THE DECADENCE OF TRASHPO (Part III) with Not Hi Ng, Torma Cauli, Nadine Wendell-Mojica, Richard Canard, Claudia McGill, Ana Carina, Neil Gordon

[De Villo Sloan]

"Traveling Trashpo Automated Miracle Trash Talk Generator" by IUOMA member Not Hi Ng (San Pablo, California, USA)

 

July 13, 2012 - Diane Keys' announcement of the First International Trashpo Exhibition in Elgin, Illinois is yet another indication that Trashpo, far from being in decline, is enjoying increasing popularity and acceptance. 

 

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/events/trashpo-mail-art-call

 

Previous installments of this "Decadence of Trashpo" series explored the tensions of anti-art vs. aesthetics being played out upon the pages of Trashbooks. We looked at the phenomenon of Euro-Trashpo, which provides a glimpse of Trashpo's future. For as Trashpo grows as a movement, if it can be considered a movement, artists are applying foundational concepts in new areas; regional variants are emerging. 

 

Not Hi Ng and Nadine Wendell-Mojica are both in California (USA), and it is very possible that in their work we can see the seeds of a West Coast School of Trashpo. Not Hi Ng might well be considered a phenom, having already received a TrashPo Litzer Prize for his work with "Audible Trashpo."

 

Not Hi Ng is further exploring his original concept with the "Traveling Trashpo Automated Miracle Trash Talk Generator" (shown here) that plays and records messages as part of an add-and-pass project. Hi Ng's ability to fuse mail-art, performance, spoken word, and anti-art - while remaining faithful to recycling - is a spectacular achievement, likely to spark more Trashpo intermedia explorations.

 

 

"Traveling Trashpo Automated Miracle Trash Talk Generator" by IUOMA member Not Hi Ng (San Pablo, California, USA)

 

While highly experimental, Not Hi Ng retains an anti-art stance in this and much of his other work. A portion of the world's trash is technological waste, some hazardous; and thus it follows that we are likely to see more Tech-Trashpo, including possible Trashpo cyborgs and robots: A brave new world indeed.

 

Torma Cauli's Mechanical Trashpo Event Score

 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Torma Cauli (Budapest, Hungary)

 

Torma Cauli is a longtime member of the network. Many are familiar with his thoughtful, often Fluxus-based work.

 

The piece above that he sent is postcard-size and made of fused newspaper and other debris over a light button device. What is amazing about this piece is that it is HARD, as if it had been highly compressed or saturated in some sort of glue, although there is not trace of adhesive. It is an interactive, Fluxus work. You can press the button, but the text states: “no push.” Here is the reverse side:

Reverse side of mail-art by Torma Cauli (Budapest, Hungary)

 

Torma Cauli's mail-art has many similarities to the work of Not Hi Ng in the way it incorporates trashed technology into an interactive performance piece. Here is the wonderful envelope that held the material:

 

And the reverse:

 

Many thanks to Torma Cauli. I look forward to more exchanges. Make sure to visit his blog offering work on a truly global scale:

 

http://www.tormacauli.blogspot.com/

 

 

Nadine Wendell-Mojica and Post-Neo Paranoia

 

 Mail-art by IUOMA member Nadine Wendall-Mojica (North Hollywood, California, USA)

 

Californian Nadine Wendell-Mojica has produced an impressive body of Trashpo that, while adhering to recycling and taking an anti-consumerist stance, displays traditional artistic expression and a consistent, individual style. 

 

Self-absorbed self-reference has long been considered a symptom of cultural impulses that are winding down. Self-referential Trashpo and obsessive interest in the DKult seem to be part of the state of Trashpo today. Does this persistent self-preoccupation indicate a flaw? Or is it part of a process of identity formation?

 

This fantastic work Nadine sent me explores DKult mythology with an expressionist brush. The almost cartoon images make unusual commentaries. Is that a depiction of DharmaDaDa Neil Gordon - Trash Prophet? Why does he have sinister, not-exactly-happy qualities?

 

I thought the front of Nadine Wendell-Mojica's envelope was great as well as fascinating:

 

By Nadine Wendall-Mojica (North Hollywood, California, USA)

 

DKult and Men in Black - not at all incongruous. Jim Leftwich (Virginia, USA) is the inventor of Trashpo as we know it today (apologies to Kurt Schwitters). Aspects of Leftwich's work are considered Post-Neo Adsurdism.

 

Leftwich was involved in mail-art when Neo and (later) Post-Neo were powerful forces winding through the Eternal Network, blurring fiction and fact with conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and fake identities, among other art strategies used to disrupt what I think was once famously called "popular reality." It was great fun, or part of it was.

