RECEIVED: TIC TAC's Short Stories Are A "Must Read" in the New Collaborative Mail-Art Book (Starnberg, Germany)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Ptrzia Tic-Tac (Starnberg, Germany); she dedicates the chapter to visual poet Joan Brossa

 

 

February 19, 2012 - Every mail-art exchange I have had with Tic-Tac has proven to be a blast as well as a learning experience , so I have been eagerly anticipating her contribution to the collaborative visual poetry book project Cheryl Penn (South Africa) and I are coordinating with headquarters here at the IUOMA. As ever, many thanks to IUOMA founder Ruud Janssen for conceiving such a wonderful place for all of us. (This chapter appears in Edition #2)

 

The scan above shows Tic Tac's opening chapter page (left) and her distinctive stamp on the outer mailing envelope (right). I am immediately intrigued by a "Shortstories" chapter for the vispo book.  Her use of perspective in the title represents a diminishment into minimalism through which she is able to relate big stories with a most economical use of language.

 

The editions' theme is an homage to a revered artist (Tic Tac's work is dedicated to Joan Brossa); however, in discussions about project themes, I have floated the idea of narrative by Cheryl several times for both asemic fiction and vispo narrative. How would writers and artists address these concepts? Perhaps in the future we will find out on a broader scale. For now, we have Tic Tac's compelling work:

 

 

I do not think of Tic Tac as a minimalist overall, but she uses the mode beautifully here. For her conception of visual poetry, she reaches back to concrete poetry (Tic Tac apparently has a vast knowledge of the avant garde) with its emphasis on the materiality of language and building forms from basic elements of the alphabet.

 

A surprise of the project has been that I assumed many of the artists would use vispo devoid of written text, focusing instead on the poetics of image in the lyric. The work we are seeing is far more language-centered.

 

While much classic concrete poetry is complex, Tic Tac uses single or a few letters. I think Aram Saroyan's work is a good reference point here for its visual economy and intent to express ideas and emotions rather than self-referential language. Of course, Tic Tac far exceeds the common definition of concrete poetry. This is visual poetry that has the freedom to incorporate images and even f0und objects. That integration reveals itself as the chapter progresses: 

 

 

Tic Tac gives us pencil-written titles, such as "pet poem" (above left). She creates a highly signified poem in a surprisingly small space: eye, heart, spoon, fish, fishbowl (mirrored with "u"), food, and plenty of letters.  The mind fills in the narrative of an everyday activity seen from multiple perspectives, complete with emotions,  a fantastic visual poem, I think.  The next two fill the absence a bit more:

 

 

Tic Tac's sense of humor and play is great. I like "St. Vispo" especially with the crown/halo of golden V's. Tic Tac's excellent artist's books often contain assemblages of interesting found material. The page above has some glued material that adds a haptic dimenstion. "OH!" is an interesting piece to contemplate, being built on a single ambiguous, emotive expression. Again, the mind immediately begins working to create an explanation and a narrative, yet it is necessarily far more subjective than some of the other stories in the book. Here is the final page:

 

 

Tic Tac's chapter is dedicated to the Catalan poet and artist Joan Brossa. So she has also led me to discover Brossa's work for the first time: a visual poet who has also written conventional and masterful sonnets and sestinas. (The poetry wars concerning form that we are so obsessed with in the USA are in many ways based on ridiculous stereotypes and polarizing politics when you begin looking from a more global perspective.) Brossa's art is often an extension of textual-visual explorations. Here is a link to Wik about him that can also take you to other places to see his work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Brossa

 

Tic Tac is an active blogger, so here is a link to her profile that will take you many interesting places:

 

http://www.blogger.com/profile/11823303807599994639

 

Last year (February 19, 2011) I blogged Tic Tac's work and she shared some ideas in the comments stream:

 

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/received-documentation...

 

Many thanks for this great chapter. Tic Tac.

 

[Marcela Peral]

Brossa and his incredible visual poetry... One of the GREATEST IN SPANISH VISUAL POETRY!!! so wonderfully worked by Tic Tac... Really a pleasure!!!

[Rebecca Guyver]

De Villo, thank you for sharing Tic Tac's wonderful book pages! Your analysis is beautiful too.