SENT: TRASHPOETICS - A Theory of Trash Mail-Art Including Origins, Reign of DK, and Cerealist Trashpo Man-da-da-la

[De Villo Sloan]

TRASHPOETICS (1)

 

TRASHPOETICS (2) - Reign of DK

 

TRASHPOETICS (3) - Cerealist Trashpo Manadala

[De Villo Sloan]

Exciting news! Diane has created a Ministry of D-Kultur for Trashpo. She saw all this stuff about Marx, so she appointed these guys as her ministers. Harpo is a new kind of Trashpo similar to Alpo

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Oh Erni, thanks for this perspective. In the late '70s a Marxist friend gave me a book by Adorno on music and sociology--to help solve some kind of stalemate we'd reached on the place of art/music in Marxism--would that be the same Adorno?? Just checked Amazon and cannot find it. By any chance do you know it?

[Nancy Bell Scott]

p.s. That beauty some of us see in DK's work: to me it's in no way conventional.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yes, I do know what you mean. Blurring cultural and social distinctions between art and life fits right in with my own views, which have been growing in the dark. (Twenty years ago when "showing" my art, the bought frame that claimed it was precious & unapproachable turned me off in a big way, and I ended up "framing" them with old broken windows and other rickety mundane stuff. Much better. But I dislike anything between it and people now.)  Art IS in life and ordinary things. It's everywhere, people just don't always see it. I don't see Diane as political either--she just SEES the art in the ordinary and presents it in a way that not many can. It's actually an ultra-sophisticated vision (in the sense that she leaped over several of the usual artist stages and circled back to where it all really begins, which to me says 'highly developed").

No question I do find beauty in her work, and that's a subjective thing. Somewhere on this site, god knows where, i described what I imagine to be her mental process when she works--that it seems extremely intuitive, and that she probably worries and fusses over the work very little; the material is just there and she knows what to do with it. That is probably somewhat similar to your seeing formlessness or disorganization--it's just that I'm talking about process and you're talking about the result, in that instance.

I don't know enough about Dada to discuss it intelligently. But I liked the less aggressive version of anti-art that you talked about and seemed to prefer (I think!). Hey Diane, sorry to talk about you like a specimen, but I know you understand!

DVS, this is great:  "We're all engaged in creating a living culture that isn't quarantined in places like galleries and museums. Credentials and institutional approval aren't allowed to dictate who and who can't be an artist."

 

[De Villo Sloan]

And to wrap the anti-art thing: I was just looking at "Household notes" that DK sent to Dean Marks. When you take household materials like notes family members sent to each other not intending them to be "art," you are in the anti-art territory, blurring cultural and social distinctions between art and life. The whole thing with John Bennett sending his shopping lists to people is the same concept. You are finding art in life and ordinary things - without much manipulation - begin to assume the place of "art." A lot of the work of the Fluxus folks we see here is in this territory, but not exclusively.

 

Sure, this also comes from the anti-art stance of DaDa, which I think in a different and more aggressive way challenged the foundations of Western art as basically being a facade that ultimately justified the mechanisms of things like world wars and brutal colonialism. Sad that not much has changed in nearly a century, IMHO.

 

I don't see someone like DK as militant or political in any way. But she clearly is trying to relocate art back into her life and the life of others. In this way, we all are no longer passive consumers of "culture." We're all engaged in creating a living culture that isn't quarantined in places like galleries and museums. Credentials and institutional approval aren't allowed to dictate who and who can't be an artist. Know what I mean?

[De Villo Sloan]

I'm merely expressing my own opinion about Diane. I do read the comments where people write they find beauty in her work. I'm not all that good on aesthetics. I know, for instance, there is an aesthetics of horror. All the blood and guts from Artaud's Theater of Cruelty, transferred over into the blood and gore in movies by people like Coppola and Carpenter is an aesthetic. So it's in the eye of the beholder and all that.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

When first here, before actually seeing or focusing on any of your art, Diane, I unconsciously assumed you must be terribly sophisticated and refined because of your rhinestone heart. I was very intimidated (because I'm a slob)! Just an aside, carry on.

[DKeys]

Great conversation! I see what you're saying DVS (except about the monkey pants and bee stings) Cheryl and Nancy's books are more refined and deliberate in a wonderful way. You're probably right mine is more anti-arti.  I have made peace with the fact that my aesthetic is (hopefully) ugly beautiful. I like extremes. I love seeing all the variations--trashpo is non-restrictive and open-ended and I like that--a cultural mutation

[De Villo Sloan]

I don't want to get into some thing about aesthetic trash, but I don't see any conventional beauty in Diane's work. That's why I like it. D-Khaos. I told her once she had managed to remove form from the form/content equation because of the total disorganization of the work. Of course, that's a theoretical impossibility. But then DK's work might represent some bizarre cultural mutation.

[De Villo Sloan]

Dw needs to be stuffed in a closet and never released.

 

The crux of the message was that Nancy and Cheryl have taken Trashpo in a new direction with aesthetic or artistic Trashpo. Before, it seemed to primarily be anti-art. As far as I can see, anti-art has two operational definitions. The one being used here is the kinder and gentler variant: The Fluxus idea of art and life being reintegrated, so you don't have things that are contrived or isolated as "art," as something distinct from "life." I still find the concept hard to wrap my mind around but sorta get it.

 

The more crude version of anti-art involves willfully defying, desecrating, and mocking the conventions of art - like a lot of the Punk stuff.

 

Dw was of the opinion that this new aesthetic wave was going to be challenging for The Queen: Thus "monkeys in the machine" and "bees in her drawers." Is that a mistranslation of "bees in her bonnet?'