RECEIVED: Susan Mortimer's Retro-Visual Poetry Chapter Celebrating Leigh Bowery (Durham, UK)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Susan Mortimer (Durham, UK)

 

April 3, 2012 - When I first joined the IUOMA, I made friends with Susan Mortimer in Britain because I was so impressed by her conceptual art, including videos. However, we have really never had a chance to connect.

 

So I was thrilled when she signed on to contribute a chapter to the visual poetry project Cheryl Penn (South Africa) and I are coordinating (edition #1). Her chapter, documented in this blog, is a tribute to Australia-born performance artist and legend Leigh Bowery (1961-1994). I deeply appreciate having this chapter as well as an introduction to Bowery. Here is a link to a fan blog that can tell you more about Bowery if you are not familiar:

http://www.leighbowery.net/

 

And here are the next two pages of Susan Mortimer's chapter:

 

One of my greatest interests has been in poetry of the United States. A side effect, unfortunately, is some fairly serious cultural blindspots. I knew little about Leigh Bowery until I received Susan Mortimer's chapter. What I am learning is completely fascinating. I hope others will dig in also:

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/leigh-...

 

Susan Mortimer's "new romantics" reference on the chapter's opening page (above) was the only clue I had to the era popular culture - music, fashion, celebrities, performance - from which Leigh Bowery emerged and shaped. After many discussions with friends, I have learned the New Romantics of the Punk Era had far more significance in Britain than they did in the U.S.

 

With its stark use of black and white as well as collage clusters dispersed across empty white space, Susan seems to be pulling us back to Bowery's roots in the underground culture of that era that intersected with mail-art. A main vehicle was the homemade fanzine and posters promoting events:

 

Excerpt from Susan Mortimer's vispo book chapter.

 

These are the only pages that use color. Other work I have seen by Susan Mortimer outside the project is very contemporary, at times making masterful and innovative use of current technology. Yet her chapter seems curiously retro to me, although I have not the faintest notion of her intention. I think there is definitely a use of original material from those times in the chapter.

 

Last week, for an entirely different purpose, I was wading through piles of zines from the 1980s and 90s that were connected to or had material from the Neo and Post-Neo movements that are closely aligned with both mail-art and performance. A big event associated with them was the Festival of Plagiarism. Many of these fanzines promoted Punk and Post-Punk, as if any of this can be possibly categorized.

 

Collage has changed since those times; so has copy technology. Revisiting Susan's chapter after that foray into the archivies, I am struck by similarities, especially in the area of collage aesthetics. Did she do this on purpose? Her chapter looks very much like an underground fanzine, almost a study of the gritty  anti-art mechanics of cultural transmission during the decline of the industrial era in Europe and the U.S.

 

 

In these black and white images of Leigh Bowery excess and showing the DaDa influence, I also see the nihilism that emerged through the long decades of the Cold War. Bowery survived that era by only a few years. For me, Susan Mortimer's work is a valued contribution to the book project that provides depth and breadth. Many thanks, Susan! I hope we can manage to exchange other kinds of work in the future.

 

 

 

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks Marie, I learned a lot from having to research Leigh Bowery myself. This really takes you into the world of performance art, which is fairly wild. Remember Karen Finley & her performances w/ yams? She would be a U.S. counterpart to Bowery, only the British have their own brand of performance-conceptual art, that is, just, well, unusual.

 

I didn't think Susan's chapter had much exposure & it certainly enlarges the project. I'm really pleased there has been interest in it.

[Marie Wintzer]

This looks.... different. And wow, those characters. Each of them could fill a chapter on their own. It starts with the first page and that superhero performing a Heimlich Maneuver on a tiger :-)) Interesting read, interesting era...

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi Cheryl, I was certain you had received Susan's chapter. I can send a copy if you want. We have her UK address but links & things have changed in more than a year & I'm not certain even where to find examples of her work now.

 

The New Romantics, yes! You told me about it in Britain. You can see I have not forgotten; it was a revelation. Here, it was just a small pop trend that came & went on MTV as far as I know. Maybe you can write "I Was A New Romantic!" for some imaginary fanzine. That's how it seems to be going. If I didn't know otherwise, I would think Susan Mortimer was some ether character someone invented.

 

Thanks again.

[cheryl penn]

Thanks for blogging De Villo - I have not received Susan's work so its good to see. Living in England in the middle 80's I remember the New Romantics well. I even wore a white face for a year :-) X