DOCUMENTATION: Asemics 16 Edition #4 Chapter from Cheryl Penn (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Cheryl Penn (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa)

 

September 6, 2011 - Among other types of work, Cheryl Penn has produced visual-textual narratives that are both complex and highly self-referential. I interpret her fourth chapter contribution to the Asemics 16 collaborative book project as an application of her distinctive style to the area of asemic writing and forms of visual poetry to which it is inherently connected. 

 

This meditation on visual forms employs retro-images to produce fully realized and self-contained post-literature. Four pages of her chapter are transparencies with inscribed images, enlarging possibilities for layering effects. Above is the opening page (right)  and the final back page. Next are pages two and three:

 

 

On page two (upper left) is a square suggesting Jackson Pollock's action painting. This might seem out of place until we realize Penn is referring to the artistic climate of an era when concrete poetry first began to gain the attention of writers and artists involved with the avant garde. On the right is a strip of conventional concrete poetry overlain with asemic writing - a theme that runs throughout the chapter.

 

Tones of black, white, and grey are pronounced throughout the chapter: A reference to the eras when concrete and visual poetry were most commonly presented in black and white. The approach, I believe, is similar to a filmmaker who chooses to shoot in black and white for particular chronological and expressive reasons. Pages four and five present a spectacular display of asemics:

 

 

Cheryl Penn often works with organic, circular, and integrated structures. In comparison, this chapter is far more geometric and compartmentalized, referencing concrete poetry structures, especially grids.

 

Squares, rectangles, and grid forms provide the foundation for an asemic syntax that is explored in the chapter (and will be further developed in Edition #5), addressing the question: If there are symbols devoid of meaning, then can there be syntax devoid of meaning? The answer in Cheryl Penn's chapter is yes. This is a fascinating approach: Asemic syntax is created in a practical, material way relying - more than anything - on formal elements of the visual arts. The "blocks" of asemic syntax are combined to create an asemic narrative or an asemic fiction.

 

This is also  a reference to the era of printed text that gave rise to post-literate forms and the industrial repetition of standard fonts that define most concrete poetry. Yet integration and synthesis are not lacking in this work. They are located in the layering technique. In the case of pages four and five, we see a superb synthesis of asemic writing, symbols, and concretism. Here are pages six and seven:

 

 

These are beautiful pages providing a compare and contrast of asemics and concretism, ingeniously united with a grid structure. The realization of a post-literate text is apparent here. Narratives and meaning can be read, but not in any conventional sense. The "writing" is entirely composed of symbols and structures from the realm of post-literature - a kind of discourse with its source in literary and artistic tradition but also a departure from that tradition. Here is the final page of the chapter:

 

Another interesting aspect of the chapter is the use of the large grey asemic symbols. These also provide formal coherence and seem to be a reference to earlier work by Cheryl Penn, a symbol system she constructed that could possibly refer to her personal journey through forest of signs. I blogged this piece in September 2010:

 

 

 

We have come a long way. As ever, many thanks Cheryl.

More work from Asemics 16 can be found at http://cherylpenn.com/wpb/

[De Villo Sloan]

And when it comes to people working NOW TODAY, I don't think you should miss our own Litsa Spathi here at IUOMA either. She has pushed it forward but seems to somehow manage to keep a lot in common with old concretists:

http://nobodypress.blogspot.com/

[De Villo Sloan]

Speaking of grids, here's "Grid Sequence for Sweethearts" by Williams. There is also a minimal style. You can find all sorts of tremendous work out there:

[cheryl penn]

No matter how stuff changes, the beginnings - the classics, they are for me fundamental - if there are no foundations - if no one ever began anything - how do you build? I think this is wonderful.

[De Villo Sloan]

Just FYI, here's an example of "classical" concrete poetry, just so everyone knows what I'm talking about. This is by Emmett Williams who did amazing work and was involved in Dick Higgins' Something Else Press and the Old Fluxus. Concrete poetry has a LONG history in mail-art. You can see how Cheryl's work is a very updated version of the OLD School. By Emmett Williams:

 

[cheryl penn]

I'm with Nancy!!!!

[cheryl penn]

I cant imagine a world without theory? When there is none there will be  theories why there isn't any... Theory for me is like bones to a dog - something to chew over, enjoy for a while, then  bury.  But I am certain there are MANY who disagree!! BUT I still enjoy the chewing - and the viewpoints and the debates.  Its a choice - right? Each to their own.  No DVS - you do NOT muddy the waters :-) X

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yah, De Villo, you are the spomo 4 pomo, although your using "po" for anything other than poetry when I'm just getting used to it really sends me up the creek.

Don't stop the writing! In the past two months I've fallen in love with asemics, trashpo, and god knows what else, and don't yet have the faintest idea how to explain any of it. Just now learning how to *read* about it.

[De Villo Sloan]

Cheryl, thanks for confirming what I was thinking. Your chapter is bold to me because you limited yourself to post-literate (polit?) forms and created an extended text by combining them in a very material way. For that reason, I also said your narrative is very self-referential. I think your concrete poetry is beautiful and am glad you used it here to such advantage.

 

Nancy, the Mo the better? I'm the spomo 4 pomo? (spokesmodel for postmodernism)

 

Kat, you are too kind. Sometimes I think I muddy the waters with all the writing. I could enjoy your work, Cheryl's work, Nancy's work without ever understanding it. I know because I fell in love with concrete poetry before I ever had the faintest idea how to explain it. I can't wait for Fluxus to fulfill its vision of life and art - then there will be no more theory.

 

 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

You're a cuter spokesmodel than I imagined, but you're probably not Banksy's type.

[De Villo Sloan]

I'm proud to be the official Spokesmodel for asemics: