RECEIVED: Rebecca Guyver's Richard Diebenkorn Chapter for the Visual Poetry Mail-Art Book (Ringshall, Suffolk, UK)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art collaborative book chapter by IUOMA member Rebecca Guyver (Suffolk, UK)

 

March 6, 2012 - Rebecca Guyver has been a wonderful addition to the collective of artists who joined forces to create Edition #1 of the new collaborative visual poetry book project. In terms of documentation, we tend to look at individual chapters and not concern ourselves with how the chapters flow together and inter-connect. This is an integral part of a book's success, and I think Rebecca's exquisitely done, thoughtful, and hearfelt chapter adds depth and breadth to the edition. The opening page (above) sets the stage for the tone and artistry of what is to follow, yet there are many surprises. Here are the next two pages:

 

 

Thinking that mail-art is a medium dominated by conceptual art, anti-art, abstraction, Fluxus and other related practices is an easy mindset to which we too often succumb. Certainly, it has roots in these areas, but its ultimate spirit is the egalitarian. It is refreshing to see that Rebecca can work freely in the realm of representation and aesthetics and not only (I gather from comments of others) do people admire her chapter, it works cohesively with a range of other styles. I find the two pages above very interesting because of the contrasting images of closed and open spaces and those wonderful, meditative quotes that compel us to think in different ways about language, perception, experience, subjective, objective. Here is the next set:

 

 

The more I write about the new art I see at the IUOMA, the more the old critical terms lose their meaning and their ability to describe anything - the old terms that created decades of rancor, contempt, and polarities. "Realism" vs. "abstraction" are neither as clear to me as they once seemed, nor as important. Nor does "form" hold the interest or impact it once held.

 

Using lovely images, Rebecca builds words and images around the subject of the figure. I think of Litsa Spathi's Fluxus poetics that speak of the primacy of the body in poetry. I think of the Black Mountain poets' insistence "the body is the poem." Have our concerns at lasted shifted to something more productive? And as for the integration of art and life: "Avoid ludicruously seeing yourself as any kind of artist." Rebecca's work gives me this hope:

 

 

These pages are yet another interesting foray in this chapter that reminds me of an old country house - unified by its architecture - yet unique with the shapes, woodwork, shelves closets, and windows of each room. The interest to me here is primarily textural. "Be a poet of place" is wonderful advice. Charles Olson once wrote: "Find one place and dig deep." I think this means that all places provide conduits to history, people, thoughts, spirits, events that moved the world - if we can unearth the gateways because often they have been forgotten or sit so firmly before our eyes we at first do not recognize them. And who can argue with having a look at Cezanne and Matisse? Here is the final page:

 

 

We had better remind the Trash People to "Keep the cacophony of anti-figurative noise at bay." When Rebecca signed on for this collaborative book project, she did not know much about visual poetry. She learned what she could, jumped in, and clearly made the art the center of her effort. The result is wonderful and shows that all these forms - seemingly difficult - can be interesting and fun. She has helped us make a better book as the result of her efforts.

 

Many thanks to Rebecca Guyver for this wonderful chapter! Oh, and visit her blog....

http://virtualdrawinggroup.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post.html

 

[De Villo Sloan]

Skybridge, where are you when I'm trying to write these things? What you wrote articulates far better than I could what I felt was a vital message in Rebecca's work - in addition to the beauty which is there for us to behold.

 

No flux-post-neo-anti-art ismism but it was just.... wow, this is great and it works with everything else and it enriches all the other chapters as well. I love those quotes!

 

And some of it is because no one is laying down any rules that it has to be this or it has to be that.