RECEIVED: VISUAL POETRY ANTHOLOGY (#4) from Svenja Wahl (Germany), Samuel Montalvetti (Argentina) & Katerina Nikoltsou (Greece)

[De Villo Sloan]

Center section of visual poetry chapter by IUOMA member Svenja Wahl (Heidelberg, Germany) for the second edition in the collaborative mail-art book project.

 

June 2, 2012 - This fourth installment of documentation for the visual poetry collaborative book project that Cheryl Penn (South Africa) and I coordinated begins with a chapter from the second edition by Svenja Wahl.

Her beautiful collage work often uses elegantly ripped paper and juxtapositions of photos from different eras. Svenja uses both printed text and image in her work, so visual poetry seems a natural extension of her art. Here is the evocative first page:

I think especially thanks to the work of Carina Granlund (Finland) and Jon Foster (North Carolina, USA) many IUOMA-based mail-artists have been experimenting with photo transfer techniques lately. For me, Svenja's chapter is an extended exploration of transparency that unites image and word.  Gerhard Richter is the figure of Svenja's homage, and this quote she included provides a conceptual point of departure:

 

Great link provided by Svenja: http://www.gerhard-richter.com/

 

Going through Richter's work on that site (long and well-spent time for me) certainly illuminates Svenja's chapter. As the Richter quote she presents suggests, "reading" through these wonderful images (by both Svenja and Richter) provide all the necessary meaning. I was, in particular, very drawn to Richter's painted-over photos, which fulfill all the requirements of visual poetry and look stikingly similar to work by visual poets today. Those helped me understand the overlays Svenja uses throughout her chapter.

 

I was also intrigued with the way Svenja Wahl maintains the look of magazine journalism, a reminder of the conventions of the printed word, the compartmentalization of graphic design. Yet like Richter - in his Pop Art related work - you find incredibly subtle explorations of texture, equally subtle distortions that undermine the notion of this work as realism. I think Svenja's center page collage (presented here again) is the real stunner in the sequence, an incredible composition of visual syntax, repetition, and tonality:

 

 

Mirroring the geometry of graphic design and logically organized writing contained therein, Svenja has built an incredibly structured visual-textual work. The more often I return to it, the more I see it as formalist, yet with the added dimension of simultanaeity and a use of distortion that questions the facade presented in the materials Svenja has selected to transform into visual poetry. The achievement here is very much a transformation of conventional, outdated, and mundane text.

 

In keeping with its structure, the chapter closes with a mirror-image of the first page, a photo of an indvidual and a two-column page:

 

I believe Svenja's chapter has much to offer if you spend some time with it. Like Richter, uses of devices such as distortion are extremely subtle but very powerful and expressive when you tap into it. Much visual poetry tends to explode on the page. This is different.  But for me the structuralist-formalist nature of the work (so that form overrides content?) is the most astounding part, or perhaps materialist is a better way to think of it.

 

Regardless, many, many thanks to Svenja for a chapter that adds considerable depth and breadth to the project. And something worthwhile is always happening on Svenja's blog:

http://amtfuerpostkunst.wordpress.com/

 

 

Opening page of visual poetry chapter by Samuel Montalvetti (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

After exchanging mail-art for nearly two years, I am starting to feel as if Samuel Montalvetti - visual poet, Fluxus artist, veteran mail-artist - is a good friend. He has contributed great work to almost every project Cheryl Penn and I have coordinated and has helped document the results.

 

Samuel Montalvetti has done stellar work in concrete poetry and asemic writing as well. I think his vispo videos are exceptional and often groundbreaking. Much of his work for the collaborative books has been minimalist, often ironic play and deconstructionist interrogations of single letters or words. He took a very different approach with this chapter.

 

Like Svenja Wahl, Samuel uses pages of existing text as the foundation for his vispo. In this case he achieves a subversion of the content by choosing simply to present it upside-down. Samuel has chosen to dedicate his chapter to Graciela G. Marx. Unfortunately, I cannot find much more information than the fact that she was a mail-artist. I wonder if anyone knows about her? In certain parts of Latin America, being a mail-artist could be a very serious and heroic practice. I wonder if there is an important story here.

Cracker Jack Kid has made an estimate based on the best information available (and no one is sure) that there are approximately 13,000 practicing mail-artists in the world. The IUOMA is approaching 2,500 members and thus represents only a fraction of the community. Many important participants and indeed entire networks are still outside this space. In fact, concerns or distrust of the internet as being too "above ground" seem fairly common.

 

This chapter contribution by Samuel Montalvetti is far more conceptual than any other work of his I have seen. It has a definite anti-art stance and/or conceptual art feel. Jim Leftwich and John M. Bennett (both USA) recently released an interesting collaborative piece using printed pages from books rather than blank pages. Trashpo is also engaged in this recycling process.

 

This kind of recycling seems to be connected to the decline of printed word culture where now the remains of that culture are destined for the landfill and oblivion unless they have been translated into digital form. Visual poets are transforming the fragments into new forms, not unlike other movements of the past.

 

It is always a pleasure to receieve Samuel's work, and I look forward to many more exchanges. Samuel Montalvetti manages several blogs. All have great work from the Eternal Network and especially he provides a gateway to visual poetry in Latin America, which is exciting and vibrant:

http://samuelmontalvetti.blogspot.com/

Opening page of visual poetry chapter by Katerina Nikoltsou (Thessaloniki, Greece)

Katerina Nikoltsou is a veteran of both the asemic writing and visual poetry collaborative book projects at the IUOMA. She has delivered some great work that I have blogged previously, and in some instances she stepped in when others had to withdraw from a project.

