RECEIVED: Asemics and Letter Art from Theresa Ann Alshire Williams (Bradner, Ohio, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Theresa Alshire Williams (Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)

 

August 20, 2011 - Theresa Ann Alshire Williams is a mail-artist who works in collage, poetry, and correspondence. This wonderful piece she sent me I believe describes through images and tonality a large portion of the mid-American landscape. The mail-art also reveals her increasing mastery of asemic writing. ("Kansas" was carefully wrapped in red tissue paper, which I included in the scan.)

 

For me, the images in the collage reflect the space and clarity of the physical landscape. As symbols, they express the dominant beliefs and values of the people who colonized that land and whose imported culture was changed by it, transformed into something else altogether.  Only in the more abstract images toward the bottom do I start to see a questioning - perhaps an opening deconstruction - of the images from the top.

 

I mentioned before to Theresa I thought her collage work was beginning to transform into visual poetry. The relatively minimal images are made far more complex by the overlay of asemic writing that, through its shapes, seems to seek integration with the images. She also included very nice pieces of correspondence:

 

 

I always appreciate receiving notes and letters. These give a sense what can be achieved with the form. After all, Ray Johnson founded a Correspondence School. First, Theresa presents the letter to Jim and then the letter to me commenting on it, an interesting approach.

 

The author Richard Brautigan is a major reference here. Theresa's writing mirrors what I think of as the journalistic, documentary style of Brautigan, or at least the part associated with Jack Kerouac in On the Road.

 

This ultimately ties "Kansas" to Theresa's correspondence: It strikes me as a communication from someone on that road, their thoughts of friends and fellow travelers intermingling with the landscape. The use of the typewriter (and Olympia is a brand as well as a place) strengthens the reference to that style and era.

 

This is a mail-art message with a great deal of resonance. I am thrilled to have received it. Many thanks, Theresa! I look forward to more exchanges. Theresa Ann Alshire Williams has a very interesting, ongoing correspondence project. It's definitely worth a peek:

http://theletterproject.wordpress.com/

[cheryl penn]

Its part of the  Buphagidae family. No, I'm not kidding. Ask Theresa - she ringed it :-)))X

[De Villo Sloan]

Cheryl, what on earth is an oxpecker?

[cheryl penn]

'Scuse me  piggy-backing, but I received a work from Theresa yesterday that I think needs a captive audience!

The Biggest Birds:

Or - In Praise of Folly?  This is considered one of the most notable works of the Renaissance and one of the catalysts of the Protestant Reformation. Theresa did you just GUESS I was wading though the Renaissance like an oxpecker - with picture!!!

[De Villo Sloan]

Wow, Factsheet 5. That was edited by a guy named Mike Gunderloy here somewhere in New York. He did reviews and tried to keep track of all the zines, so it was a hub. A lot of the zines focused on music: kinda punk and post-punk and they were a departure from the counter-culture, clearly something different. They also ran counter to the LANGUAGE poets who were in ascension, although zines like Generator published Langpo along with vispo and Fluxus stuff - it's an interesting era.

[De Villo Sloan]

Oh, I think the first zine I encountered from that wave was "Beatniks from Space" that came out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

[De Villo Sloan]

Wow Kat, glad you can check on the Midwest from the beach. Great response to Theresa's poem.

 

Theresa, in the 80s and into the 90s there was a huge surge of, a can only think to call them, underground magazines - zines - all over the US. A lot them were made by disaffected kids in their basements, and they tapped into the mail-art network for much of their content. Circulation ranged for different zines from a dozen people into the thousands for some of the more successful ones, like "Factsheet 5." Some editions can be found posted online now. A perfect example was John M. Bennett's (yes, our John) "Lost & Found Times." I think that's available online. Many of them have found their way into rare book collections at this point. I had a lot of concrete poetry, poetry, and articles in many of the zines, but to be honest don't remember many specific items and would have to dig through a lot of boxes to find them. Anyway, that's the context.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Going on midnight in Greece, but just late afternoon in the Midwest? I am back, Theresa, to view the great art and to read and reread the poem...'twas a lazy hot summer day here today,...( and my friend, Toby, diabetes, nearly blind, too...somewhere in the Midwest, don't know anymore, lost contact. sigh), your poem brought up many thoughts this late evening. Thank you, dearie!.

[De Villo Sloan]

It's great you're getting placements in journals, Theresa. I can see why. Having had to deal with this issue myself - once it's released into the network, the work can turn up anywhere. It's great because it reaches a relatively large audience. If you have copyright or embargo issues, however, things can get out of control. During the zine era, people started reprinting my stuff without asking. I was flattered but also had this feeling of loss of control. So I established for myself what to release and what not to release. It's an issue for people who are more on the literary side of the network.

[De Villo Sloan]

Woh, there was a poem on the reverse side of the card Theresa requested I not post. Is it OK to post the pieces here? I can pull them if there's a problem.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Brilliant work, blogger and bloggee!  We can post these poems now, Theresa? This Jim one is poignant, beautifully done.