DOCUMENTATION: Asemics 16 Mail-Art Book Chapter (Ed. #1) by Diane Keys (Elgin, Illinois, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Diane Keys (Elgin, Illinois, USA)

 

July 26, 2011 - Diane Keys' contribution the Asemics 16 collaborative mail-art book project delves into organic form and beyond to what I can only think to call bio-chemical (from biopoetry?) or perhaps better: alchemical. This could be considered a study in transmutation, or at least it might provide a useful metaphor. The opening page is on the right (above), and on the left is an asemic note designating the edition.

 

Somehow, and I hope she explains how, Diane Keys achieves a startling three-dimensional effect as well as a remarkable melding of content, a cohesion that I daresay could well be the Holy Grail of visual poetry. This is a bit hard to articulate: The work in the chapter has an ethereal quality that is paradoxically as solid as street art inscribed on a wall. Notice the appearance of the word "Found" on the opening page that is revealed to be "Foundry" at the chapter's end. Here are pages 2-3:

 

 

During the darkest days of the discussions about asemic writing in our IUOMA group, someone protested that abstract art is not asemic writing. This position was never clarified and, although taken under advisement, you have to consider individual cases such as Cy Twombly. A close look at Diane Keys' chapter reveals ghostly letters from the alphabet, fractured letters, partial words, asemic symbols, and shapes suggesting unknown languages and structures all blending together (hard to see clearly in the scans they're so subtle). I also believe I see a nod to connections between language and primal, biological forms - places where these elements intersect. Pages 4-5 are the showstoppers for me:

 

 

This is the first example of anyone in the project (my opinion) working in the same territory as David Baptiste-Chirot (Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Through a basic process of chalk rubbings on paper, Chirot translate images taken directly from his environment into asemic-vispo masterpieces. Diane Keys achieves the same thing - although her method of composition is unknown to me - and, like Chirot, it tends toward the visionary far more than the formalist, or considered from another perspective, a found-art super-realism ingeniously inscribed on the page. Here are pages 6-7:

 

The sudden appearance of a torn slip of paper with letters and handwriting is unexpected. This might work as an idea to incorporate more into the pieces for future projects. Then page 8:

 

 

Harkening back to the opening pages ("Found"), we can clearly see "Foundry" - suggesting found art, language as raw material from the environment, a foundry where metals are wrought together as they are in the chapter (irony?) - a brilliant coherence built on two words that are nearly identical.

 

An extraordinary chapter (IMHO) DK. Many thanks!

 

The Asemics 16 collaborative mail-art books are coordinated through the Asemic Writing for Mail-Artists group at the IUOMA. Cheryl Penn (South Africa) is co-founder and partner with me on the editions. More documentation can be found at:

 

http://cherylpenn.com/wpb/

[DKeys]

And I cooked it with asemic gas-served with a side of haptic hash

[De Villo Sloan]

"Tonight we're having asemics with vispo!"

[De Villo Sloan]

HAS DK INVENTED ASEMIC GAS?

 

Hi Sue, I don't remember seeing a post from you on this thread earlier. Haven't delted anything yet. DK's chapter has this 3-d quality I mentioned, and I found myself wanting to touch it, just to figure out what's going.

 

I realize I'm commenting to two Martha Stuart girls now, so you'll understand: We had a thread at the Martha Stuart School where we talked about the possibility of ASEMIC GAS. Now this was theoretical, but I thought this was sort of a colored smoke that would have all these changing asemic letters. There was also the asemic gas masks.

 

Anyway, when I saw the chapter I thought DK had created or was trying to depict ASEMIC GAS. It just didn't seem right to put it into documentation I was keeping. But yes, "Foundry" could be thought of as asemic gas.

[DKeys]

Thank you Sue. sometimes IOUMA eats posts. That, and DVS. he's not big on cooking

[prettylily]

I left a post earlier and it's not here?  Ok, I said this chapter of Dianes's makes me want to reach into it and feel it.  I can even envision the ripples that would cause.  It is an amazing piece of work that just begs to be touched.

Stellar work!

[DKeys]

Very cool. Gravestones were  the first thing that came to mind when I had the idea for rubbings, but they were too big. I used to do only photography, but got into collage when i was determined to learn how to do photo transfers as I'm in love with the idea of ghosting and layering. The encouragement helps on those days I feel I should just quit everything

[De Villo Sloan]

LUXUS TREET HEATER

[De Villo Sloan]

You can find interviews with David online. He grew up in New England. Doing chalk rubbings from old tombstones is popular there and amounts to a folk tradition. So he took this thing he remembered from childhood and adapted to make found art. Fairly genius, I think. Here's another piece by David Chirot I like:

[De Villo Sloan]

Here's a piece from David's IUOMA portfolio (hope he doesn't mind). The rubbing is really clear in this one, but you can also see the difference DK managed to achieve. Chirot will often overlay with images, found text, etc.:

[cheryl penn]

Great work both of you - a visual symphony for sure.