 

In mail-art, where we often assume the world must have begun in the late 19th century with Arthur Rimbaud, Katerina is our version of a classicist. Her chapter for Edition #1, dedicated to El Greco, reveals the grandeur and possibilities of mail-art classicism. She kindly included a note indicating her references:

 

 

Katerina uses transparency in this chapter, in the case of the first page taking an opportunity to create some interesting asemic writing. Artists in the project are always faced with the choice of creating highly individualized pages - as would be expected from book artists - or simply making copies from an original. Katerina uses a middle-ground that seems to work well for the mail-art books. I especially like the torn-paper collage pieces she added.

 

 

The centerpiece is a stunner that, unfortunately, does not come through well in a scan. With Katerina, we are often treated to Greek letters, which give her an identfiable style with vispo and asemics. And I have a feeling I am missing a great deal because I am not able to translate this.

For months now, I have seen many blue pieces by Katerina. A true artist, she seems to be having a love affair with blue. So we have the phenomenon here of blue visual poetry, blue vispo, which still rattles the traditional part of my poetic mind - that poetry comes in colors.

 

The Greek asemics are a stand-out! Many thanks again and as ever to Katerina for her chapter contributions to the books!

MAIL-ART PSYCHIC

 

"No! I prefer MinXus!"

http://minxuslynxus.wordpress.com/

 

SB, they have 5 fingers; yours has 6.

 

OK - La Homa?

 

Go with the purple

 

2-3-7/3-7-2 on 12

Ask a friend to help you bury it.

 

Strictly Pippy Longstocking, MH

 

I forget what the 8th is

Only if there is hole in it

When she drops her nail file

 

What can you do without hurting his feelings?

It's in your MinX Kit

 

Ray has something he needs you to deliver, WP

 

Wreck the train set

 

Replace the midget - fast KR

 

So you get this plate in the mail...

 

Pregnant paws

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi Stephanie, glad you like the vispoets. Did I tell you I received a fantastic piece of Trashpo from you this week? Many, many thanks. It's a perfect example of a point I want to make in "Decadence of Trashpo II." I'll get on that one next. Thanks again!

[De Villo Sloan]

Marie, I wish I had the photo capabilities you & Cheryl have, as the Age of Print doesn't hold up well on the scanner. I'm afraid I've created a Trashpo filter.

I spent a lot of time on the Gerhard Richter site, and I think what Svenja did is very interesting. A bit east of Alsace, the whole notion of realism was once a seriously burning issue. Now I fully appreciate how much it has impacted the art, which points specifically at Svenja's use of distortion in those magazine photos. I even stumbled on Capitalist Realism as a way of describing Pop Art. Richter's painted-over photos are fantastic and a goldmine for vispo.

 

We all love Katerina, what more is there to say on that on except, yes, I like the overlayed Greek.

 

I see Dw has committed to writing a new book & making a movie in the course of one day. I think Geek Boy has a tall order for Solar Disks to fill & he might want to attend to that.

[Marie Wintzer]

So many outstanding chapters in this vispo project. Svenja's center page is incredibly beautiful, and the printed text over blurred images really does it for me. Almost all images in this chapter are blurred, I like it. And had not seen Katerina's pages before, what she does with the text looks very interesting, it shifts smoothly from English to Greek . Very cool.

[De Villo Sloan]

I have completed the script for my new movie The Making of Asemics 16 - an action-packed drama - telling the story of mail-artist working together against the odds and the lurid behind the scenes detail. Rain Man meets Hoosiers. I will be auditioning the actors and actresses.

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi Thom, thanks for your thoughtful commentary. The work by Samuel & Svenja is definitely text-centric & takes a bit of time before you start seeing what's going, at least for me it was. And Gerhard Richter's work is well worth some time.

If Svenja swings by I am very curious about what technique she used for the overlays. A lot of what see in mail-art is still  produced low tech. Photo transfer is relatively easy. I am a big fan of Jon Foster's ripped tape nethod. That can he refined by soaking the tape w.image in soapy water for a few hours and the overlayed on collages. You get perfect transparency. I am sure there are many other techniques as well. Jon did a cool video:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/video/mail-art-video-collection-and-m...

 

Cheryl, I think some really fine work came out of that project. I also think it would be good to have this and Asemics 16 documented somewhere. I'm thinking about this too.

 

[Thom Courcelle]

WOW.  Some astonishing stuff.  A person can tell that you really love researching all the elements, too, DVS.

You're right about Svenja's "graphic designer" coming out--I llove the print overlay of the archival graphics she used.  She could definitely do that professionally for any designer print magazine!

I've often felt like I wished I had the technical skills to do that kind of graphic design, but--due to my utter laziness and lack of computer resources (which cost money)--I revert to the most primitive forms of creating art: usually pencil/pens, paper, glue (and admittedly yarn and needles).  But then Katerina shows with her contribution here that manipulation of the basics materials can elicit just as much awe and reverence. Her use of transluscent paper used to "reflect" words against words, and her typeface/font in the Greek are like a prayer to letters and the alphabet.

You know what I mean?  How Katerina's overlay of transluscent paper--although a much more physical manipulation of the medium--still gives the effect of hazing-out, or creating a fog of the images below it; the same way that Svenja's more technical computer-generated lighter-printed images behind print text does the same thing?  Both are creating a primary and a secondary medium in the same spot.  At quick glance we can appreciate the pieces as a whole, but when we look closer to investigate, our brains have to "choose" one of the two as the primary medium and the secondary medium to focus on.

I'm gonna write that Richter quote down in my journal so I can contemplate it some more!

Great job, blogger and blogees!

[cheryl penn]

Mammoth job again De Villo. These visual poetry anthologies are opening the work out a lot for me. I think I may print them all and make ANOTHER book - a book about the vispo book. As I said earlier, its really amazing the way artists here at IUOMA group together to produce such 'ground breaking' (if I can use that term) collaborations. Book artists CAN be quite insular :-) X