Asemic visual poetry by Ficus strangulensis
(Charleston, West Virginia, USA)
In the previous AF2 blog featuring a piece by Jayne B. Lyons, I coined the term (I am prone to coin terms much to the chagrin of many) "Rosetta Stone Asemics" to contextualize works that contain recognizable letters, words and even sequences of words combined (or interspersed) with asemics.
This kind of work is actually very common (but not in any negative sense). For instance, I have seen many texts written in cursive script that are in places readable and in other places unintelligible and meaningless. Especially when coherence and incoherence are combined creatively, attempting to "read" this kind of text is an experience that leads us to discoveries about the nature of language and consciousness.
"Rosetta Stone Asemics" is descriptive/situational and not meant as an attempt to define an entire new genre. I do find it interesting that both Jayne B. Lyons and now Ficus strangulensis have recently done work that applies to this Rosetta Stone concept. (Again, see the JBL post for a complete explanation.)
Ficus strangulensis is in my estimation one of the great USA visual poets. His contributions proved foundational in the first Asemic Front. I developed my theory of "Deconstructive Asemics" from his work published on AF. It's great to have him back for AF2.
This colorful, process-oriented visual poetry by Ficus strangulensis reveals the distortion and decomposition of existing language and numerals that many asemic writers use to generate asemics and related structures. Using this process, asemic writing is built from the fragments of existing language(s).
The Rosetta Stone concept is present here because the work suggests the endeavor of translation. In this case, however, the numerals are being distorted into shapes and forms that become completely meaningless. Thus, one possibility for this extraordinary visual poem is to view it as a text about asemic writing itself.
I've added several details and remixes to offer a closer look at this piece.
- De Villo Sloan
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