THE DECADENCE OF TRASHPO (Part I) featuring Theresa Williams' Trashbook Epic + Diane Keys, Richard Canard, Nancy Bell Scott, PrettyLily (xUSA)

[De Villo Sloan]

"For Ancient Text Call" by Diane Keys (circa April 2011, Elgin Illinois). Considered the first known Trashbook (photo courtesy of the International Union of Mail-Artists)

 

May 18, 2012 - Many current discussions of Trashpo involve aesthetic issues. Trashpo is evolving and moving into different genres. A burning question emerges: Has Trashpo lost its roots? Has it entered an era of decadence spelling its demise? This two-part series will seek an answer by exploring the rise of the Trashbook and its current situation.

 

Invention of the Trashbook: Evidence indicates Diane Keys invented the first trashbook in April 2011 (see top photo). In a little more than a year, the Trashbook has evolved at a staggering rate. 

 

Diane Keys apparently felt it necessary to provide an explanation of Trashpo and Trashbooks as interest swelled:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/group/all-things-trashpo/forum/topics...

 

Here are some observations on the first, prototypical Trashbook:

 

Anti-art: Diane Keys' original book was anti-art. The "Ancient Text" label suggests a parody of the Classical tradition. Indeed, the burned content of the book might suggest, via Ben Vautier, a radical rejection of artistic and literary traditions.

 

Haptic & object poetry: Diane's first trashbook cannot be read in any conventional or linear way. It is object or haptic poetry.

 

Materials: Trashpo uses discarded materials destined to become in one form another an environmental hazard. Thus, and this is probably the single most important unifying concept, Trashpo is a form of RECYCLING, taking what is considered waste and recycling it into living culture by culture workers. Trashpo has always seemed to resist commodification and thus has the characteristics of:

 

- Protest against consumerism & consumption

- Protest against environmental destruction

- Protest against corporations, governments & institutions that perpetuate consumerism & waste, including the Art Establishment itself, which is a major offender.

- The early Trashbook was a form of Social Realism.

 

Richard Canard(Carbondale, Illinois, USA) sent Diane Keys a piece of mail-art very much in keeping with the original concept of the Trashbook. The envelope is made of hammered aluminum, indicating alternatives to paper and cardboard should be considered. Scrap metals, of course, have a symbolic place in the current global economic situation.

 

Hammered aluminum mailing envelope by Richard Canard (December 2011). Courtesy of International Union of Mail-Artists (IUOMA)

 

Rise of the Aesthetic Trashbook

 

The original prototype of the Trashbook was quickly altered. Mail-artists began producing texts that had various aesthetic elements and were not anti-art. The records of the TrashPo Litzer Prize and Landfill of Fame indicate Cheryl Penn (South Africa) and Nancy Bell Scott (USA) created the first known Aesthetic Trashbooks.

 

Untitled Trashbook by Nancy Bell Scott of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, USA (2011). Considered the first aesthetic trashbook, as documented in Marie Wintzer's TrashPo Litzer winning blog "A trashbook without trash": http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/trash-book-without-any...

 

Indeed, Cheryl's and Nancy's work was so influential most Trashbooks being posted now are Aesthetic Trashbooks and the earlier prototypes are difficult to find. The shift to the Aesthetic Trashbook did require, when you consider the evidence, adoption of new materials. These include collage and studio scraps that were previously destined for the dumpster.

 

Also included in the Aesthetic Trashbooks are materials from destroyed books, magazines, and journals, many of them with a cultural focus. These are not commonly found in the street. The commitment to recycling remains intact, but the content widens the field from street trash. Work that uses contrived trash for the purpose of achieving an artistic effect is fake or representational Trashpo. The content shift very likely changes meaning in many contemporary Trashbooks, moving them away from political and social commentary and toward aesthetic concerns: art about art.

