RECEIVED: Mail-Art "Attack" from Cheryl Penn (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

Mail-art by IUOMA member Cheryl Penn (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

 

March 30, 2011 - Cheryl Penn and I are working on another mail-art book project involving verbs. Her "Attack" chapter explores areas I do not often see in Cheryl's work. "Attack" is in no way subtle. The color, torn paper, and minimal word use make powerful visual poetry. I have tried to capture that with the scan above, which shows particularly compelling pages from the chapter's interior. Here is the opening page:


 

Nice overlays and broken letters. "Attack" strikes me (no humor intended) as being very much in the spirit of work posted at the IUOMA last year that generated a great deal of discussion. I refer to work by Litsa Spathi (Netherlands, Greece) and her concept of Fluxus Poetry as well as David-Baptiste Chirot's "RubBeing's" (USA). Here are the next two pages of "Attack":


 

The key concept I am focusing on here is what I can best call a re-positioning of the field of "the work of art" and its relationship and integration with life and the artist's experience. I think Litsa Spathi's work provides a good comparison. Her visual poetry on the page and in videos done in collaboration with Ruud Janssen are readily accessible at the IUOMA and elsewhere. The Fluxus Heidelberg Center is the source for more information on Fluxus Poetry, which broadens the traditional idea of a poem appearing on the page or being read before an audience to a unique performance by the artist:

 

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

 

To fully appreciate Spathi's work, I think you must be aware that it is the result of performances by Spathi. The creation of the poetry is derived from physical movement and the direct involvement of the artist with the material of language. Text and videos can then be viewed as documentation and part of a larger process. The strict boundaries between art and life are made less distinct. More involvement by the audience is also necessary in this continuum.

 

Cheryl Penn's "Attack" seems to me illuminated by this concept. The chapter is not so much an enclosed work of art but the record of emotions and physical activity that speak to us a humans. "Attack" urges the receiver not so much to passively receive images but to react, even to the point of physical experience:


When I received "Attack," my personal response - almost as strong as looking at it - was to TOUCH it. The slashes (slashpo?), rips, the power of the verbs, the insistence of the phrasing are a vivid chronicle of activity and raw emotions. Intellectualizing is bypassed. These pages are DISTRESSED. They have been brutalized; yet they do not suggest to me any kind of larger metaphors. This is simply basic, raw human expression. In an earlier discussion, I believe it was Erni Baer (Germany) who suggested that holes and slashes in pages like this can be read as a signification of breaking down the barrier between art and life (Erni used Burroughs' shotgun paintings as an example). Others have noted that with pages having broken surfaces and perforations, there is a natural compulsion to feel the surfaces, put fingers through holes, interact physically with the text, which we are taught is, both abstractly and materially, a single surface only to be violated by experts. 

 

I very much feel the compulsion with "Attack." I can only report a kind of wonderment at the damage that has been inflicted on this paper. What brought the artist to this emotional state? What must it have been like to witness the creation of this work? And vitally important to anyone who encounters this work: Why was I chosen to receive this? Especially in mail-art, the recipient is likely to consider, what should my artist response be?


 

Even though her work has many avant garde elements, Cheryl Penn often employs fairly linear narrative to organize her work. Thus, at the end of "Attack" there is both a real and representational wound in the page, a gaping slash bound with stitches. This image can be found elsewhere in her work:


 

The wound can be viewed as either open (above) or closed (below). This provides a kind of closure or commentary on the raw emotional states documented earlier in the chapter. These experiences leave wounds, perhaps scars, that can manifest themselves in the mind, body, and spirit as well as upon the page. "Attack" also includes a redemptive element: the process of healing that can be achieved through both life and art.


 

Many thanks, Cheryl, for sharing this unusual and provocative example of your mail-art!

Views: 71

Tags: Cheryl-Penn, Sloan, anti-art, vispo

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Comment by De Villo Sloan on April 1, 2011 at 2:44am

ok ok - cease fire - we're all trying to cram things in doing 12x things at once - but it's because of Cheryl's great work. Take care Cheryl

Comment by cheryl penn on April 1, 2011 at 2:42am
C.B!!! Hello :-) nice to see you here - I'm REALLY off now :-( going to be so strange getting used to REAL time again - anti-art - such a thing as anti-time I have to wonder... anti-art. ANOTHER thing I will have to look into - yes, DVS ALWAYS gives a challange - love it!!!
Comment by Marie Wintzer on April 1, 2011 at 2:30am
Oh I'm sure the glimmer boy knows a lot about tantrums ;-))
Comment by De Villo Sloan on April 1, 2011 at 2:25am
Marie, your comment about whether this is or isn't representative of Cheryl's other work has had me pondering for a while. I think this is a piece where Cheryl approaches anti-art. That's the difference. Cheryl's work would almost never be considered anti-art. In the territory we're in, the term anti-art comes up a lot. I've come to realize that with some people I communicate with, we're using two different definitions. A writer named Greil Marcus, I think he wrote a lot for Rolling Stone, has made a very interesting point that a lot of art coming from Punk is part of the avant-garde tradition of anti-art. This is the sort of work that is a desecration of more traditional art. The kind of slashpo I'm talking about. Now Cheryl is hardly a punk rocker, but I think she's using that kind of anti-art here. When the Fluxus people talk about anti-art, they're talking about something else completely - like maybe scans of breakfast cereal :))) I had really wanted to get into this more in this blog, but at least I got to post something.
Comment by De Villo Sloan on April 1, 2011 at 1:25am
first gb said cp-sa had a temper tantrum. now gb says its derrida-da
Comment by Marie Wintzer on March 31, 2011 at 11:53pm
Oh, I could read this and watch those pictures for hours, you two are FAB. Challenging each other with art like this, wow, I don't know, for me this is the very best. I don't think it is an unusual piece for Cheryl, you're lucky DVS, she is pushing you to your best, I can't wait to see what you will send back.
Comment by cheryl penn on March 31, 2011 at 11:40pm
Going back to the page issue - the page is a given reality - its existence owed to what it will receive? Part of its meaning and purpose lies in what it will become? Even an A5 sizing is TERRIBLEY standard. In most instances it is a world already written.  Physical Interaction with it is generally passive. So to mention Jackson Pollock in this context - VERY appropriate!
Comment by De Villo Sloan on March 31, 2011 at 11:25pm
Cheryl, this was a fascinating piece to write about. Due to space, I couldn't delve into it as much as I wanted. The connection to action painting REALLY needs to be noted. Jackson Pollock's body movements, etc. are so inherently connected to what remains on the canvas. That's an early example of what might be going on here. Dark Matter sounds very relevant. I hope I don't hit a dark wall finding it. Thanks for commenting with everything else you have going on.
Comment by cheryl penn on March 31, 2011 at 11:13pm
Good morning from Australia De Villo - I think you are at night somewhere? I mentioned to you a book called Dark Matter (Juli Zeh) in which she discusses the possibilites of alternate realities and something termed 'the fracture' - I'm not saying anything more about the book - but the alternate life of a page as recipient and conveyer of meaning - its an interesting concept you so adequately picked up on.  The page yes - this time a documentation and harbinger of things physically gone before.  Never mind the fact this was my work - this was SUCH an excellent read - thank you :-)

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