MINXUS SOLAR FESTIVAL: Bifidus Jones' Tribute to Karen Champlin, Sarah Churchill (UK), Ana Carina (USA), Rebecca Guyver (UK), Marie Wintzer (Japan)

[De Villo Sloan]

Promotional material for MinXus-Lynxus Solar Festival 2012

 

July 19, 2012 - The MinXus-Lynxus Solar Festival 2012 features international exhibitions of mail-art and events that include the "Can YOU Draw the Mink?" contest. Below is an update on current activities.

Bifidus Jones (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA) & MinXus-Lynxus salute Karen Champlin (Highland Park, Illinois, USA)

 

On July 9, MinXus-Lynxus posted a blog saluting Karen Champlin and wishing for her speedy return to mail-art.

 

Reflecting a consistently kind, generous, and thoughtful spirit, Bifidus Jones has issued an add-and-pass that enables us to collectively send best wishes to Karen. MinXus-Lynxus will make an award in Karen's honor in August. Here is what Bifidus sent me:

Mail-art add-and pass project by Bifidus Jones (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA) in honor of Karen Champlin (Highland Park, Illinois, USA)

 

MinXus-Lynxus appreciates these contributors (so far) who are sending work to Karen:

 

Neil Gordon (Wethersfield, Connecticut, USA)

Amy Irwen (Rosemount, Minnesota, USA)

Diane Keys (Elgin, Illinois, USA)

Angie Cope (& Snooker the Amazing Mail-Art Dog) (Port Washington, Wisconsin, USA)

Bifidus Jones (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA)

De Villo Sloan (Auburn, New York, USA)

Here are some views of the nicely designed and growing folio:

Bifidus Jones' add-and-pass project for Karen Champlin

 

Already the project includes a wide variety of materials, which is only appropriate since Karen Champlin's innovations range from helping to invent listpo with John M. Bennett (Ohio, USA) to asemic writing and visual poetry.

Bifidus Jones' add-and-pass project for Karen Champlin

Here are some samples of pieces by individual contributors:

Friends will immediately recognize D-Kult and Trashpo recruitment pamphlets from Diane Keys (Elgin, Illinois, USA). Karen will be sure to enjoy these immensely as both Karen and Diane are part of the famed Chicago School of mail-art.

 

Official MinXus-Lynxus Tangerine Oncoming Triptych with views of the Mink Ranch Meditation Garden. Sent to Karen Champlin in add-and-pass.

 

Bifidus Jones' envelopes are also always a treat:

And the reverse:

Along with our comrade Bifidus Jones, MinXus-Lynxus salutes Karen Champlin as part of Solar Festival 2012, and we will recognize her contributions as part of ongoing festival events. I am very pleased to have been able to document Karen Champlin's work (thus far) in a series of blogs:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Champlin&u...

 

MinXus-Lynxus Solar Festival International Exhibition - Recent Acquisitions

 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Sarah Churchill (Pontypridd, South Wales)

 

MinXus-Lynxus was pleased to acquire this elegant postcard-size piece with ornate stitching from Sarah Churchill in Wales. Historically, this is a wonderful example of the monumental Mail-Art 365 project and the genre of work it has produced. The regal and noble aspects the work accentuate personify the MinXus aesthetic.

 

 

Please visit Sarah Churchill's blog to see more extraordinary work:

 

http://www.purplepepperdesign.co.uk/

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

 

MinXus-Lynxus has added this gorgeous, hand-painted magazine page art by Ana Carina to the MinXus USA Collection. It is a centerpiece of the Solar Festival 2012 Exhibition. The silhoutte suggestion, the stark and impressive use of black and white to denote absence have been noted as interesting and innovative features.

 

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

 

Also on display is this smaller, colorful photographic work by Ana. Many thanks to her for her involvement in Solar Festival 2012!

 

Rebecca Guyver (Suffolk, UK) creates first book of MinXus symbology

 

One of the great contributions to Solar Festival 2012 is Rebecca Guyver's book Wildlife rATING. Many wonderful books have been created using MinXus aesthetics. They serve as a theoretical foundation for MinXus-Lynxus. No one, surprisingly, until now, has sought to make art using the elements of MinXus itself. 

