DOCUMENTATION: Asemics16 Mail-Art Book Chapter by Cheryl Penn (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa)

[De Villo Sloan]

Detail of chapter contribution for Asemics 16 (Edition #2) Collaborative Mail-Art Book Project by IUOMA member Cheryl Penn (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa)

 

July 11, 2011 - Cheryl Penn's eight-page contribution to the second edition of the Asemics 16 project represents the impressive diversity of approaches artists from around the globe are bringing to the project. Here is the chapter's opening page:

 

Cheryl is primarily a visual artist who works in the visual-verbal area, combining text and image. The Chapter 2 contribution manages to synthesize a variety of modes with asemic writing as a dominant theme. The chapter incorporates ripped collage, textile art stitching, Burroughsian cut-up, and overlaid concrete poetry. In addition to its pure visual appeal, this work opens numerous possibilities for exploration of the nature of language and its structures. Here are pages 2-3:

 

The piece on the right indicates the Edition #2 Chapter is in some ways a transitional work by Cheryl. She has done some great concrete work using rubber stamps - a staple of mail-art. That work reappears here, integrating into asemic swirls that threaten to meld into the strokes of action art. The piece on the left strikes me as being a very successful integration of vispo and asemic writing, owing a nod to the gains David Baptiste-Chirot as has made for all of us. Here are pages 4-5:

 

This is my personal favorite because the asemic writing follows map lines. Many mail-artists make great use of maps in their work, and it's used to great benefit here. Some of Cheryl's newer asemic writing looks as if it were influenced by street art, but I know that is not a source of inspiration for her. Also in this spread is an application of screening - Karen Champlin (Illinois, USA) has achieved very successful results with screens too. Next, pages 6-7:

 

 

 

A true book artist, Cheryl has made each chapter she sends unique by adding one-of-a-kind elements to the copy foundation. The print at the lower-right is a photo that has been added.  I thought it was very interesting when Cheryl Penn began using circular and organic shapes for her asemic writing - breaking out of the linear mode - and the results are shown on these pages. The screened-over writing on the left is, to me, very expressive (one way to interject meaning in your asemic work), accented by the regularity of the grid. And the final page:

 

 

One term I haven't used yet is visual poetry - vispo. This chapter works as visual poetry, simply, if for no other reason, because it draws attention to the visual qualities of language and away from the abstraction of meaning through reading words. Language is very much used as a material on many of these pages.

 

Yet in this chapter, Cheryl Penn has not chosen to any great degree to explore the syntax of word and image that informs so much visual poetry. I think her Chapter 2 work is primarily textual and harkens back to classic concrete poetry, also revitalizing it and expanding its field considerably; this requires incorporating the innovations of visual poetry. 

 

Many IUOMA members are familiar with Cheryl's beautiful work for Asemics 16 - Edition #1. I don't believe this Edition #2 work has been as widely shared. It is more textual, more black & white - but I think very worthy of a close look. Many thanks, Cheryl! Also, Cheryl has a great mail-art blog where you can see some fantastic work:

http://cherylpenn.com/wpb/

 

[De Villo Sloan]

Catherine Petre - thank you for your interest!

 

Skybridge - thanks for pointing us to Scrabble board in Cheryl's piece. All this is not without fun on many levels. And then there's game theory... And then there's the commentary that visual-verbal work amounts to some cosmic board game in the ether.

 

Great comments IUOMA friends!

[De Villo Sloan]

My blog on your blog? Sorry, not the faintest... You know, I wasn't pleased with the scans because this chapter is so textual. I'm used to far more colorful and painterly things from you.  Then my interest was focused how textual this is. I did focus on formal elements - that'a a very formalist evaluation - because you have so many things converging here. This is like some Emmett Williams piece, something similar to that, only it's like super-charged. I daresay possibly a serious advance on the verbal-visual front. I don't think there's anything exactly like it. But you have to really LOOK at it.

[cheryl penn]

The surprise (but not really, knowing your thoroughness!) of you putting my blog on your blog made me do a quick update - so an inadvertent thank you :-)

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi CB, overall, I think I'm seeing rapid changes/evolution especially in people who are contributing to more than one book. Maybe the immersion - I think 8 pages at a clip is pretty intense - encourages people to experiment and push boundaries - definitely the project supports that.

[cheryl penn]

Petit Pea - HELLO :-) - welcome back!!!  Yes, I can can see DVS has been burning the midnight/early morning  oil... Somehow he always manages to articulate instinctive work in a VERY succinct manner.   Asemic writing IS - for me - very instinctive, unconscious text. The interesting part - which of COURSE  DVS picks up on - the work for # 2 was a progression for me from  #1 - it deals more the MECHANICS of asemics in a visual  way - if that makes any sense :-) X Thanks DVS - your writing - GREAT!

[Marie Wintzer]

Great blog DVS!

Hmmmmm, I NEED this beauty, can I still join asemic2? :-)) There is a wow factor in all of Cheryl's work, it's just there, that's it. Looove it!