 

Litterature, Meta-Trash, Postmodern Trash or TrashPo Mo

 

The potential of Trashpo to attain its decadence has already been foreshadowed in work by PrettyLily (Virginia, USA). She was awarded a TrashPo Litzer Prize for her book that was identfied as "meta-trash" or trash about trash. From PrettyLily's meta-Trashbook: 

 

Pages from Untitled Trashbook by Prettylily (Sue Bowen) (2011). This book earned Prettylilly a TrashPo Litzer Prize.

 

 

PrettyLily, brilliantly I might add, used a government-issued booklet about litter in public parks to build a thought-provoking work. Yet a nagging question remains: If the collective belief becomes that trash can only refer to itself and the purpose of the Trashbook is only to present trash about trash, is its impact and significance lessened? Will it ultimately have a purpose or an audience?

 

Theresa Williams' Trashbook Epic

 

One of the most stunning Trashbooks I am aware of is shown in the scans below. Theresa Williams (Bowling Green, Ohio, USA) is the author. I am thrilled to be the recipient (and have had it for a while).

 

Although the work reflects the D-Khaos of earlier Trashbooks with torn pieces and differently sized pages (the main image on the cover is upside-down), this is a stunning achievement in the area of the Aesthetic Trashbook. This is also an incredibly sustained work.

 

While a certain degree of randomness was probably incorporated in the composition, the success of this work - to me anyway - is achieved through formalism: image pairings, juxtapositions and sequences; repetition of a variety of elements (eyes, animals, colors, etc.), text (including asemic writing) - material was selected and arranged with an aesthetic eye.

 

The formal structure is built in a masterful way so that many possibilities for meaning are built into the text, one of the central ones being, I think, a meditation on the relation of the Trashbook to the larger currents of culture. But I think it is best for you to dig into the work and reach your own conclusions. I hope you will:

 

Cover of Trashbook by IUOMA Theresa Williams (Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (2-3)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (4-5)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (6-7)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (8-9)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (10-11)

 

 Trashbook by Theresa Williams (12-13)

 

 Trashbook by Theresa Williams (14-15)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (16-17)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (18-19)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (20-21)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (22-23)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (24-25)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (26-27)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (28-29)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (30-31)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (32-33)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (34-35)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (36-37)

 

Trashbook by Theresa Williams (38-39)

 

(Trashbook by Theresa Williams - 40)

 

And don't miss Theresa Williams' amazing Letter Project!

 

http://theletterproject.wordpress.com/

 

Many thanks to the artists who appear in this blog. "The Decadence of Trashpo" is

 

TO BE CONTINUED in a second blog.

 

 

MAIL-ART PSYCHIC

 

"No! I prefer MinXus!"

http://minxuslynxus.wordpress.com/

 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Recycling, absolutely. And yes, the Dw trashpo piece *might* be purely anti-art. In other early (mail-art) trashpo I see anti-art but also art. Artistic intervention, even in small amounts, and artistic intention, you know? How do you decide whether that is absent? It hardly ever is, even in the work of the most adamant anti-art artists. But maybe my definition of anti-art is too broad. (Don't ask me, because I don't know.)

So, fake or representational trashpo sounds like "shabby chic" in the antiquing world of the last 20-25 years. Forty-fifty years ago antiquers were still scrubbing the milk paint off antique furniture to make it look un-aged and perfect. Soon after, they were trying to put fake "old" paint back onto everything (and realizing with horror that they'd spent decades working hard to wash away history). Where was reality or pure-anything in all that?

I found both cycles sad, and loved as-is old stuff, which meant dealing happily with mostly borderline junk and people of like mind.

But in that, in art, in trashpo, and in ______, I try not to be too judgmental so long as the avoidance of sterility and stagnation is very high up there on the list of priorities and motivations.

This may be totally irrelevant here, and if so, send me back to the workspace where I belong.

[Rebecca Guyver]

As an novice trashpo practitioner who was oblivious to terminology and movement, I appreciate DVS' ability to demystify the mystifying so eloquently. I find that it also helps to have a road map to misread. And I love seeing examples! 