 

By Nadine Wendall-Mojica (North Hollywood, California, USA)

 

So it is not at all surprising and perhaps even appropriate that a bit of Neo is present in the Trashpo mix, making it, uh, Post-Neo, a little, maybe. The great thing about this work from Nadine is that she captures the original - and I think intended - feel of Neo because, after all, it was not entertainment. At root it was an application of many different approaches to a radical assault on mainstream culture.

 

By Nadine Wendall-Mojica (North Hollywood, California, USA)

 

Receiving envelopes out-of-the-blue from people you did not know but seemed to know you with perplexing and sometimes disturbing content was not always pleasant but did have an ability to make you start questioning or to shake you out of complacency, which is, after all, not comfortable. Things are not that way now, but I think Nadine - like any good artist doing her job - offered a little glimpse, beyond the fun, of some serious things Trashpo suggests you might want to look at with different eyes, should you be so inclined to do so. 

 

Richard Canard - Trashpo's Other

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

 

Richard Canard's ongoing commentary certainly helps build a case for self-referential Trashpo, written, as this piece is, upon a cereal box. In this wonderful piece, Richard uses the Garden of Eden as a basis for wide-ranging ideas - interesting because Skybridge Studios (Indiana, USA) also has used Edenic-suggestive images in a classic Trashpo piece about Mr. Stubbs the Performing Pig. 

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

 

Employing classic Johnsonian-Fluxus tropes, Richard Canard has managed to make himself one of Trashpo's most vehement supporters while at the same time being one of its most vigorous critics. This is likely only a rational response. Based on his talent and history, he was appropriated and pronounced a leading figure in contemporary Trashpo when he proved open-minded enough to entertain the idea of Trashpo.

After all, Trashpo was born partially because Diane Keys differed with Rain Rein Nevermind (Minnesota, USA) over the concept of recycling mail-art. Thus Trashpo emerged from a mail-art schism, were such a thing possible, as it reflects one of the more reprehensible aspects of the dominant culture we are seeking to avoid. 

Richard does always manage to be insightful. Yes, the classics speak of art as "imitation." The use of "found," unaltered materials presents a challenge to a long-held idea (maybe pursued in Aristotle as well as Seneca) to the extent that some avoided the whole argument by coining the term "anti-art."

 

Claudia McGill's Object Trashpo

 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Claudia McGill (Wyncote, Pennsylvania, USA)

 

Claudia McGill has also been a bit of a Trashpo phenom. Her work with images from discarded furniture catalogs struck a chord with many: They suggest consumer culture on a larger scale than the focus of much Trashpo. They present landscapes populated with things, devoid of humanity or humanity (above) as shadow figures or dehumanized forms. They make a fetish of objects, which is the core of consumer culture. Thus, Claudia makes a clear connection between Object Poetry and Trashpo. This has tremendous possibilities.

 

 By Claudia McGill (Wyncote, Pennsylvania, USA)

 

Claudia McGill's explorations are taking Trashpo in new directions, and this beautiful work she sent is greatly appreciated.

 

Ana Karina - The Purist Tendency Endures

 

 Mail-art by IUOMA member Ana Carina (St. Augustine, Florida, USA)

 

Ana Carina included this interesting Trashpo with some excellent hand-painted magazine pages that have thus far found their way to MinXus-Lynxus due to their aesthetic qualities. The inclusion of this material represents the growing presence of Trashpo in the network for a number of reasons: (1) Mail-artists are recognizing the value of found text and circulating it along with very different examples of their work, and (2) recycling awareness appears to be growing stronger. Things that might have been discarded previously are forwarded, to be kept by recipient as art or used to create new work. 

 

 By Ana Carina (St. Augustine, Florida, USA)

 

Ana did some great envelope art with this package:

 

 By Ana Carina (St. Augustine, Florida, USA)

 

The reverse:

 

 

Many thanks to Ana Carina!

 

Neil Gordon - The Church of Trashpo?

 

 Mail-art by IUOMA member Neil Gordon (Wethersfield, Connecticut, USA)

 

Since his D-Konversion and avowal to serve the needs of Trashpo through counseling and other forms of spiritual support, I receive Neil's work with reverence. I cannot help but regard it as teachings and sacred texts. Lynn Radford (Pennsylvania, USA) has also helped define the spiritual aspects of Trashpo collection, composition, and distribution. For some, Trashpo is becoming a way of life, a merging of art and life.

