THE DECADENCE OF TRASHPO (Part III) with Not Hi Ng, Torma Cauli, Nadine Wendell-Mojica, Richard Canard, Claudia McGill, Ana Carina, Neil Gordon

[De Villo Sloan]

"Traveling Trashpo Automated Miracle Trash Talk Generator" by IUOMA member Not Hi Ng (San Pablo, California, USA)

 

July 13, 2012 - Diane Keys' announcement of the First International Trashpo Exhibition in Elgin, Illinois is yet another indication that Trashpo, far from being in decline, is enjoying increasing popularity and acceptance. 

 

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/events/trashpo-mail-art-call

 

Previous installments of this "Decadence of Trashpo" series explored the tensions of anti-art vs. aesthetics being played out upon the pages of Trashbooks. We looked at the phenomenon of Euro-Trashpo, which provides a glimpse of Trashpo's future. For as Trashpo grows as a movement, if it can be considered a movement, artists are applying foundational concepts in new areas; regional variants are emerging. 

 

Not Hi Ng and Nadine Wendell-Mojica are both in California (USA), and it is very possible that in their work we can see the seeds of a West Coast School of Trashpo. Not Hi Ng might well be considered a phenom, having already received a TrashPo Litzer Prize for his work with "Audible Trashpo."

 

Not Hi Ng is further exploring his original concept with the "Traveling Trashpo Automated Miracle Trash Talk Generator" (shown here) that plays and records messages as part of an add-and-pass project. Hi Ng's ability to fuse mail-art, performance, spoken word, and anti-art - while remaining faithful to recycling - is a spectacular achievement, likely to spark more Trashpo intermedia explorations.

 

 

"Traveling Trashpo Automated Miracle Trash Talk Generator" by IUOMA member Not Hi Ng (San Pablo, California, USA)

 

While highly experimental, Not Hi Ng retains an anti-art stance in this and much of his other work. A portion of the world's trash is technological waste, some hazardous; and thus it follows that we are likely to see more Tech-Trashpo, including possible Trashpo cyborgs and robots: A brave new world indeed.

 

Torma Cauli's Mechanical Trashpo Event Score

 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Torma Cauli (Budapest, Hungary)

 

Torma Cauli is a longtime member of the network. Many are familiar with his thoughtful, often Fluxus-based work.

 

The piece above that he sent is postcard-size and made of fused newspaper and other debris over a light button device. What is amazing about this piece is that it is HARD, as if it had been highly compressed or saturated in some sort of glue, although there is not trace of adhesive. It is an interactive, Fluxus work. You can press the button, but the text states: “no push.” Here is the reverse side:

Reverse side of mail-art by Torma Cauli (Budapest, Hungary)

 

Torma Cauli's mail-art has many similarities to the work of Not Hi Ng in the way it incorporates trashed technology into an interactive performance piece. Here is the wonderful envelope that held the material:

 

And the reverse:

 

Many thanks to Torma Cauli. I look forward to more exchanges. Make sure to visit his blog offering work on a truly global scale:

 

http://www.tormacauli.blogspot.com/

 

 

Nadine Wendell-Mojica and Post-Neo Paranoia

 

 Mail-art by IUOMA member Nadine Wendall-Mojica (North Hollywood, California, USA)

 

Californian Nadine Wendell-Mojica has produced an impressive body of Trashpo that, while adhering to recycling and taking an anti-consumerist stance, displays traditional artistic expression and a consistent, individual style. 

 

Self-absorbed self-reference has long been considered a symptom of cultural impulses that are winding down. Self-referential Trashpo and obsessive interest in the DKult seem to be part of the state of Trashpo today. Does this persistent self-preoccupation indicate a flaw? Or is it part of a process of identity formation?

 

This fantastic work Nadine sent me explores DKult mythology with an expressionist brush. The almost cartoon images make unusual commentaries. Is that a depiction of DharmaDaDa Neil Gordon - Trash Prophet? Why does he have sinister, not-exactly-happy qualities?

