Trashpo Gutai by Richard Canard (Carbondale, Illinois, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

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

February 16, 2014 - The international mail-art network has long been a friend to intermedia work that stretches the boundaries of traditional poetry, such as visual poetry. This piece recently received from Richard Carnard is a weather-worn label he found outside his local post office.

Richard poses a Socratic question, and I am only too willing to respond. From my humble perspective, this work (a kind of natural erasure) could certainly be considered Trashpo; and Trashpo, by definition, is a form of vispo: visual poetry.

I also detect something else at work here or are at least I am reminded of another mail-art connection. The Japanese Gutai group has long been influential in mail-art. Among other concepts, the Gutai group was interested in the disintegration that take place in art over time.

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/past/exhibit/4495

Richard Canard, by selecting found material in an advanced stage of disintegration, asks us to consider the materiality of "art" and its precarious relation to absence or nothingness.

Of course, this is only one of a multitude of possible interpretations a thoughtful receiver will find when engaging with this thoughtful work.

Thanks, as ever, Richard.

[WA Rodgers]

I do indeed... I actually took a walk around the neighborhood scanning for low-hanging fruit.  We're still covered with melting grey snow, but I am patient.

[De Villo Sloan]

WA Rodgers, you have a natural affinity to Gutai.

[WA Rodgers]

Beautiful and oh so mysterioso...

[De Villo Sloan]

Love the tire track art!

A mail-art performance I did for Angie & Snooky in November 2010. Made a roadkill stamp and drove over it several times with a Subaru (not mine). Only partially successful as the track impressions are not clear.

[borderlinegrafix]

Erni, a found art print!

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks, Erni. You and Richard are on common ground here, absolutely.