RECEIVED: Carl T. Chew's Homage to Man Ray for the Collaborative Visual Poetry Mail-Art Book Project (Seattle, Washington, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Carl T. Chew (Seattle, Washington, USA)

 

"The chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table."

 

February 16, 2012 - Chapters for the two collaborative visual poetry (vispo) editions Cheryl Penn (South Africa) and I are coordinating through the IUOMA are arriving in mailboxes across the globe. I am familiar with Carl T. Chew's superlative stamp work, but his chapter is a delight beyond anything I imagined.

 

Cheryl and I invited 15 artists for each edition to contribute a chapter that is a visual poetry homage to a favorite artist or visual poet. Carl's work will appear in Edition #2. He is in stellar company. Other contributors include Reed Altemus (USA), John M. Bennett (USA), Angie Cope (USA), E (France), Rosa Gravino (Argentina). Lisa Iversen (USA) Samuel Montalvetti (Argentina), Marcela Peral (Argentina), Svetlana Pesetskaya (Russia), TIC TAC (Germany), Svenja Wahl (Germany), and Nancy Bell Scott (USA). Some of the contributors are Asemics 16 veterans and all can be relied upon to produce innovative and interesting work.

 

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/group/collaborativemailartbooks/forum...

 

 Carl T. Chew's chapter (as the top scan indicates) features complex, subtle, and beautifully produced vispo, revealing what can be achieved through the digitial medium in the hands of a master. Text runs throughout the chaper too:

 

 

Carl uses what seems to be cut-up but generally coherent text from a catalog or book that puts Man Ray in the context of the historic avant garde. His theme and variation work with Man Ray imagery and integration with text works for me very effectively as visual poetry.

 

This two-page spread is my favorite.  In the text is embedded the Lautreamont (don't do accent marx) quote that provides such a useful perspective on both DaDa and Surrealist practices: "the chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table."

 

The wordplay in "Man Ray deconstructed" is, I think, outstanding, managing to make a connection between deconstruction and rat poison as well as a nod to Ray Johnson. However, I would point out to Carl, deconstruction is an unholy offspring of surrealism. Would the surrealists object to the "dissection" of Derrida? Probably not. They exist now through symbiosis. Moving on:

 

 

I love the discontinuity between the "plate" references in the traditional text and the numbered figures accompanying the visual poems. I believe this mirrors a larger theme of coherence vs. discontinuity that is central to Man Ray's powerful work. An underlying concept of Carl's chapter might well be: "the chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table."

 

During this project, we did not have the intense discussions that were such a necessary part of the Asemics 16 process. All the work I have seen so far seeks a middle ground combining text and image; visual poetry does not necessarily require words.

 

As the Martha Stuart School of Asemic Wallpaper Certificate Program in Vispo Greeting Cards (offered in conjunction with the books) illustrated, the poetic issue of words and images is an important area of consideration. For me, Carl uses a poetics of image complemented by language that reveals the beauty of its visual representation (? ;)

 

 

 And onward the stunning final page:

 

 

 Even the envelope is a work of art:

 

 

I have not dug into the other chapters much, but if they prove to be like this extraordinary work by Carl T. Chew, we are going to have an instant classic! Carl has a great website where his work and career is well-documented. He is a very interesting person, and I hope you will learn more about him:

 

http://www.ctchew.com/

 

MAIL-ART PSYCHIC

An asemic version of "Actress shoots Antonin"

 

burlap

 

The German

 

87/2/1

 

Ray said Rain Rien gave you fare warning

 

Neo, Postneo, anti-neo

 

The colors that most dominate your closet are (a) neutral & dark hues (b) reds & brilliant hues

 

Russian space station

 

 

 

 

[De Villo Sloan]

Speaking of TT & anti-art - live coverage of the Fluxus/Anti-Art show. Kids! It's not too late. Send your anti-art!

http://fluxusanti-artmailart.blogspot.com/

[De Villo Sloan]

Related to this, I saw a discussion Linda Pelati (Italy) started that has a chunk of one of the old Fluxus manifestos, probably by Maciunas. It explains the anti-art, minimalist, anti-theory positions that are reflected in the Lautremont quote. I found the quote originally in something Thierry Tillier did:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/forum/topics/fluxus-manifesto

[De Villo Sloan]

Excuse me, Cheryl, yes, Lautreamont (w/ an accent mark). We dissected the quote thoroughly some time back, but I can't find the thread. Thanks

[cheryl penn]

ooops - sorry - you SAID Lautréamon!

[cheryl penn]

Well - keep it up - its great - keep you out of mischief too :-) X

[De Villo Sloan]

industrial spray paint. layer of asemic stamps. layer of industrial paint, layer of asemic stamps. there will be more experimenting with this

[cheryl penn]

All the water in the sea could not wash away a single intellectual bloodstain (Lautréamont??? I think). But as we know – the pot ended up calling kettle black….  I think the tune on this FAB record is the historic “Perceived Thistle in the Jammie Opus”? It certainly looks good.

What do you think about this?

Lautréamont  said: poetry must be made by all, not by one. Éluard's comment on this: poetry will purify all men. All ivory towers will be demolished.

[Marie Wintzer]

that's beautiful, Dw, did you paint directly on the record? I wonder...

[De Villo Sloan]

Dr. Syntax - let them eat MinXus!

 

[Marie Wintzer]

Now I know where I've learned bear baiting...