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

INTERZONA Project: Asemic Collab by Tchello d'Barros (Brazil) & Ferran Destemple (Spain)

Collab by Tchello d'Barros (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

& Ferran Destemple (La Laguna, Canarias, Spain)

 

 

I am thrilled to be able to share this stunning asemic composition as part of the Asemic Front 2 ongoing coverage of the William S. Burroughs inspired INTERZONA project. Ferran Destemple is producing - with a well-chosen band of visual poets - some truly memorable collabs. And of course the spirit of "Bill Lee" is present in every work as well, which certainly helps make this a very special project. As ever, many thanks to Ferran Destemple and also Tchello d'Barros.

 

- DVS

 

 

 

 

 

 



Asemic Image - Texts by Jay Snodgrass (Florida, USA)

Asemic visual poetry by Jay Snodgrass (Tallahassee, Florida, USA)

 

 

I am thrilled to share new work by Jay Snodgrass in this, his second appearance on Asemic Front 2. His distinctive calligraphy is already well-known and immediately recognizable in the asemic and visual poetry communities. Not surprisingly then, the pieces in his first AF2 feature accented his calligraphic contributions.

 

The work in this post is more expansive. It not only reveals Snodgrass's symbol constructs more but also larger structures that contain them. This work presents forms and explorations of linearity bringing us more fully into his vision.
 

 

 

In my own "reading" of these particular pieces, I find brilliance in the way Jay Snodgrass overlays his asemics on pages from what appear to be an airplane manual or related form of technical publication. Thus the asemic writing is contextualized in the Age of Print with its rote design formulas, text blocks and - I think most important - play of image and text.

These design and reading conventions found in mass publications are so commonplace that ordinarily we barely note them consciously. By creating a new asemic text that both follows and contradicts the airplane manual (socially mediated meaning), our experience of "reading" takes place on completely different terms. (This is one of the magical results of engaging with the asemic text.) While this new experience is highly subjective and individualized, I would guess that most viewers have an increased awareness of the nature of language and image. I believe this work by Snodgrass provides a fine example. 

For instance, the pages themselves - free of the Jay Snodgrass asemics - suggest science, rationality and technology. The aircraft pics, beyond the mundane, do have aesthetics, grace, even classical elegance. Snodgrass unifies the text and image into a new asemic text that encompasses both the repetition and beauty in the images. The experience of his asemic text is entirely different from coming upon the pages of an old technical journal by themselves.
 

As I stated, previously these pages hold many interpretive possibilities. The reader/viewer who spends time with them will be rewarded. Jay Snodgrass in this work achieves the much sought-after synthesis of image and text, which is a Holy Grail of visual poets. This alone is an important achievement.

- DVS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 



Asemic Front 2 Collabs by Rafael Gonzalez, Shawn McMurtagh, De Villo Sloan

Collab by Shawn McMurtagh (California, USA), Rafael Gonzales (Spain),

De Villo Sloan (New York, USA)

 

                  Collab by Shawn McMurtagh (California, USA), Rafael Gonzales (Spain),

De Villo Sloan (New York, USA)

 

Collab by Shawn McMurtagh (California, USA) & Rafael Gonzales (Spain)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concrete Poetry by Shawn McMurtagh (California, USA)

Concrete poetry by Shawn McMurtagh (Temecula, California, USA)

 

 

 

Southern California visual poet Shawn McMurtagh sent a hefty and diverse package of material for use in the Asemic Front project. I will share this work over several postings. Many of the pieces are clearly incomplete and meant for collaboration, but some of them I find so seemingly complete that I'll display them as solo works. Thus this first McMurtagh presentation.

 

I know of Shawn McMurtagh primarily as a prolific and successful collaborator with the great John M. Bennett. (JMB is another important Asemic Front contributor.) As the pieces on this blog reveal, Shawn McMurtagh is highly accomplished in the area of concrete poetry. I have been hoping to explore the relationship between asemic writing and concrete poetry on AF2. Shawn's participation provides an ideal opportunity. 

 

In the visual poetry community today there is a great deal of interest in traditional concrete poetry (aka shape poetry and or typewriter poetry among other designations). Yet, apparently, people who actually still produce this work with typewriters and/or word processors are rare. So Shawn McMurtagh is providing valuable starters for  AF2 collabs. (I refer to contemporary expressions using as inspiration the international concrete poetry movement that occurred roughly from the 1950s to early 1990s as "Neo-concrete."
 

 

 

 

I am deeply impressed with these concrete pieces Shawn McMurtagh sent me. He draws adeptly and apparently effortlessly from the best concrete poetry tropes accumulated across decades. The results are neither slavish homage to the styles of others nor dull recitations of hard-earned lessons. Shawn McMurtagh constructs fresh and text-centered pieces that build upon a tradition.
 

 

 

 

 

Of particular interest to me is the way Shawn McMurtagh includes concrete poetry styles of the 80s and 90s associated with copy art and zine culture. Added to the shapes, minimalism, materialism and textuality of earlier decades, we see impressive use of over-striking and distortion, resolving certain theoretical disputes in concrete poetry that emerged over time. McMurtagh, thus, presents a unified vision of what concrete poetry is  producing fine work now and offering even greater possibilities for the future. I believe his participation in AF2 will lead to some asemic-concrete hybrid material.

 

- De Villo Sloan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



INTERZONA Project: Collab by Frederico Federici (Germany) & Ferran Destemple (Spain)

Collab for INTERZONA project by Frederico Federici (Berlin, Germany) & Ferran Destemple (Berlin, Germany). Inspired by The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asemics by Robin Tomens (London)

 

Asemic text by Robin Tomens (London)

 

 

 

This post marks the first Asemic Front 2 appearance of British visual poet Robin Tomens. Longtime followers of the project might recall his earlier appearance on the original Asemic Front.

 

Robin Tomens is a ceaseless experimenter in the image-text realm, producing many fascinating innovations and variations. In terms of method, this work uses partial erasure of an apparent "original text" leaving us a surface to contemplate that is in places partially readable and in others wholly undecipherable. In some areas the symbols vanish entirely.

 

One can take the position that this activity essentially uses the "distortion" or "deconstructive" approach aligned with so much current asemic practice. But I want to highlight the idea of erasure as a method of composition in these comments. Ultimately, the text in Tomens' piece cannot be read in terms of conventional, linear reading of symbols and related structures. Even if there are flashes of signification, overall coherence is absent. Yet meanings and interpretations are abundantly possible in the piece. A certain responsibility falls on the shoulders of the reader. This is the paradoxical and contradictory realm of "reading" asemic texts.

 

This type of erasure or fading of text to areas of nothing or near-nothingness has produced some excellent asemic writing. We can now add Robin Tomens' work to the genre. Some of this type of work (I've seen some classic Fluxus film experiments similar to this for example) cause the viewer to squint and struggle to comprehend (in the case of the film) racing, fleeting, fading, squirming and disappearing shapes on the screen that appear to be some sort of writing but that resist coherence.  

 

I hope we will have more work by Robin Tomens on Asemic Front 2 and I am thrilled to be able to share this very interesting example.

 

- DVS

 

 

 

 

Three Asemic Collabs by Laura Ortiz & Peter Ganick

Asemic visual poetry collab by Laura Ortiz (Toronto, Canada)

& Peter Ganick (Connecticut, USA)

 

 

 

Laura Ortiz is a longtime contributor and Asemic Front readers' favorite. In this installment of AF2 she has joined forces with experimental poet and visual artist Peter Ganick to produce these stunning explorations of asemic writing and the intersection of asemics and visual poetry. This is Peter Ganick's first appearance in the project. Deepest thanks to the artists for agreeing to share their work on AF2.

 

 

-DVS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Asemic Writing by Cinzia Farina (Enna, Italy)

Asemic visual poetry by Cinzia Farina (Enna, Italy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Cinzia Farina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image -Text by Adriana Kobor (Belgium, Netherlands)

 

By Adriana Kobor (Belgium & Netherlands)

Hungarian by birth, Adriana Kobor is a writer active today in Belgium and the Netherlands. Much of her work is written in English. I became aware of Adriana Kobor's writing and photography via the visual poet Luc Fierens with whom she has collaborated. (Notably, she has also collaborated with Hungarian artist and writer Jozsef Biro.) Some readers might recall visual poetry by Fierens was featured on the first Asemic Front. I hope we can see more on Af2.

I find Adriana Kobor's writing engaging and highly original. An excellent sample can be found at Otoliths, which you can access via the link below. Kobor's writing has a mesmerizing power, which I have not seen since Kathy Acker. Kobor might hold some affinity to the New Narrative writers in the USA with whom Acker is sometimes associated. We can only wait to see more of Adriana Kobor's work and hope, in fact, she might do more than expand a promising strain in the Anglo postavant. I believe she has the potential to offer new directions and vitality to writing in English.

https://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2018/03/adriana-kobor.html

The purpose of Asemic Front 2, of course, is the intersection of visual poetry, asemics and collaboration. So I will not pursue Kobor's more conventional poetry and prose in this post, but - again - I recommend it highly.

In Otoliths, Adriana Kobor states her intention is to "expand the boundaries of language." Indeed she is achieving this in numerous ways including the creation of works that can be considered visual poetry. She combines image and text to interrogate the nature of language and the creation of meaning. In this AF2 installment, I present three pieces that I believe represent her exciting image-texts. Her methods range from concrete poetry to found material documented via photography. She moves effortlessly among the genres. Kobor's vispo is an extension of her writing style and spirit.

- DVS

 

Visual poetry by Adriana Kobor

 

 

 

By Adriana Kobor

 

 

 

 

 

Asemic-Concrete Digital Collab by Moan Lisa & Michael Orr

Digital collab by Moan Lisa (Iowa, USA) & Michael Orr (Georgia, USA)

 

 

 

The prolific visual poet known as Moan Lisa - of great renown especially in the Eternal Network - has returned to the scene after an absence and is producing new work, including collabs. Here is an example of particular relevance to Asemic Front 2 by Moan Lisa and Michael Orr.

 

Michael is no stranger to this project. Both he an Moan Lisa have considerable skill in traditional concrete poetry. They have pooled their talents here to create - in my estimation - an excellent work that is both asemic and meta-linguistic.

 

- DVS

 

 

 

 

INTERZONA Project: Collab by Rafael Gonzalez & Ferran Destemple

Asemic visual poetry collab by Ferran Destemple (Barcelona, Spain) & Rafael Gonzalez (La Laguna, Canarias, Spain) (based upon William S. Burroughs' The Soft Machine)



The Asemic Front 2 documentation of the INTERZONA collabs continues with this piece by Rafael Gonzalez and Ferran Destemple. Here are earlier postings:


Rosaire Appel & Ferran Destemple (INTERZONA)

https://asemicfront2.blogspot.com/2018/11/interzona-project-collab-by-rosaire.html



De Villo Sloan & Ferran Destemple (INTERZONA)

https://asemicfront2.blogspot.com/2018/11/interzone-invades-asemic-af2-collab-by.html

Asemic Front 2 Collab by Michael Orr & De Villo Sloan

Asemic visual poetry by Michael Orr (Georgia, USA) 

& De Villo Sloan (New York, USA)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neo-concrete foundation by De Villo Sloan

 

INTERZONA Project: Collab by Rosaire Appel & Ferran Destemple

 

Asemic visual poetry collaboration by Rosaire Appel (New York City, USA)

& Ferran Destemple (Barcelona, Spain)

 

 

Ferran Destemple's highly original INTERZONA project is running concurrently with AF2. I am planning on - at least partially - documenting INTERZONA pieces as they become available. Today's entry is an extraordinary collab by the widely acclaimed asemic writer Rosaire Appel and Ferran.

My deepest thanks go to Rosaire Appel and Ferran Destemple for granting AF2 permission to share this work. Rosaire Appel is a "must-see" and "must follow" artist for all those interested in asemic writing, visual poetry, abstract and conceptual art and related genres.

Please visit Rosaire Appel's blog if you have not already. I guarantee you will be impressed and enlightened. Rosaire is a figure with whom all of us in the international community should keep current:

https://rosaireappel.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR0IKvw_JMAwJyD-elI9LE_5JuI17sIfP9SltN971-YqMYbPdfB3BXTn8n0

INTERZONA has a deep affinity with Asemic Front. First, it is an homage to William S. Burroughs and his real-imaginary world of Interzone (Anglo spelling), the cut-up technique and Burroughs' fascinating theories of organic consciousness transfers, soul migration, infestation by alien entities, mutation, exemplified in the widely known Burroughs adage: "Language is a virus." Ferran Destemple uses the fascinating concept of works being invaded by Interzone as a basis for the collaborative process as well as a metaphor. The Soft Machine in particular is a center for Ferran's concept.

Detail of collaboration by Rosaire Appel & Ferran Destemple

William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin are important figures in the asemic writing movement, especially revered here at Asemic Front. Ferran Destemple's full title of the collab is "The Alphabet of Uncle Bill's Soft Machine infects Rosaire Appel."Thus, Burroughs becomes a spirit collaborator in these pieces. A tremendous innovation for asemic and vispo collab!

 

 

 

The Theory of Spontaneous Composition & Asemics by Yayoi S.W.

Asemic visual poetry by Yayoi S.W. (Kirkland, Washington, USA)

 

 

 

Yayoi S.W. is an Asemic Front regular. I am always thrilled to receive her work, which usually arrives via snail mail. She is obviously a very talented visual artist and currently participates in the international mail art network. The network has long been an important conduit for concrete and visual poetry and now asemic writing.

 

Yayoi S.W. integrates image-text concepts into her art with, I believe, tremendous success. She embraces avant concepts - many derived or related to Fluxus - that have permeated the international mail art network for decades. These include exploring the temporal and material nature of art, all that is implied in the notion of "anti-art," and an allegiance to the spontaneous, intuitive and the mechanisms of "chance operations." In short, Yayoi S.W. either looked at the art around her in the network and/or was a kindred soul who found a welcoming community (which is the case for most people who stumbled into the network over the years and stayed.)

 

From what I see, Yayoi's output as she shares original pieces with a large art community is prolific. Her growing body of work, along with this beautiful new piece on AF2, has led me to reflect on how amenable asemic writing is to those who extol the benefits of the

"spontaneous." This includes the Romantics, Surrealists (automatic writing and drawing),  and Beats (Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg's "First thought best thought" as well as, of course, Burroughs and Gysin.)

 

Asemic writing/art is expressive and captivating when the writer creates spontaneously and without rational planning, allowing a direct connection to the unconscious. This applies to calligraphy and - as a further example - juxtaposing images in a collage by associative rather than linear connections. Randomness also plays a part in spontaneous composition.

 

Of course, asemics is a vast area not fully explored. Some asemicists create fonts, symbols, structures - ultimately complex artificial languages - or better, systems that give the appearance of being languages. In order to be asemic, they cannot be "read" in any conventional way. They are a code that can never be deciphered because behind the façade is not another system that conveys meaning. Asemic writing that is composed following rational precepts can also produce phenomenal results. However, I find myself engaging more with asemics that are rooted in Romantic spontaneity.  

 

Precisely what the discovery of and interest in asemic writing will reveal about the nature of

language, discourse and poetics is at this time a mystery. But I believe the artists and writers - such as Yayoi S.W. - will bring great revelations.

 

- DVS 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Interzone Invades the Asemic" : AF2 Collab by Ferran Destemple & De Villo Sloan (Inspired by William S. Burroughs)

 

 

Asemic Front 2 collab by Ferran Destemple (Barcelona, Spain), De Villo Sloan

(New York, USA) based on the work of William S. Burroughs