interchanging the words collage & visual poetry suggests to me you haven't completely thought through this. Visual poetry & collage are two different animals, even if they might occasionally have similar spots. You might want to look at "movements" such as Neo & Post-Neo because Jim Leftwich has been associated w/ those things & I found digging into it helped illuminate his work a lot - including Trashpo. Please consider the literary of Trashpo too.

 

As I said, I feel really responsible for dragging Leftwich into this. But that's the nature of the beast in the arts - morons like me dig into your work & start championing things you forgot you ever did.

 

In the culture of mail-art there are ways to express your views in ways that are extremely positive without negating what someone else did. Then, people can really appreciate the discussion but are not made to feel like they HAVE to respond.

 

So you, you know, I'll turn myself in to the Yale Art History Department for the Schwitterpo hijack because I've always wanted my day in court. Or I'll be glad to debate anyone about these subjects - as long as it's not @ IUOMA.

 

I felt I had to say something so that no innocent citizens are harmed.

Comment by DKeys on April 23, 2012 at 9:35pm

Schwitters and Cornell are my biggest inspirations. Thanks for posting this Cleo-it's always good to refer to the source!

Comment by Claire (aka Cleo) on April 23, 2012 at 9:12pm

I'm afraid I would have to beg to differ about Leftwich being the
"original creator of Trashpo (2005)." It may have had a different name,
but people have been making art [including m.a.] w/ trash for a loooong
time, long before 2005! I believe I would credit the origins [well known
anyway] to Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) and his "Merz." "Merz" is from
the German word "commerz" [commerce]. Choosing the tail end
[fragment...] of the word very telling indeed - it's what it was about.
His materials were found objects - the leftovers, thrown away - the
detritus indeed! I recall reading that his favorite art supply haunt was
the junkyard. I believe I would not be far off if I opined that I
doubt that a great amount of the work at IUOMA, if not the majority,
would look as it does if it were not for Schwitters' legacy, the mark he
left on art... [Oh, and Cornell too of course!] I would go so far as to
say that collage, period, owes much of it's visual life to him...
[am i being too art history pedantic? %_^]

Comment by Thom Courcelle on April 23, 2012 at 7:07pm

Whew!!  THANKS, Neil!  No wonder you got appointed as Chaplain--words of wisdom indeed.  I shall unburden myself of the material, and send it to Roberto, who was the first to make a request and showed no fear in the face of such a mysterious item.

I'm gonna need that club soda to re-hydrate after that long flight back from Greece to visit Katerina.  This DKult Compliance Committee Program is a lot of air miles!!

Comment by Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat) on April 23, 2012 at 6:05pm

The DKult Compliance Committee has met:

(Thom was just here, DVSloan, too, and Neil not even 50 minutes ago...)

There are indeed 10 (ten!) DKult tattoos that arrived in DKultGR...

We have Attitude Girl checkin' it all out..from behind .

we have out DKoder rings , etc...

BUTT (that's where the DKult tattoo is to go?)

we do NOT have The Shred of The Shroud of Elgin!

Now how can we possibly proceed with DKulting Grrrrrrrrrrr?

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