RECEIVED: Mail-Art Text Weave from Cheryl Penn (Durban, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa)

[De Villo Sloan]

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

 

January 19, 2011 - Cheryl Penn sent this fascinating word weave (below) along with some of her distinctive style of asemic writing (above). I do not know if word weaves are made often in mail-art or anywhere else for that matter. I only know of one other artist working with them: Tina Festa (Italy). She often uses pages from antiquarian books. These pieces fascinate me because they combine the tradition of weaving with chance word and phrase combinations that might be considered a kind of concrete poetry or a variation of the cut-up technique:

In previous posts I have mentioned L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry but have never shown an example. I want to include some here because the work by these writers often uses language as a material in very much the same way as Cheryl Penn's piece does. I only have handy a copy of Silliman's "In the American Tree" anthology. So I'll use a piece by P. Inman that is included:

 

drune )rupts

v i e w l e t s d o m e b o t t l e d, wouldnt be tilt of alphabet

mmence cucumb (out of clock)

 

cact theme

 

There are probably any number of interpretations if you are willing to give it some consideration; however, I think the point here is the use of language as a found material without the need for linearity, syntax, reference - in a way we ordinarily associate with reading. Cheryl's piece produces a similar result. Both she and Inman are working in an area that crosses the threshold into concrete poetry too. 

 

Looking through "In the American Tree," I came across prose by Jackson Mac Low that offers some additional insight into the idea of non-referential composition. Mac Low is an interesting figure because he had strong ties to both the "Old" Fluxus and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry. Here is a paragraph from Jackson Mac Low's piece "Language-Centered":

 

When I began aleatoric verbal composition, I thought of the works as being 'concrete' (I usually resented the application of the word 'abstract' to them) : as I saw it then, the attention of the perceiver is directed to each word and/or string in turn, rather than anything outside themselves. Later, when John Cage used chance operations to compose a long four-part poem made up of language elements drawn from H. D. Thoreau's 'Journals,' he called it 'Empty Words,' implying that these words etc. have no 'content.' 

 

End of Jackson Mac Low passage. This is early, classic L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writing. The positions have also evolved over time. It is interesting for people involved in the more literary side of mail-art to note partial L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E roots in Fluxus. Of most importance is to note the view of language as a physical rather than abstract material to be used in composition. I see Cheryl Penn's work here as a contemporary extension of this idea. Thank you for this thought-provoking piece, Cheryl.

 

More work by Cheryl Penn can be found here:

http://www.cherylpenn.com

 

[De Villo Sloan]

primitive symbols = are cake.

[cheryl penn]

It is also sounding like a competition for value, a primitive manipulation of symbols as expressed by language, a war for legitimate language usage. Who says anyway? Its all just a metaphor, the cutting of language as an instrument of control. The theater of cruelty? Its come off stage into the big wide world.

[De Villo Sloan]

sounds like this stage of the book is a theater of cruelty

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi Lisa, I'm calling Cheryl's weave concrete poetry, although I'm hardly the final word on the subject. Below is Dick Higgins' intermedia chart from 1995. You can see he includes things like concrete poetry, visual poetry, and object poetry (I think that means haptics). So you can see Cheryl's piece would fit in the intermedia model. These tend to be what we call hybrid forms, where traditional genres overlap, new media, things like that; and I think the idea too is they are constantly evolving and new forms emerging, everything in flux, right? Thanks!

[cheryl penn]

I have learnt something. When there is interdisciplinary cross-over, the results can be amazing and informative.  Theory becomes a  very valuable tool in accessing and discussing information related to two different constructs.

[De Villo Sloan]

Didn't we learn anything? That's the wonder of randomness. But I think it's re-arranger-ism.

[cheryl penn]

By the way, grangerism is a term no longer in use.  I think the only dictionary still carrying it is Websters 1913 edition.

[cheryl penn]

WOW! Grangerism came up somewhere else today?  What are the odds of that???

[De Villo Sloan]

Because it's woven, does that mean you can reed it? Thanks Katerina, Lisa, and Cheryl for the later comments - this has to be one of the more interesting discussions of interpretation I've ever seen related to mail-art.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Grangerize...gkrimnize...gkrimnizomai...gkrimnizo...krimnizo, even!

γκρημνίζομαι...γκρημνίζω: fall, crumble, collapse...hurl, pull down, wreck,

and then with Cheryl's creativity, make into a work of ART!

The "word weavings" are wonderful, Cheryl.