INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: Is Trashpo Destined for the Dumpster of History? Erni Baer (Germany), Diane Keys (USA), Stewart Charlebois (Canada), Thom Courcelle (USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Erni Baer (Hamburg, Germany)

 

October 14, 2011 - Recent challenges to the very foundation of Trashpo have raised serious questions about whether this practice will endure in the eternal network. Issues include claims of defective items, authenticity, and challenges to Trashpo concepts by mail-artists. Perhaps most disturbing, Jim Leftwich (Virginia, USA), who coined the term Trashpo, has never made a public comment on the current movement. Others view Trashpo as a fad, repackaged readymades. So what is the current state of Trashpo today and can it endure?

 

A Can-Do Attitude...

 

Erni Baer of Hamburg, Germany, whose influences include Da Da and the Beat Generation, is an ideal can-didate (see above) for Trashpo laurels. This flattened aluminum can, glued to cardboard and mailed to me recently, is a shining example of his work that shows the influence of Pop Art in a very direct way. Here is the reverse side:

 

 

Erni Baer also maintains a strong identity in the haptic poetry community. Could this be a life insurance policy? A golden parachute to respectability if the Trashpo enterprise goes belly up? He is one of the first recipients of the Trash Po-litzer Prize for his seminal "Llingdo" (2010) sausage can art. This more recent work seems to be another addition to the aluminum can-on. Perhaps this suggests the future direction of Trashpo is in metals.

 

"God save the Queen. I really mean it, man..."

 

No discussion of contemporary Trashpo would be complete without a big nod (and a wink) to Diane Keys aka DK. I have never been very good at second-guessing her conceptual brilliance. The most recent mail-art she sent me resulted from my numerous complaints concerning the alleged defective D-Koder ring she sent me. I want to express my deepest thanks to DK for sending me a new, fully functioning ring that is the pride and joy of DKULTNY, the New York branch of her fan club. The ring does not appear in this blog because I could not scan it. However, here is the Trashpo that accompanied it:

 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Diane Keys (Elgin, Illinois, USA)

She seems to be taking a new direction in micro-Trashpo. Some of the bits of metal are so small you can barely see them, a DK take on minimalism. Clearly, some are meant to help, along with the D-Koder ring, in predicting future events or making decisions. I think some of them are pieces of earrings. I ask myself, "Do I now have pieces of DK's earrings?" Then I wonder: Has Trashpo become a D-Kult of personality? After all, Dark wall has been begging her for months to send him one of her shoes.

 

DK is now including a Certification of Authenticity with at least some of her mail-art. With all the authentic fakes circulating, I suppose this is logical. But people will just start making fake authenticity certificates, if they have not begun already. This leads to a huge issue: DK is clearly emerging into an industry with product lines and fan clubs. She has D-Kmart. Elgin no longer can provide all the trash she needs, so she is importing it from Maine. A fine-art franchise is included. Can Trashpo survive this level of market exploitation? DK's blog, new and growing in popularity, is a epicenter of Trashpo. The Golden Buddha is a source of cosmic wisdom. I now consult Golden Boo Dee concerning all important decisions:

 

http://dianekeys.blogspot.com/

 

Canadian Trashpo - A new frontier

 

Even as Trashpo debates escalate, more and more artists are entering the field. Remarkable work is being produced. Below is exciting and groundbreaking Trashpo I just received from Stewart Charlebois of Langley, British Columbia, Canada. We are familiar with Euro-trash and U.S. trash, yet Canadian trash remain largely untapped. Charlebois' work connects directly with junk food Trashpo through this very large and colorful flattened potato chip bag. In my estimation, an instant classic:

 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Stewart Charlebois (Langley, British Columbia, Canada)

 

Stewart Charlebois' work is definitely authentic Trashpo. The folds and creases formed through the flattening process have produced asemic symbols. Whether by chance or design, this is a clever example of asemic Trashpo. Here is the reverse side:

 

 

Many thanks to Stewart Charlebois for sending me this wonderful Trashpo. Stewart has a link on his IUOMA profile to a flickr photostream of mail-art:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66810744@N08/

 

This overview of Trashpo strongly suggests the artform is alive and well, if not thriving. Debates and questions are likely the result of its explosive growth and evolution. Yet if Trashpo were to fade away I would want to make sure I had documented this well-known classic by Thom Courcelle (Seattle, Washington, USA) that has become a symbol for the Age of Trash:

 

[Thom Courcelle]

Ack see what I get myself into with my big mouth??

