Storage Shed Wars, Readymade Asemics (Practically) & More by Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illusion, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail art by IUOMA member Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illinois, USA)

September 24, 2015 - First, Jon Foster’s (North Carolina, USA) account of a visit to Richard Canard’s legendary storage unit is a must read and, in my estimation, already a modern classic in mail art journalism:

http://thejonfoster.blogspot.com/2015/09/i-went-to-richard-canards-...

I am riding on Jon Foster’s coattails with this documentation of a few of the many wonderful pieces Richard Canard has so generously sent me this year.

The first (above) is called by Richard C a “practically readymade asemic.” I believe he has made a solid contribution to the growing asemic movement with this work. As I understand it, this is the kind of work favored by visual poets Jim Leftwich (Virginia, USA) and Tim Gaze (Australia). Both these asemic pioneers (although Leftwich prefers not to call it asemic choosing instead to consider it vispo) favor constructs made from shattered, distorted, disrupted, fragmented (I hope you get the idea) bits of existing language. Upon these ruins of meaning, hopefully, some newer, better and greater understanding can be provided that conventional literature and poetry fail to express.

Richard Canard relies on a kind of diminishment or increasing absence in the creation of the symbols; the core process is erasure. His disappearing alphabet chronicles the process of deconstruction where the intelligible is transformed into the unintelligible then emerges as meta-language and a different mode of expression all together. Indeed, I could call this particular approach to composition “Deconstructive Asemics.” Here is the reverse side:

Here is a shining example of Richard Canard’s highly recognizable style:

And the reverse side:

Another:

More poetry by Richard Canard:

As ever, many thanks to Richard Canard!

[DKeys]

a lind mike an eel trap

[DKeys]

i forgot I had received a stamp of a RC piece from Sticker Dude-who doesn't love stickers?

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks, BG. He did finally hit it on the asemic front beyond any shadow of doubt. Jim Leftwich already "liked" it on another venue.

The thing I am most curious about is what is in that storage unit. That must be an amazing collection, although that might not be the complete collection.

Jon Foster's story about the storage unit (link in the blog) is wonderful.

[borderlinegrafix]

OMG, a mind like a meal strap.