Received: Mehrl Bennett's Fluxus Ohio mail-art and vispo (Columbus, Ohio, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

October 9, 2010 - Discovering Mehrl Bennett's art and visual poetry has been yet another benefit of being a part of the IUOMA. Mehrl (aka Visual Mom) is part of a community of artists and poets that, for me, is a center of vispo in the U.S. This group includes IUOMA members Ficus Strangulensis, Sheila Murphy, Jim Leftwich, Matthew Stolte, and of course John Bennett. There are many others for sure; and the network is ultimately international. When I see a beautiful piece such as the one above Mehrl sent me, I am struck by the rapid advancements taking place in vispo. Clearly, during the years I was taking a hiatus (just my luck) something happened that opened the flood gates. As I put the pieces together for a personal understanding, I think the change is rooted in an integration of word and image in a way that would not have been conceivable even in the most forward-looking concrete poetry. The form is evolving and will unquestionably evolve further. Mehrl covered all the bases here with some Fluxus stamps I hadn't seen. Fluxus Ohio? Great.

137 Leland Ave. - isn't that the same address from which issued Luna Bisonte Productions in all its various permutations and preoccupations? I think Mehrl has many affinities to Ficus Strangulensis for very organic pieces, I raided Mehrl's IUOMA portfolio, which I consider to be fair game; but do hope others agree. Here's a Mehrl Bennett piece dated 2006:

This one above is much closer to concrete poetry and I think far less organic. I can really see the derivation here. Some cool stamps - I didn't know Mehrl made stamps:

Here's another example of Mehrl's vispo. The results with technology are fairly spectacular:

Thanks for letting me experiment, Mehrle. I could only aspire to be the next Bob Grumman. You can find many more examples of Mehrl Bennett's work and that of others in her flickr photostream, where the image quality is excellent:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmehrlbennett/4937559691/

Much visual poetry is being recycled in various ways. Interesting collaborations are taking place among IUOMA members. I think of Mudhead's classic "Fluxus Now In Color" piece which I know was intended with some degree of humor, but I do think this is a serious and natural process for vispo. Concrete poetry was considered a literary form and the vast body of it produced to appear on the black-and-white printed page. Fluxus and the idea of intermedia certainly helped change this. Lancillotto Bellini (IUOMA member from Italy) has an ongoing recycling project with John Bennett of some note too.

Thank you for the mail-art Mehrl!

[De Villo Sloan]

Yes, I appreciate Mehrl's response too - understanding the relationship of concrete poetry to visual poetry clarifies things for me - you're crossing poetry and visual arts - a lot going on. Mehrl says people are still doing "minimalist concrete poetry" which is true. I tried some recently, and personally it seemed like delving into some archaic form, like writing a sonnet. Interesting stuff for us visual-verbal types. Did you see Maria F.s new photos? Russian kittens sure look like South African chinchillas. Only in Russia they paint them different colors. Don't laugh, I knew somebody who dyed their dog so it would be the right color.

[cheryl penn]

Thank you Mehrl and DVS you both clicked something for me.

[De Villo Sloan]

Mehrl Bennett sent a message that helps clarify visual poetry today and might be of interest especially to IUOMA members interested in Kurt Schwitters and Hannah Hoch:

Thanks for the writeup on your IUOMA blog, De Villo = very nice of you. One thing I'd like to discuss, though, is the idea that concrete poetry developed into visual poetry. Not quite so. As you noted, visual poetry developed out of ***many source inputs, and concrete poetry was one of them. But the black/white minimulist concrete poetry is still something which continues even today. One can include 'concrete poetry' under the umbrella of 'visual poetry'.

***Such as photomontage (one of the original Berlin Dada artists, Hannah Höch, who was friends with Kurt Schwitters, who used found objects in his Merz collages, and I agree whole hearted ly with you regarding the influence of multi-media approached. The freedom to use multi-media encourages the dual approach of using language+visual no matter whether one comes at it from a background in literature, art, music, chemistry, whatever!
***AND of course mailartists use collage ALOT and so, yeah, you made the connection. What I love about mailart is that the gallery people or art academics are not there to judge anyone's mailart output. Mailart exhibits are for 'everyone', nothing left out. Visual Poetry is inherently 'experimental' and mailartists come at it with an open mind--- not looking to make a buck.