RECEIVED: NOT Asemically Correct! Vispo Mail-Art from Matthew Stolte (Madison, Wisconsin, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

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

 

July 7, 2011 - Matt Stolte is an accomplished visual poet and excellent mail-art correspondent who is enlarging my archive with some very interesting work. The piece above - postcard size on cardboard - I think is a beautiful piece that showcases his talent. It's much more sparse than much of the vispo we see in the mail-art network, but it is tremendously textured and rich, an ideal melding where language and image are complementary. I wanted you to be able to read Matt's title with ease. Try another take:

 

I imagine I might see a reference in "This is Vispo" to typewriter generated concrete poetry of previous generations. Not once but twice Matt wrote on this work: "This is vispo." Definitely accepted. Lively discussions in the IUOMA "Asemic Writing for Mail-Artists" group have involved boundaries between asemic writing and visual poetry - we're staying loose to let a wide variety of artists working different areas to experiment.

 

Some people have very prescriptive views others more descriptive. I can see the potential for identifying asemic symbols in this piece by Matt but overall read it as an exploration of existing language and - a theme to which he often returns - the impact of various kinds of technology on the presentation of language. The reverse side is plain fun:

 

 

As ever, many thanks Matthew Stolte! Matt has a great blog where you can see state-of-the-art in vispo and work by mail-art friends:

http://illegitimateprescriptions.blogspot.com/

[De Villo Sloan]

Actually, what he sent me was so sparse, you'll notice I posted the same postcard twice, so it would look like I got a bunch of stuff.

[De Villo Sloan]

All I got was one postcard. Like the Smothers: "Matt likes you better." I'm trying to take this gracefully. Would you like to post any other great stuff Matt sent you?

[cheryl penn]

It IS beautiful - included in the packet were two see-through letters - Altered Vispo/Collaborative Vispo??? 

[De Villo Sloan]

Oh geez, seriously stunning. I thought I had arrived when he sent me vispo rather than found art. Now you get this. Like Mudhead: "Fluxus - now in color." I've been concerned since posting - I have coined the term "Asemically Correct" (from Politically Correct) to characterize really prescriptive definitions of asemic writing. I just used it in the blog title. It really has nothing to do with Matt's vispo - just ties in with discussions in the Asemic Writing for Mail-Artists group. You don't see a lot Asemic Correctness in this neck of the woods. Thanks for posting another beauty by Matt, CP-SA.

[cheryl penn]

Hey DVS - great!  Can I show you this? I received it yesterday from Matthew - like you I am always excited to receive his work.