 

I am not always sure of the context of Neil's work. This appears to be a collage from 2008, the beginning of The Great Recession. It contains predictions, historic references, and leads me to consider these apocalyptic times and what is ahead. For me, it is a meditative piece and strangely connected to the rise of Trashpo. Neil also spent this really thoughtful material:

 

William Burroughs at Naropa in 1975 - classic stuff! And the use of the cut-up technique is so commonplace in the network right now that it will be illuminating indeed to return to the source. Many, many thanks to Neil for this package.

 

As the work in this blog indicates, Trashpo is developing new forms and becoming more self-reflective. The United States remains the world's greatest trash-producer and thus the center of Trashpo activity. Yet the movement is global and regional variants are emerging, involving material selection and views concerning the environment and recycling. Trashpo as a spiritual and social activity must also not be discounted.

 

"The Decadence of Trashpo" Series

 

Part 2

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-decadence-of-trash...

 

Part 1

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-theory-of-trashbooks...

 MAIL-ART PSYCHIC

"No! I prefer MinXus!"

http://minxuslynxus.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

[De Villo Sloan]

Not Hi Ng, glad you could make it to check out the blog. With people all over the globe engaged in all kinds of activities, you never know who might catch it and who might miss it.

 

You and Torma in Budapest have opened up the brave new world of techno-trashpo. And Nadine joins you in defining a West Coast School. Super, FAB stuff.

 

In terms of your work presented here, I was inspired to find Ralph Waldo Emerson's letter to Walt Whitman, after Emerson first read "Leaves of Grass." With almost no changes, it captures a sentiment applicable to this moment in Trashpo:

 

"I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the [Trashpo] is a sober certainty. It has the best merits, namely of fortifying and encouraging."

[Not Hi Ng]

This is great stuff DVS. The works are phenomenal and your commentary displays incredible insight. It's like blueberry pie and ice cream, either is great alone, but together there is a whole new quality.

[De Villo Sloan]

KDJ, I'm glad you saw this collection of Trashpo because I do think it's really excellent & interesting. Take the commentary with a grain of salt. I think the bottom line is that it is work that is accessible to everyone & everyone who wants to can do it without fear of missing or not getting something. I think for people who want to dig deeper, you can go back & look at Jim Leftwich's early Trashpo & Dk's early pieces & see the connection to visual poetry, but it's not necessary.

With Trashpo, you have the whole idea of recycling & whether there is commentary on consumer culture, but again, that's if you want to dig. The work clearly stands on its own. 

[De Villo Sloan]

DharmaDaDa Neil, glad you dropped by! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the Naropa CD. That was, man, that was incredibly thoughtful. 

[Neil Gordon]

The decadence of trashpo series is mind blowing! Everyone's pure-traspo-karma-Love-in-glue stick-test! I have been blessed by trash today! In trash We Trust.

[De Villo Sloan]

Rebecca, I long for the day when I can post a humble blog announcing: "Stripy Goose Does Trashpo at the Queen's Jubliee." Then I would know my work is done. I look forward to your work. But you must - absolutely must - make a masterpiece for the Elgin-International Trashpo Exhibition. I just have this feeling that will be historic.

And I think we have your contribution to the Solar Festival Exhibition, should our "Empress" be able to bail out the rapidly sinking project after her lost weekend....Where? We know not where.

Again, thanks for your work, your comments, putting up with me, etc.

[Rebecca Guyver]

But I am sure if you get them (the Brits) started they will surprise you with their wit and nuance.  I have just completed a piece for you that begins to scratch the surface of the international lexicon issue.

[De Villo Sloan]

Rebecca, it's wonderful to have a budding Trashpo scholar. "The Decadence of Trashpo" might be a bit non-linear, but if there are more installments, I am seriously considering combining everything into a single tome similar to "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." The only challenge is getting permission from all the artists to reprint their work. I have some recent, stellar work from you but held it back, as I think there is a better place for it.

You seem to agree with me that the US remains the center of Trashpo due in large part to the grotesque amount of trash it generates. Nancy Bell Scott is head of DKULTME (Dkult-Maine) so you might have a good contact when you are in the US.

Why is there no Trashpo Britainnia? The UK just doesn't seem open to it.

[Rebecca Guyver]

What fabulous Friday night reading! It makes me want to be part of the UK school of trashpo (whatever you decide that is). And when I go to Maine will I become an honorary member of the US School?  Surely East and West coast trash will be different...  And I must admit I agree with Richard.  Claudia's makes me wonder if there is anything that might be classified as age-specific trashpo, I'm thinking thematically?

[De Villo Sloan]

Like Eduardo Cardoso says: "I'm perplexed." I do think Claudia has it right with "genteel," whatever it is.

Thanks for the comments. Trashpo is becoming very diverse, and I am expecting a Trashpo cyborg from Not Hi Ng any day.