Minimalism Less than Zero by Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illinois, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illinois, USA)

December 19, 2014 - Richard Canard has ridden many successive mail-art waves. As a result, he has acquired a useful tool box of avant techniques and has even managed to contribute a few. His forays into minimalist poetry are always of interest, and this example I share with you today might well be an outlier – even for Richard Canard. He pushes the envelope of the minimal into the domain of absence so that we are confronted with the unadorned materials of mail-art. We might consider this a “Nothing” as opposed to a “Happening,” although good conceptual art has a way of raising complex questions with complicated answers.

So I submit this unusual item to the formidable Richard Canard canon and add many thanks to him for sending.

[De Villo Sloan]

glad you like it, Linda. Richard has an abundance of tricks up his sleeve, although that's not a good art metaphor, I suppose.

I know he admires Aram Saroyan's minimalist poetry (eyeye). Even more, Ray Johnson staged "Nothings" instead of "Happenings." This strikes me as a Nothing - in a good way.

And Less Than Zero is a book and movie. I don't know if you can actually have minimalism that's less than zero. There's also a book called Writing Degree Zero, which came to mind.

[Linda French]

I am exceedingly, excessively, maximally fond of this 0.  --Linda