Asemics & Letter-Essay by Dave Araki (New York City USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail art by IUOMA member Dave Araki (New York City)

 

September 25, 2017 - This is the second missive by Dave Araki I have received. I am thrilled to be able to share this wonderful work as well as his thoughtful writing. I plan to send him a letter in response that will go into more depth than this brief commentary. Here is the earlier post:

https://asemicfront.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/found-asemics-by-dave-...

Dave Araki’s art has a conceptual aspect and he does remarkable things with found material. Those of us in the Eternal Network (mail art) are fortunate indeed to be learning about his work. In fact, some exciting new artists are emerging in New York City above and beyond the NY Correspondance School-type stalwarts whom we have come to know and admire. Due to Ray Johnson and Fluxus, New York City was for a long time the unofficial capitol of correspondence art. The tradition continues with new generations.

Dave Araki’s discovery of the network is beneficial to him as well. As you can read in his letter-essay to follow, the current interest in asemic writing and working with distressed found textual material (named Trashpo by visual poet Jim Leftwich) prevalent in the network has an affinity to Dave Araki’s interests. He brings exciting work and fresh vision to the expanding asemic movement in particular. Hopefully, he will discover the work of artists across the globe who are working in the same areas.

Here is the reverse side of the opening scan that has interesting material as well:

And the letter-essay:

I appreciate Dave Araki’s praise for the Karnival of Trash, an international call and exhibition emphasizing Trashpo. Over a decade, there have been a number of significant Trashpo events in the network. The KoT is just a recent manifestation that proved to be great fun. DKult is a group within Trashpo similar to a Ray Johnson fan club as well as the Church of the SubGenius (related to Neoism). In truth, Trashpo is – in my view – a manifestation of the Fluxus impulse that is still vital in the mail art community and which has gone through its own, sometimes peculiar, evolution out of the mainstream.

 Thank you Dave Araki!

[Carmela Rizzuto]

Thanks for posting this thoughtful and thought-provoking addition to asemics dialogue.