Vispo TLP (Tacky Little Pamphlet) from Matthew Stolte (Madison, Visconsin, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

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

June 12, 2013 - Through a series of small booklets, Matt Stolte is sharing his From Oceans cycle, which contains text-based poems and vispo (visual poetry). Over the last three years, I have become very familiar with his text-image work that includes elements of concrete poetry and asemics. This is the first sampling I have received that includes a substantial amount of his writing. While Matthew Stolte is certainly not the first to use this concept, I applaud the idea of producing these smaller booklets - what he calls "Tacky Little Pamphlets" - and circulating via the network.

Matt explains the idea behind the series and the booklets on his excellent Construction Sea blog (which has replaced the sadly defunct Illegitimate Prescriptions). I quote:

"Works above [From Oceans excerpts] made for an ongoing project tentatively titled From/ For Oceans. The book will include poems, visual poems by me, possibly others & perhaps interviews about the state of the Oceans & local water. Three (of the four so far i've made) of eMTeVisPub's TLPs (or perhaps better TLBs) - 12 page poetry booklets - are on this theme. Wendy Vardaman (Co-editor and webmaster of Verse Wisconsin and co-founder/editor and webmaster of Cowfeather Press) in a Review-Essay, "wisconsin shorts - micro-reviews of 9 micro books (a #'d series)" reviews eMTeVisTLPub #1 & #3 (From the Fishes & From Oceans)."

In fact, Matt's  TLPs (Tacky Little Pamphlets) is a direct reference to John M. Bennett and his favoured means of distributing his work through pamphlets and larger pieces that could be fairly called chapbooks.

Please make sure to visit Matt Stolte's Construction Sea blog, a hub for visual poetry activity:

http://constructionsea.blogspot.com/

Matt's fragmented, list-like, cut-up referent poetics reflect the influence of poetry by John M. Bennett, Sheila Murphy, Ficus strangulensis and Miekal And, to name some of the acknowledged masters of the practice. The great vispo theorist Bob Grumman refers to this genre as "otherstream," and I believe this is a useful operational definition. Roots can be found in the works of William S. Burroughs, Fluxus literary experiments, and Bern Porter as well as less obvious connections in the New York School and other above-ground "movements."

One great error that is often made is that readers who first encounter this kind of writing and are not aware of the existence of otherstream hastily identity the work as L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry aka Langpo when in fact the mode of expression is entirely different, although there are some shared roots. Otherstream, I believe, has more affinity to the visionary poetry tradition than it does meta-language.

While some otherstream poetry is severely disrupted in terms of overall continuity, Matthew Stolte's From Oceans reveals a text that comes close to being a narrative of the seas that includes history, geography, and science. I think the interwoven vispo pieces are well chosen. In previous blogs, I have noted industrial and metallic tones that appear in Matt's work. Yet he also consistently integrates fluidity and organic form. From Oceans masterfully moves away from the post-industrial landscape to explore the primal element of water and the vast, open field represented by the oceans. The shores of the continents reveal the havoc of commerce and colonialism.

The piece on the left-hand side is a classic example of work in the minimalist-concrete spirit. The poem on the right is an example of the historical range covered in the booklet with its references to "Phoenecians,"  "de Gama," "Magellan" and trade.

Themes mentioned above are integrated into the vispo piece on the left-hand page, further supported by the text fragment that says, "vanishing shores."

The magnificent back cover reveals another consistent aspect of Matthew Stolte's work: a sense of humour and play. Equating oceans to a "Big Gulp" is clever on a number of levels and manages to achieve closure with a reference to consumer capitalism, which is so clearly a preoccupation in From Oceans.

As ever, many thanks to Matthew Stolte!

[De Villo Sloan]

Says Haddock invented the TLP in the 70s.

[De Villo Sloan]

An instructional video on how to make a TLP!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD07mt9I7k0

I fall back, again, in awe of the genius of the Ling Master!

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks Matt, my lack of accuracy is second only to my ignorance of history.

The Tacky Little Pamphlet (TLP) - set aside the Tacky Little Booklet for a moment - has a greater history than I realized. All it took, duh, was Google search.

Here Blaster Al is connected to the TLP.

http://www.thedailybulletin.com/air/tlp.htm

[Matthew Stolte]

also for the record, it was C. Mehrl Bennett who showed me how to cut the TLPs open & what they were! at our collab curated show here in Mad Town a few years ago. Thanks, CMB.

[Matthew Stolte]

Tacky Little Booklet! for the record. but thanks for the idea!

[De Villo Sloan]

Thank you, Rebecca. And Matt has modified the TLP to be a TLB - in his words - a tacky little book.

This work reminded me of mail-art's DIY - do it yourself - spirit. And I really like the poems, not just DaDa jabber, although there's nothing wrong with DaDa jabber.

From Oceans isn't exactly the one-of-a-kind, single-edition artists book we see (done so wonderfully) by many IUOMA members who are into books arts. Eduardo Cardoso does TLB's very well. I really like that Matt is doing what I think is a word-image serial poem across a number of TLB's. His openness to using a wide variety materials gives it an assemblage quality. Cheryl Penn is one other person who uses the serial poem idea.

So it's Cheryl Penn meets Eduardo Cardoso on a rainy night at a Dollar Store in Cleveland (sorry, old joke). No, it is Matt Stolte free and clear. John M. Bennett likely pioneered this genre. It's a great model.

[Rebecca Guyver]

GREAT to see this! All the words (and images) - Matt's and DVS' wonderful and inspiring.  Thank you both.

[Matthew Stolte]

indeed. 

[De Villo Sloan]

& I hope any visitors realize, even if they don't get into my text that explains it, that TLP is in no way a negative - it's a funny name John M. Bennett gave to this type of publication. Vispo has circulated in the network for a long time in this form, and it's a great medium.

[De Villo Sloan]

Matt, I do have another from you. I will definitely keep an eye on the whole series - stellar work.