RECEIVED: Cheryl Penn Running on Empty in "Verbs" Mail-Art Book (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Cheryl Penn (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa)

 

July 4, 2011 - Cheryl Penn and I are working on a collaborative mail-art book using a single verb as chapter themes. When we're done, every letter of the alphabet will be covered. (Did I once write: Beware the alphabet?) Chapter "Empty" arrived in New York a few days ago. I was astonished that the Dread of Durban aka Big Sister aka Groot Suster aka CP-SA had chosen the path of pure minimalism, a confrontation with the void - Cheryl is rarely at a loss for words or images. Each chapter has eight pages. Here are two and three:

 

 

 

Marie Wintzer (Japan) has pioneered mail-art holes, another invocation of emptiness. Marie and Cheryl are currently collaborating on the amazing "Ether" book: Is it possible Cheryl has been inspired by Marie's flirtations with nothingness? Here are pages four and five sideways:

 

 

 

Somewhere in the past I must have posted somewhere that "The Whiteness of the Whale" is my favorite chapter in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. And Herman Melville's Moby Dick is by far my favorite novel ever, so I'd like to think I'm acquainted with whiteness - of a particular variety. Pages six and seven:

 

 

A stunning close with page eight:

 

Sure, the old-timers are saying: "We've seen all this before." Indeed we have; maybe even on a famous album cover. But it's fun and perhaps even profitable in some way to dust off the old act once in a while to find out how close you can get to the big emptiness and come back to tell the tale. Take a little time and gaze into the void again courtesy of Cheryl.

[De Villo Sloan]

Can't see the trees for the forest at the moment.

[cheryl penn]

Hello Troll - bring back the shoes!!! Hello DVS - you remember the tree? Marie posted it on one of your blogs somewhere - a while back. Ask Watson if you cant remember - or the Brunette.

[De Villo Sloan]

"What do a lady's shoes tell us about the lady?" Watson asked Holmes.

 

"My dear friend," said Sherlock Holmes. "We must take a lesson from our adventure with The Hound of the Baskervilles. Her dogs are barking."

 

"Precisely Holmes! Brilliant!"

[De Villo Sloan]

Spell chick? Typo = compromising

[De Villo Sloan]

I love a mystery: "The Strange Case of the Disappeared Tied Tree." Holmes and Watson venture onto the moors of Alsace to pursue a mysterious troll connected with the theft of women's shoes and in possession of comprising mail-art. A an unnamed, ravishing lady wants both her shoes and mail returned, lest she be compromised. Of course we know, Simba did it.

[Marie Wintzer]

The tied tree, yes, that one!! :-(

[cheryl penn]

I hope not!! There is a photo of clarity in my mind - the tied tree? I am still hoping it pitches up. But Ether appears to be its own boss :-(

 

[Marie Wintzer]

Meanwhile, some real Ether pages have vanished. The plot thickens. Maybe they will arrive complety blank?

[De Villo Sloan]

Ether for sure, CB. I was thinking the same thing. The blank page is still material. It signifies emptiness, functioning the same as a more conventional symbol would. Definitely gets abstract with conceptual things.

[Marie Wintzer]

CB is more out than in, yes. That's Ether alright, it is here but not here.

I just wanted to say, I think that this piece by Cheryl is IMO very different from the whole hole business, something entirely new and distinct from it. Just like Ether, it is very difficult to define what is actually "empty".

Anyway.... I just wanted to say I'm enjoying this piece and the blog.

Off I go.....