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

 

[cheryl penn]

Hello Marie, Hello De Villo :-)

I find it interesting as a book artist that the role of an artist in this genre CAN be  to interrogate the traditional book. To question structure, reading processes and   sequential narrative.  To ask, what is the identity of a book with regards to its cultural function?   How does altering an existing book change meaning? How does the book become re-placed in terms of significance?   The significance is brought to bear (or not) by the readers interaction.  The medium of WORDS is being interrogated in exactly the same way.  To quote De Villo above :  “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”.  To clarify something, the text is my own research, yes, on the nature of books :-)  It was actually about grangerism.  Grangerism involves the “mutilation of books to acquire extra illustrative materials”.

Interesting concept when applied to the mutilation of words.

Books as word containers and poetic diction seem to have been undergoing similar examinations. 

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks for the succinct comment Marie.  We were in danger of drifting into that other dimension of which you speak, possibly never to return.

[Marie Wintzer]

I have never seen anything like this. Cheryl's talent doesn't seem to have borders, I think she needs another dimension. Fabulistico!

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi Cheryl, yes, I was trying to focus on that shadowland where I think visual and concrete poetry reside. I wanted to make the connection of current work (yours being the example here) to what amounts to a tradition of sorts going back decades, and my examples are from the U.S. only. Given considerations of space, etc. I tried to keep it specifically to language as a raw material among other materials.

 

You take it another step, which was covered elsewhere in the Jackson Mac Low essay. He makes the point, as have many others, that when you use words and word combinations, no matter how random the process (and is randomness really possible?), a reader or viewer interacting with the piece is going to impose some kind of meaning to it. That's human; it's part of the interactive process with art. Cage's idea of "Empty Words" is not really possible.

 

I didn't go further and talk about what the weave you sent meant to me in terms of a personal meaning. The piece you've added, BTW, is beautiful. It's very clear in both cases you were drawing primarily from some sort of political/historical/rhetorical texts. What you are doing ties in further with this kind of writing (art) because many pieces I've seen involve taking different kinds of language and conventions we know and accept and shattering the structures in various ways, disrupting them, dislocating them - what ever you want to call it. There are various justifications for doing this on the level of content: subverting systems of power and control, revealing the true nature of language and reality, even creating new systems of linguistic expression - it goes on and on. I think your work could be "read" and understood by applying some of these conventions. And notice I've managed to side step yet again one interpretation.

 

Yes, we have spoken at some length about these things. You are aware of my own great concern when art becomes theory-driven to this extent. All the same, I wanted to step out on this slippery slope a bit to give your work some broader context. We have a bit of luxury here to role play artist and critic. It must be good for something.

 

In the long run, however, I'll offer the cautionary advice that is often told: If you're an artist, try to stay blissfully distant and unattached to what the critics, theorists, and academics are championing at any given time. That is not to say one shouldn't pursue knowledge or an awareness of what others are doing - but in all such cases its more a matter of following your own heart, interests, and instincts. There are other opinions of course.

 

Thanks for engaging - you see how simple things so quickly escalate if you let them.

[cheryl penn]

Dear De Villo,

We have had excellent haggles about the borderlines  text,  as a visual tool operates in.   That shadow land in which the aesthetic  and usage of text by writers and poets as opposed to visual artists lies.  In the 1950’ s Werner Meyer-Eppler defined a process  as  aleatoric   “if its course is determined in general but depends on chance in detail" .  He applied it to music of course, but how apposite to your choosing Jackson Mac Lows observations. The original context was weaving DANGEROUS words.  Actually woven, no problem, but in the mouth of a gifted orator, wars begin.   Historically I suppose narrative and/or meaning have played prominent roles in art and literature.  Now we are free to engage with the physicality of the tale itself and its part constituents – words – realizing that perhaps it’s not about what is said, but how it’s said.  And we wonder, was anything said at all?

I think I shall have to keep this for you: