Concrete Asemics by Cheryl Penn (South Africa)

 

Concrete asemics by Cheryl Penn (Durban, South Africa)

Cheryl Penn's work appeared on the original Asemic Front. This is her debut on AF2, and I hope to be able to feature more of her contributions. She sent the composition above when I expressed my intention - originally in the context of Shawn McMurtagh's vispo - to explore relationships between concrete poetry and asemic writing as an AF2 sub-theme.

Cheryl Penn's piece, indeed, reveals the materiality of language and asemic symbols. She references the structures and text-based composition of "Classic" concrete poetry aka "typewriter art" (or as I call contemporary work of this kind: neo-concrete). Interestingly, the work is composed with rubber stamps, which - of course - are just as effective and permissible as resurrecting a typewriter. In fact, rubber stamp concretism is an area worthy of future exploration.

While the circle (viewer's right) draws attention as a recognizable structure of language, the abstract concentration on the left can be viewed as a deconstructed or shattered mirror of the circle. Thus, the work is essentially binary and deeply expressive, lacking the coldness of much "Classic" concrete poetry. Due to the literal smashing of the circle and recognizable letters, the work is also an example of my theory of "Deconstructive Asemics" developed in the original Asemic Front.

Deepest thanks to Cheryl Penn for this very fine work!

- DVS