[De Villo Sloan]

Then it's water under the bridge, Cleo. The situation has actually been tormenting me, believe it or not.

 

Hi Theresa, glad you saw this. Thanks for the amazing book! There is a wonderful letter with it too abt. Ez P but would have derailed this a bit. Thanks again.

 

Going back to NBS, I will truly stick with my sense that I see anti-art in the early T-Books. My proposal that it's Social Realism might be a bit much, but here is a Dw Trashpo piece from about the same time DK launched her first T-Book. I think you can see the anti-art (Trash thrown on scanner bed) & social aspect (losing lottery ticket & medication):

 

[Claire (aka Cleo)]

ah darling De Villo, if you knew my personality, I promise you you wouldn't give it a second thought! 'Tis cool, I promise! %_^ IE, I love to argue/love strong opinions. I can, of crs., argue vociferously indeed, but meanwhile there's 'oft a smirk on my face/serious & playful... An exercise of the mind is always a good thing imo - thought be where it's at! Live & let... [Aaaanyway, good luck ever getting me to shut my loquacious & pontificating mouth! Signed, The critical bitch ;o]

[De Villo Sloan]

Diane has already added new Trashpo jargon: Traesthetics to replace aesthetics. I didn't think TrashPo Mo was too shabby either. TrashMo Fo.

 

Nancy, my amazingly lucid & logical analysis reveals RECYCLING is a core concept that holds the Trashpo bandwagon together & also serves as its social consciousness. You have the possibility that an artist might fake trash in order to make a piece work. DIdn't Aristotle suggest art is mimicry? For instance, they might buy cereal just because they need a piece of the box & not because they eat Froot Loops. They might rip the box & stamp on it to make it look like abused trash. I see now that wouldn't be true to the spirit of Trashpo; it's just more consumerism & waste. I see "representational Trashpo" as art that seeks to reproduce trash without being Trash, probably also adding to "Meta-Trash."

 

Oh yes, I imagine there are many more kinds of Trashbooks. Am I actually mocking that system that seeks to categorize everything in this blog? Or am I serious? I don't know myself. Yet I hope the artists will rebel against anything I'm doing & make even greater art as a result of their rejection. I reject art & spit on it, except for present company & other friends who might have the misfortune of seeing this.

 

Cheryl, I think you must accept that you (along with NBS) had a role in Traesthetics. You could do a Ben Vautier thing & include matches w/your mail-art. Write a message something like: "Burn all Trashpo & as I, Cheryl, too made Trashpo, burn this." Does that relieve you of culpability?

 

Hi Cleo & KDJ. Cleo I hope you feel like you can say anything you want to say. I'm sorry about that unfortunate Schwitters po thing, really. OK? I feel badly about that.

 

DK, an honor as always. Looking at your early Trashbook work, well, I understand the popularity of DKult as an appreciation of your brilliance.

[Claire (aka Cleo)]

Thanks for posting De Villo - great to see this!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Diane's first trashbook is brilliant! Never saw that before.

What is "contrived trash"? And "fake trashpo" and "representational trashpo"? I see they come under the heading of the "aesthetic trashbook" but have no idea what they consist of.

I don't know whether Diane intended to start a trashbook movement, but her own trashbook style is (wonderfully) unique. I doubt there is only one other style of trashbook (the aesthetic); there have been many trashbooks by many different artists, each to my mind with its own style and type of content. The idea that any of those would somehow supplant or take away from Diane's original concept seems strange. 

[cheryl penn]

I think Diane has my one trash book. You will have the other. Thats it. Out of print after that... Traeshthetics - good one DK :=))!

[DKeys]

Excellent blog! I don't know how I missed Theresa's trashbook-    it is beautiful     Amazing Traeshthetics!

[Carina]

These are sensationell, DVS!