New Vispo & Asemics by Matthew Stolte (Madison, Wisconsin, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail art by IUOMA member Matthew Stolte (Madison, Wisconsin, USA)

April 15, 2015 - Visual poet Matthew Stolte sent me this batch of colorful yet language-centered vispo that includes a fair share of asemics and shows a concrete poetry derivation.

Matt Stolte has been doing some knock-out collabs lately. While preserving the originals, I will add some new elements to copies of some of these pieces. This batch of vispo raises some interesting questions about when any work of art or writing can be considered “finished” and if leaving a piece “unfinished” can amount to an aesthetic choice. The piece above seems finished to me. Some of the others do not. Here is a piece Matt Stolte sent that uses one of my concrete poems as a foundation.

Another classically Matthew Stolte visual poem:

The envelope included a note from Matt Stolte clarifying intentions:

And the usual suspects:

Many thanks to Matthew Stolte of Madison, Visconsin!

Matt’s Construction Sea is a blog with which anyone interested in vispo must stay current:

http://constructionsea.blogspot.com/

[De Villo Sloan]

It's worth noting that several generations of significant visual poets have come out of the Midwest, Wisconsin especially. They all "came up" through mail-art even if now all don't actively participate: I am thinking of Miekal And, David Chirot, Matt Stolte and now Angie Cope. There are certainly others.

Some of it possibly has to do with the presence of John and Mehrl Bennett in Columbus, Ohio. They're an interesting group.

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks, Finn. Matt will appreciate that. He usually sees these sooner or later.

These are definitely "starters" for collabs w/some great elements.

[FinnBadger]

Great stuff - the blue, black and white one is amazing.