 

I thought the front of Nadine Wendell-Mojica's envelope was great as well as fascinating:

 

By Nadine Wendall-Mojica (North Hollywood, California, USA)

 

DKult and Men in Black - not at all incongruous. Jim Leftwich (Virginia, USA) is the inventor of Trashpo as we know it today (apologies to Kurt Schwitters). Aspects of Leftwich's work are considered Post-Neo Adsurdism.

 

Leftwich was involved in mail-art when Neo and (later) Post-Neo were powerful forces winding through the Eternal Network, blurring fiction and fact with conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and fake identities, among other art strategies used to disrupt what I think was once famously called "popular reality." It was great fun, or part of it was.

 

By Nadine Wendall-Mojica (North Hollywood, California, USA)

 

So it is not at all surprising and perhaps even appropriate that a bit of Neo is present in the Trashpo mix, making it, uh, Post-Neo, a little, maybe. The great thing about this work from Nadine is that she captures the original - and I think intended - feel of Neo because, after all, it was not entertainment. At root it was an application of many different approaches to a radical assault on mainstream culture.

 

By Nadine Wendall-Mojica (North Hollywood, California, USA)

 

Receiving envelopes out-of-the-blue from people you did not know but seemed to know you with perplexing and sometimes disturbing content was not always pleasant but did have an ability to make you start questioning or to shake you out of complacency, which is, after all, not comfortable. Things are not that way now, but I think Nadine - like any good artist doing her job - offered a little glimpse, beyond the fun, of some serious things Trashpo suggests you might want to look at with different eyes, should you be so inclined to do so. 

 

Richard Canard - Trashpo's Other

Mail-art by IUOMA member Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illinois, USA)

 

Richard Canard's ongoing commentary certainly helps build a case for self-referential Trashpo, written, as this piece is, upon a cereal box. In this wonderful piece, Richard uses the Garden of Eden as a basis for wide-ranging ideas - interesting because Skybridge Studios (Indiana, USA) also has used Edenic-suggestive images in a classic Trashpo piece about Mr. Stubbs the Performing Pig. 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illinois, USA)

 

Employing classic Johnsonian-Fluxus tropes, Richard Canard has managed to make himself one of Trashpo's most vehement supporters while at the same time being one of its most vigorous critics. This is likely only a rational response. Based on his talent and history, he was appropriated and pronounced a leading figure in contemporary Trashpo when he proved open-minded enough to entertain the idea of Trashpo.

After all, Trashpo was born partially because Diane Keys differed with Rain Rein Nevermind (Minnesota, USA) over the concept of recycling mail-art. Thus Trashpo emerged from a mail-art schism, were such a thing possible, as it reflects one of the more reprehensible aspects of the dominant culture we are seeking to avoid. 

Richard does always manage to be insightful. Yes, the classics speak of art as "imitation." The use of "found," unaltered materials presents a challenge to a long-held idea (maybe pursued in Aristotle as well as Seneca) to the extent that some avoided the whole argument by coining the term "anti-art."

 

Claudia McGill's Object Trashpo

 

Mail-art by IUOMA member Claudia McGill (Wyncote, Pennsylvania, USA)

 

Claudia McGill has also been a bit of a Trashpo phenom. Her work with images from discarded furniture catalogs struck a chord with many: They suggest consumer culture on a larger scale than the focus of much Trashpo. They present landscapes populated with things, devoid of humanity or humanity (above) as shadow figures or dehumanized forms. They make a fetish of objects, which is the core of consumer culture. Thus, Claudia makes a clear connection between Object Poetry and Trashpo. This has tremendous possibilities.

 

 By Claudia McGill (Wyncote, Pennsylvania, USA)

 

Claudia McGill's explorations are taking Trashpo in new directions, and this beautiful work she sent is greatly appreciated.

