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

[Marie Wintzer]

What's a manadala?

[Marie Wintzer]

You ARE the king of manifestos! Fantastic pieces! Dw won't be happy you stole his mandala though...

[Nancy Bell Scott]

There is so much variety of style, intention, and result here at IUOMA that, to me, after the past few years totally on my own artistically by choice, the richness here is just about overwhelming. So much to love, really, learn from, and be inspired by, and that definitely includes artists both nontrashpo and trashpo.

Diane's art even before (and after) trashbooks started appearing here struck me strongly, like the art of many others here, each in its own way of course. The word "organic" often comes to mind with her work--organic within itself and organic in the way it is created by her. I don't know this, but suspect that her whole mental process is very intuitive and that her way of seeing/imagining is so inherent that she probably doesn't often struggle greatly over any given piece by itself (???) even though I know she works hard. It all seems natural, even though she has methods as we all do, and even though they're changeable at any time. Did you see her pages for Judith Heartsong? Wow. Yes I see her personal style as trademark in some way. You could probably describe it better than I could. It woke something up in me that has saved stuff and had outlooks just about my whole life, but in visual art it apparently didn't know where to go, or only partly. It was partly kept under wraps, defended maybe from an increasingly sterile and prissy world--just a guess.

"Minimalism" as a description for Erni wouldn't have occurred to me, but I think that's exactly right. (Should have known, he's a buddhist and I live with one! ;--)  He sends found material, and like you say alters it very little if at all--just completely delights recipients (i'm a big fan) with his unique turn of mind in his choices of what to send, his descriptions and markings. It's funny (and he IS funny!), but the biggest packages I receive are usually from Erni, and with the least alteration but a lot of commentary and marking that makes you feel like you're gazing at something on several planes at once. An Erni MA day is always a joyful day.

Richard Canard did make that remark about sending trash to people; his MA sits on my desk and I think about it every day. Lately I wonder if the true thing about his statement is that you value nothing IF what you send people is what YOU consider true garbage--I mean garbage that has gone through all your artistic filters and would still be thrown into the garbage can if you didn't decide to send it to another artist either to be funny or because you still can't throw true garbage out even if you have zero use for it and will always have zero use for it. Ha, still thinking on this one.    

[De Villo Sloan]

D-Khaos. the golden boo dee

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks Catherine, you are named on the Trashpo Mandala. Did you notice that? Do you consider yourself a Trashpoet? Your membership in Diane's group makes you part of the movement.

[De Villo Sloan]

Clearly, the spell chick is annoyed she has to work on Saturday.

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi Nancy, yes, I bunched it up like trash, as DK guessed.

 

I think Trashpo can be traced to readymades and assemblage. As much as he made a somewhat negative comment about mailing trash to people, Richard Canard has done it himself. He sent a flattened aluminum can to visual poet Geof Huth about a year ago, for instance. On the other side, Trashpo comes from vispo and haptic poetry. Jim Leftwich is a stellar visual poet, IMHO.

 

Here at IUOMA, think Erni Baer has brought the DaDa influnce into Trashpo heavily. Erni's work is a kind of minimalism because it's just found material with very little manipulation involved.

 

As for DK - she is indeed a huge presence. Diane, truly, has a style. Look at her work before the Trashpo thing ever started. How can I say this? Diane isn't necessarily "artsy" in her work. Of course it has an aesthetic, but nothing conventional. It's very raw. It doesn't rely on a lot of formalism or rules you might learn in art school.

 

DK is such a huge presence: Have we come to view her personal style as some kind of common currency or trademark of Trashpo? Do you know what I mean? Nancy, you did a work that was a real departure. Some of Marie Wintzer's work might be Trashpo - it's just that she's using materials from Japan, so it's not so easy to spot. Different styles are emerging now, if there had been only a few styles before.

 

 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yes, he even made it look like trashpo, Diane! It makes sense to me you'd feel like you need the queen's blessing, DVS. To me her trash work is all poetry. The aesthetic of it I find hard to explain, but it might be akin to how, when I see those before and after pictures of people, houses, rooms, whatever, without fail it's the before version that I love, that has the poetry, that I'd choose any day over the usually sterile "improved."

I think you're right about the origins and directions, and yes, your work here does help provide context for whatever it is I (and many others) do. What you've done here is both settling and inspiring. Sometimes initially I have a knee-jerk rebellious reaction against labels, which you might have seen earlier, but that's over. This is way beyond labels anyway--you're detecting history and movement and making them understandable. Many thanks.

 

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks DK & Erni. My definition of mandala is loose but Erni helps fill out a great concept.

[DKeys]

This is fantastic DVS! I like how it looks like you wadded it up and threw it out, pulled it out, wrote some more, balled it up and threw it out again. I'm seeing a tortured process, yet the final outcome is complex and a seriously winding road. I wish I could read every detail. I'm really not sure what makes a manifesto a manifesto, but you are definately the man for the job. Love this