 

Rebecca has made the first book incorporating MinXus narratives. She seeks to make coherence of the field of symbols that comprise MinXus. This is a noble effort indeed, and she succeeds remarkably. MinXus symbols are wildly disconnected and ambiguous; narratives are fragmentary and often contradictory. Rebecca seems familiar with them and ingenuously weaves them together. The book begins with a missive to the fictional Mink Ranch:

 

 

I will be a little more prescriptive than usual, only because I appreciate the enormity of Rebecca Guyver's achievement; and I can offer some insight about MinXus. I am honored to be named in the letter; however, it might better be directed to Mink Rancher, the former "gunslinger" who oversees the Mink Ranch. In another exchange, I think, Rebecca and the Mink Rancher discussed the pleasures and perils of mink and chicken ranching. Thus Rebecca becomes a MinXus character: The Suffolk Chicken Rancher.

 

I hardly consider Wildlife rATING empty. Rather, it is a rich visual poem that explores the images and texts of MinXus-Lynxus:

 

 Cover and material from Rebecca Guyver's Wildlife rATING.

 

 

I do not think it is a coincidence that the woman on the right-hand page is a redhead. Dark wall's visionary poem, "Mink of the Tangerine Oncoming," is a theme used in MinXus Solar Festival 2012.

 

The text of Dark wall's poem shows both a tangerine-colored mink (the animal) and a woman with red hair to signify his vision. Rebecca seems to be using the mysterious redhead from Dark wall's poem with - is it possible? - feathers, perhaps suggesting her chicken farm and thus establishing an extended visual narrative?

 

From Rebecca Guyver's Wildlife rATING.

 

On these pages, we now see an image suggesting a mink that has replaced the woman. The chicken feathers appear to be a constant. The name MinXus (in addition to being somewhat suggestive of Fluxus) is a play on the similarity of "minks" (the fur-bearing animals) and "minx," a gregarious and cunning young woman. Later, we discovered there was an alternative band named Minxus that had a brush with fame in the 90s. 

 

 

Rebecca establishes the connection between minks, minx, and "Mink of the Tangerine Oncoming." The lynx is also part of MinXus symbology but has barely been explored or defined. Rebecca moves into that territory, linking (no pun intended) the lynx to other MinXus symbols.

 

Rebecca Guyver, beginning with the chicken farm, also develops the idea of predators: the animals that attacked her chickens, the role of the lynx as a natural predator of the mink, and the minx (the finger nails) who also can be a predator. These are new and interesting ideas in the MinXus-Lynxus world. 

 

From Rebecca Guyver's Wildlife rATING

 

Following a path similar to the original MinXus path, the book explores definitions, in this case the French name for mink, "vison." This opens many possibilities, such as further research into things such as the fur trade between Europe and North America that led to awareness of things such as mink farms and their economic relations.

 

 

Rebecca now seems to move into imagery based on the coat of the lynx. Cleverly, she integrates the tangerine color into this image field. Her use of color in this visual poetry is, I think, very, very effective. 

 

 

The work also has a textual logic and structure, which can be clearly seen here with the inclusion of the lynx definition. The mass of selected and found material that was quickly thrown together to create MinXus is definitely binary in nature - the "binary oppositions" of structuralism. To access whatever possible meanings exist within MinXus, Rebecca has wisely chosen to focus on those oppositions. 

 

From Rebecca Guyver's Wildlife rATING

 

The book draws to a close with the return of the Tangerine Mink (minx). Here is the back cover:

 

 

Many thanks to Rebecca Guyver for this extraordinary contribution. Rebecca is also hosting her own mail-art call this summer, which MinXus-Lynxus heartily endorses:

 

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/events/island-mailart-exhibition

 

Marie Wintzer's MinXus-Lynxus "Happening"

 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Marie Wintzer (Saitama, Japan) 

 

Marie Wintzer has also launched a MinXus-Lynxus event involving her well-known Japanese shrine fortunes. Some sort of random text work seems to be required. This work was very nicely packaged.

 

 

The larger envelope:

 

 

The reverse:

 

Many thanks to all who are participating in Solar Festival 2012. More updates will be forthcoming!