 

Ana Karina - The Purist Tendency Endures

 

 Mail-art by IUOMA member Ana Carina (St. Augustine, Florida, USA)

 

Ana Carina included this interesting Trashpo with some excellent hand-painted magazine pages that have thus far found their way to MinXus-Lynxus due to their aesthetic qualities. The inclusion of this material represents the growing presence of Trashpo in the network for a number of reasons: (1) Mail-artists are recognizing the value of found text and circulating it along with very different examples of their work, and (2) recycling awareness appears to be growing stronger. Things that might have been discarded previously are forwarded, to be kept by recipient as art or used to create new work. 

 

 By Ana Carina (St. Augustine, Florida, USA)

 

Ana did some great envelope art with this package:

 

 By Ana Carina (St. Augustine, Florida, USA)

 

The reverse:

 

 

Many thanks to Ana Carina!

 

Neil Gordon - The Church of Trashpo?

 

 Mail-art by IUOMA member Neil Gordon (Wethersfield, Connecticut, USA)

 

Since his D-Konversion and avowal to serve the needs of Trashpo through counseling and other forms of spiritual support, I receive Neil's work with reverence. I cannot help but regard it as teachings and sacred texts. Lynn Radford (Pennsylvania, USA) has also helped define the spiritual aspects of Trashpo collection, composition, and distribution. For some, Trashpo is becoming a way of life, a merging of art and life.

 

I am not always sure of the context of Neil's work. This appears to be a collage from 2008, the beginning of The Great Recession. It contains predictions, historic references, and leads me to consider these apocalyptic times and what is ahead. For me, it is a meditative piece and strangely connected to the rise of Trashpo. Neil also spent this really thoughtful material:

 

William Burroughs at Naropa in 1975 - classic stuff! And the use of the cut-up technique is so commonplace in the network right now that it will be illuminating indeed to return to the source. Many, many thanks to Neil for this package.

 

As the work in this blog indicates, Trashpo is developing new forms and becoming more self-reflective. The United States remains the world's greatest trash-producer and thus the center of Trashpo activity. Yet the movement is global and regional variants are emerging, involving material selection and views concerning the environment and recycling. Trashpo as a spiritual and social activity must also not be discounted.

 

"The Decadence of Trashpo" Series

 

Part 2

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-decadence-of-trash...

 

Part 1

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-theory-of-trashbooks...

 MAIL-ART PSYCHIC

"No! I prefer MinXus!"

http://minxuslynxus.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

[De Villo Sloan]

Ray Men. 

I thought you'd be talking about the times when you had to live on roadkill & pine nuts.

Carina - welcome back!

[DKeys]

Funny Neil.  It's different for everyone isn't it? What food do you associate with a time you were really poor? Ramen is probably a big one. For me it was raw oats and honey.

[Neil Gordon]

Mac & chesesPo! I  A symbol of American culture! Reminds me of the time i lived on Ramen Noodles!

[Carina]

Great things in here, thanks for sharing, DVS!

Mister.

[De Villo Sloan]

Yes, "My Last Duchess" - in NY we have Dutchess County, which gets things confused. And how does the psychic know? Even the psychic has no idea how he knows. 

[De Villo Sloan]

May your lunchbox always hurdle grape mustard into Robert Browning's last dutchess.

[De Villo Sloan]

The macaroni thirsts for fire. In the words of the coughing dog are tridents that shackle the outpatient with cream cheese, My teaspoon fell into the meaning of organic voids or an orifice blocked with a dartboard. Why is your purse stuffed with tumbleweed? They cut my rations.

[DKeys]

I'm intrigued that the brand you have used for your scannerpo DW is Wegmans. Was this reference to William Wegman intentional? I think yes.  The macaroni clearly forms the image of a dog. Is our constant craving for comfort (food) animalistic? The absence of the promised cheese creates a sense of longing and deprivation. As the noodles are loose they appear to have been set free from a macaroni necklace, saucepan, children's plate? Man Ray meets Pan Ray? I'm digging this hard, DW!

[De Villo Sloan]

[DKeys]

Starch As High Art

http://www.independent.com/news/2012/mar/21/flights-wonder-contempo...