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/

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

'Tis a great "Theresa Day"!  Both the "Kansas" mail art by Theresa and the Sloan commentary are amazing! 'Wish i had a stronger internet signal at the seaside shack, it is about to close down, but i'll surely come back to this blog at midnight! 'Been on-the-road through Kansas once...yep, lots of memories this evokes!

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi Theresa, you certainly did convey an entire narrative with this material. I saw the collage, wrapping, and correspondence as a single entity. Thus, as CB noted, I scanned the torn tissue paper and included the tape.

 

You've given us characters, such as Jim (I know he's based on a real person), and a literary context, Brautigan. I can interact with the piece physically and in terms of interpretation, especially filling in a narrative. For me, you capture the essence of mail-art, which is more than just sending art through the mail. Your letters are purely wonderful, IMHO. And since mail-art involves a mingling of real people and invented persona and even places, it works as a kind of fiction.

 

Ray Johnson's letters to people in the Correspondence School and others are incredibly engaging. He was an artist, of course, and mail-art is grounded in concept and conceptual art. Ruud Janssen's writing about mail-art (our IUOMA founder) is some of the most illuminating I've found. And I've taken to heart something he wrote saying to think about what you send out as being built around a concept and the recipient should have ways to actively interact with the work. This is akin to what is meant to be achieved in Fluxus performance scores, I think. The mail-art movement has always had ties to avant garde art and Fluxus in particular. Ray Johnson was also a performance artist. I know this is not essential for everyone who just wants to send mail-art because the movement is incredibly egalitarian and accepting. But I gather you are someone who would want to dig into its cultural history and practices, which are endlessly fascinating.

 

So, thanks again for the great art. Marie and I have, through synchronicity and chance, made a little Theresa Day for sure.