RECEIVED: Asemic Mail-Art Talisman from Karen Champlin (Chicago, Illinois, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Karen Champlin (Chicago, Illinois, USA)

 

April 2, 2011 - In an earlier blog I jokingly referred to spring lines in the work of mail-artists. Maybe new lines are serious. As springtime arrives in the Chicago-area of the USA, Karen Champlin is sending out art that is fresh, colorful, and in places a distinct departure from her previous explorations. I am the very proud recipient of one of her asemic sticks. This piece shows the spiritual and mystical qualities that are conveyed by asemic writing.

 

Karen is moving heavily into asemics with ever-increasing success, IMHO. You do not need a lot of background discussion to appreciate this piece. I have watched her work evolve for what is bordering on a year now. I do marvel at the evolution of her collage-assemblages that seamlessly have integrated visual poetry, haptic poetry, and now asemic writing. The piece above represents a tremendous synthesis of diverse forms. All the elements are present I mentioned.

 

Karen is a good mail-art friend and always provides nice messages and inscriptions. Here is the reverse side:

 

Another great things about friends you exchange work with on a regular basis is memories of other interactions. Lately, Karen always includes a piece of blue tape in her mail-art to me: A reference to my "blue tape" series that was the beginning of connections with many people. This is on the envelope:

 

This works very well because her asemic stick has nice black tape with excellent textures. Why the emphasis on different colored tape in mail-art? I explained it to Erni Baer in Germany once. It's a good thing to integrate into your work as material, I think. Karen has some nice things in the stamp department these days too:

 

With Karen Champlin, it truly is a case for me that just when I think the work cannot get any better, it takes some new creative turn. This is a great one. Thanks! And I am posting this in the IUOMA asemic writing group too.

[De Villo Sloan]

We recycle mail-art. Let's recycle blogs too. Nice update, Katerina & always wonderful to see what KC is doing.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

This is not a hijack...

This is a "refresher" comment:

a bringing-up-to-date- after-9-months-asemic-blog!

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

My VERY own talisman, and in an envelope with blue tape, too!

Aha, but me got them thar new stamps...they are magnificent , Karen! Thank you!

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

9 months, and having the first one lost-in-the-mail,

off in the void, captured by a postal clerk who was in need of a talisman?

Well,after a long, but patient wait...look what arrived in Greece today:

My vert own Asemic Mail Art Talisman from beautiful "KC", Karen Champlin! YAY!

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks Ruud & Erni, Emmett Williams spent so much time in Europe I assumed that's where he was from. The Fluxus Heidelberg interview is excellent. A great place to start digging in.

[Ruud Janssen]

When you go in-depth with certain Fluxus related people the discoveries are large. I am glad I have had that experience too.

[Ruud Janssen]

http://www.fluxusheidelberg.org/emmettwilliams.html

 

interview by the (late) Judith A Hoffberg (USA) with Emmett Williams:

INTERVIEW WITH EMMETT WILLIAMS: FLUXUS ARTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE

UMBRELLA / march 1998

by Judith A. Hoffberg , USA

On the occasion of an extraordinary exhibition curated by Paul Schimmel over the past eight years at the Museum of Contemporary Art entitled "Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979" and the ancillary event called "Beyond the Pink" which brought performance artists from all over the world to Los Angeles, I had the great privilege of escorting Emmett Williams, the pre-eminent poet-performer known to many through Fluxus, but who has distinguished himself throughout Europe as a visionary poet, visual artist and performance artist for a week in February. During that time, I asked him if he would be willing to sit down and have a chat, and here it is on the eve of the publication of his book: Mr. Fluxus: A Collective Portrait of George Maciunas to be published in the U.S. by Thames & Hudson in May 1998.

 

complete interview : follow the link http://www.fluxusheidelberg.org/emmettwilliams.html

[Ruud Janssen]

Emmett Williams wrote Mr. Fluxus. A wonderful book with inside stories. Besides being a fluxus artists he did many other things.

[De Villo Sloan]

Wonderful links and references Erni. The ballet seems to suggest the opening of the whole area of Body Art. I'm puzzling over the superiority of puppets though. I come across mergings of body art and visual poetry in performance documentations sometimes. It seems to be done with projections very often. I think Emmett Williams was a concrete poet from Germany? Here is a shot of one of his performances:

[De Villo Sloan]

Oh those are so great! I've seen the one at the top, but not in a long time. And then the Bauhaus. Unbelievable. I think we should consider seriously wearable mail-art. We have prototypes.