Is that ring-nosed pig the humourous vamp that will get me off this stage?!  LOL

Maybe a collaborative manifesto? 

[De Villo Sloan]

I received an email and jpg I was asked to post. I had to translate the message from Spanish:

 

Dear DK, been a long time. I am still locked up in this Mexican quack joint. Ramone, he found work up north. DK I don't be angry because you owe me all the money or you got me locked up. I very angry they say your decode ring no good. I wear mine every day. See in picture? I come see you when they let me out and it be like old time. Luv Stubbs

 

[DKeys]

agreed--I vote Thom to write the much needed Trashpo Manifesto!!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

A lot of people worry about that trash moving around the world. A character in "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" was in therapy over it. There must be groups of organized individuals so worried that they meet to brainstorm and maybe even protest in the streets. All we need to do is find them and make Thom's comment their manifesto. They'll be touting our trashpo all over the place; maybe they would even be our future patrons!

[DKeys]

Thom, I saw a documentary about that and had no idea until then that states pay to export their trash. It's pathetic when everything can, should and will in the future be made out of recyclable materials. Plastic really is not our friend.

[DKeys]

please tell me you're not wearing them both at the same time DVS

[Thom Courcelle]

Thoughts: Righteous Trashpo loot.

I'm thinkin' a squashed pickle is more composte than trashpo.

I think I have missed a bunch of the hubbub discussion about Trashpo and its longevity or prescient demise..(honestly, it's hard to keep up with everything on this site!)... but some things that Nancy said about trade routes and such struck me as indicative of the grand question that Trashpo might address.  I DO know Nancy was being humourous in her commentary, but do people know that there are REAL Cargo TRADE ROUTES of trash that circle the globe? ...That first world and industrial world nations literally send their trash to third world nations and "unseen" corners of the world that are willing to accept the world's garbage? Even in the United States, different states have economic contracts and agreements with one another about shipping garbage from place to place like it was a commodity. Anyone remember in the 90s, the garbage barge that literally couldn't find a home to dump its cargo anywhere on the planet? The floating island in the middle of the Pacific that is twice the size of Texas? Now there is one in the Atlantic as well.  All sight unseen.

Which is where we come in.  Art has always been an act of mixing the poetic and the political, so I think of our Trashpo not just as hilarious and amusing and OFTEN beautiful, but as a statement and commentary, too.  We are the 0.000000001 percent (or less)... of the weight of what this world hefts of the GARBAGO. I think we create a new aesthetic perview of what living in the world is like in juxtaposition with our own throw-offs and refuse ('cause there's a mind-boggling vast amount of it). It might overwhelm us if we didn't grab the reins and redefine it as something we live with concomitantly... or as art. (If this is all too heavy, somebody just make a joke, and we'll be done with it...)

[De Villo Sloan]

DK, you don't need to be so defensive. I'm very happy with both D-Koder rings. And this is not about the rings. Trashpo is definitely alive and well.

[DKeys]

DKmart has offered to refund DVS' decoder ring for a store credit (the sale on pies has been extended), but he refuses. He will not show a picture of this ring for reasons unknown. But I suspect it is his superstition that a photo of it might spawn cheap replicas.  I sent Angie (and Snooky of course) a 'cost-effective' 'upgraded' decoder ring. We had a significantly lower budget to work with as much of our resources have been consumed when we had to hire a staff for the complaint department. We are also having to get legal representation so that no one holds us accountable for anything that happens as a result of their conjuring with the decoder ring (that DOES work DVS just refuses to read the directions). I hope Angie has better luck with hers. I feel reasonably certain that she will read the manual first. We have no plans to franchise DKmart, at least not until we can make trashpo a household word.  GOTIJ Neil Gordon today. He has some wise words of caution that "The Cramps" stole from him   "Don't eat stuff off the side walk!"  He also writes "Peace thru Trashpo". We're not spreading the garbage around the world, we're spreading peace--one piece of crap at a time

And who's this Jack dude?

I love the yellow pole piece-very appropriate to Erni since feet are sacred in Eastern culture

[cheryl penn]

TEACHING!!!!! NBF Send the spell chick home!!!