RECEIVED: Heavy Metal Vispo Mail-Art from Matthew Stolte (Madison, Wisconsin, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

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

 

January 28, 2011 - To start the second round of our mail-art exchange, Matthew Stolte sent me this postcard-size piece of visual poetry. The use of the term "heavy metal" here is not ironic :) I explain at the end.

 

The first piece he sent was a single-word poem defined by negative space. This piece is more complex and reliant on symmetry with slight variations. Matthew's use of black and white here reminds that the printed text is still dominated by the lack of color. I think it is also a nod to, or shows the influence of, black and white photocopies that were once the primary medium for distributing visual poetry. A gigantic body of work was produced using this medium. This particular "means of production" shaped form and content. Visual poetry is heavily influenced by the changing nuances of technology; and I know Matt Stolte is also doing ground-breaking digital work.

This piece Matthew sent is also strong on texture. It especially makes me think of the contours of metal - an industrial vispo. You can find many pieces by other artists that have these metallic qualities. I wonder if it does not represent the idea of object or haptic poetry: that somehow the piece has life beyond an abstraction on paper. Heavy Metal is a term many associate with music. That reference is not lost here, but it is derived from science: substances listed on the Periodic Table of Elements. William S. Burroughs applied to music and thus an ironically free-floating descriptive term for art. 

 

I am looking forward to more trades with Matt and having more examples of his excellent work.

He has a great blog that has links to some other vispo sources. Don't let the name fool you, it's FDA approved:

http://www.illegitimateprescriptions.blogspot.com

 

 

[cheryl penn]

Dark Wall? I think he's someones pet. Leave him alone - he's cute!

[De Villo Sloan]

OK, I think it is becoming the International UNIVERSITY of Mail-Artists. How perceptive of you to notice my use of structuralism in an effort to understand Matt Stolte's piece :) Saussure's linguistics: the signifier and the signified. That line of thought has led to the belief that language prevents us from connecting with the world. The original link between the signifier and the signified - if it ever existed - is soon broken and the signifier is adrift in an ocean of signs that can only refer to themselves. If you believe that, Matt's vispo is already adrift in that ocean of signs, attaching and detaching. It will only become moreso. I hope that helps but probably doesn't clarify anything at all. Yeah, Pollock was definitely a dodge. Dark Wall? Who is this troll?

[cheryl penn]

Just before I was disconnected I heard - "Phonemes - Saussure's units of language construction, tell D.W. you were talking about THIS piece not Pollock, maybe Matt was communicating"

[De Villo Sloan]

DV - game over CP-SA an the Kat won name that tune (ringtone static on the line yr disconnected

[De Villo Sloan]

I thought the cell was a phoney premise at first, but Katerina and Cheryl called me on it.

 

Katerina - You are the Mistress of the Ether today. You cut through the vispo abstraction enough that I am convinced Matt probably used a cell as the base image for this piece. Even "steel" fits. However, do not make the error of saying this mail-art is a cell phone. It is a representation of a cell phone. I have it right here, and it's useless for making calls.

 

Oh, and Angie - I don't think that makes the steeple interpretation any less legitimate. It's kind of growing on me as a matter of fact. I don't know how anyone else feels.

 

Cheryl - It looks like Phonecian to me. I think over time and space any work of art becomes separated from the artist's original intent and removed from the social and cultural context in which it was originally understood, if that makes any sense. Meaning inevitably shifts and changes; it does not stay fixed, IMHO. I don't think Matt's piece has to be about a cell phone because he used one as a foundation. For instance, Jackson Pollock did a painting where the foundational images were impressions of boards soaked in paint on the canvas. The story is well-known and you can guess he was using boards when you look at the painting or a photo. So does that mean Jackson Pollock did a painting about boards? It's something like that, but I'm trailing into the ether again, hoping for Katerina to save me.

 

And I have to answer my shoe. 

[cheryl penn]

A soundless phoneme, issuing from a phoneme instrument. Do you think the image (form) can be divorced from its meaning (duality)?

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

An amazing piece from Stolte! Great blog, Sloan...you got us wondering and discussing... It does look like Marie says, to be a "print"..a cell phone piece? Can you imagine that there is actually an item for sale on the iternet called:

Stainless Steel Cell Phone Shape Pocket Flask 3 oz

What if...just speculating here, what if it is from the inked sides of that flask? And STEE is inked and printed from the markings of it? ( or something "stainless steel ). In any case, its image is intriguing and also it is  inviting us to see it from other angles as well. 

 

[De Villo Sloan]

Hey Angie, Marie, Bifidus - great to hear from you guys. Matt's a really talented and committed visual poet, so I sort of factor this piece into a larger body of work I've seen. I received an email yesterday from someone fairly convinced this is an image of a cell phone. I thought of that too and then decided whatever the initial image he used wasn't all that relevant to what he created - just my point of view. It's a good point though, that when you see something like this, your mind naturally wants it to "be" something. Angie always comes up with the most creative things in that department. Your interpretations are cool and part of the whole exchange; I love that we can do this at the IUOMA. Marie, it looks to me like a stamped image - black ink. And yeah, I like the tantalizing "stee" word fragment. Fits right in. I favor things like this where interpretation is a part of the process so thank y'all for puzzling through.

[Marie Wintzer]

Quite cool this. I'm always interested in the technique, is it a stamp of some kind? It's hard to tell.

[Bifidus Jones]

I like it too that you can see the letters STEE and the fact that they're backwards is wonderful. The brain wants to know the complete word but it's not provided. STEEL maybe? It would support your interpretation that the mail art is a nod to, or an inspiration from the industrial age.