Cover of book by Jay Snodgrass (Tallahassee, Florida, USA)
Kristine and Jay Snodgrass have already helped shape the tone and direction of Asemic Front 2 with their contributions. Jay Snodgrass is an established figure in the intertwined asemic writing and visual poetry communities who is no need of a lengthy introduction. Kristine Snodgrass, in collabs with Jay and via solo work, is doing - in my estimation - image-text work of increasing interest and importance. Here is one example from AF2:
Additionally, Kristine Snodgrass has become an honorary if not full-fledged member of the Eternal Network, interacting supportively with the contingent of visual poets who primarily communicate through and identify with the international mail art network, which has been an important vispo conduit for decades.
So I hope AF2 will exhibit more of her work in the future. AF2 is essentially an Eternal Network project (although not exclusively) so those willing to surf the vagaries of Fluxus, conceptualism, Ray Johnson, etc. along with the complexities of vispo are deeply appreciated.
Today I am documenting a solo artist's book by Jay Snodgrass that I have withheld for too long from the AF 2 audience. I know you will appreciate the brilliance and beauty of this piece.
This book is exclusively asemic text so it has no explanations in conventional language; the title is asemic as well. (Most asemic books include readable explications, which actually thwart the experience of "reading" asemics.) This book is a showcase for Jay Snodgrass's distinctive stylistics so familiar to his audience.
In previous commentary, I have suggested Snodgrass's asemic symbols and structures are drawn from dismantled medieval script, using adept calligraphy. Despite my shortcomings as a medievalist, no one has challenged my contention thus far. Emboldened, I will be more specific and point out the gothic nature of this specific book, gothic being, of course, rooted in the medieval. The gothic was transformed into a literary mode starting in the 18th century. Gothic asemic vispo might be esoteric, but I believe the genre exists. Here we have a compelling example.
Jay Snodgrass is a visual poet because his work incorporates the interplay between image and text (even if that text is "unreadable"). On the basis of what I know of his work, Snodgrass concentrates on images of human anatomy and/or machines (specifically aircraft).
This choice of imagery alone deserves an extended discussion of signification and symbol generation; however, I will limit myself to the observation that the skeletal imagery in this book (see above) accompanied by the asemics creates a gothic mode, as if - for example, a tale by E.A. Poe were translated into a 21st century postavant text. The predominance of black and white further affirms the gothic mode and evokes its close relative film noir.
Two page spread from book by Jay Snodgrass
Detail study
A great challenge for the asemic writing audience as well as theorists is the question: How do we read an asemic text? Interesting solutions are likely to emerge in the years ahead. Currently, most readers approach asemic texts as we approach Interpreting abstract art: Fields of shifting emotions, topographical charts of feeling. Think of an individual's response to a tumultuous Jackson Pollock canvas or a Cy Twombly painting. We also think of abstraction as meta-art: art about art. Asemic writing can be seen as meta-language: Symbols that only refer to themselves.
Following the current emotive consensus approach, the Jay Snodgrass book is ultimately elusive and deconstructive. While I believe the gothic mode is present and provides a unifying principle to the pages, even a kind of narrative, the composition has deeper emotional nuances and allusions that gradually reveal themselves. A gothic text signals certain inherent themes - decay, fear, despair, etc. - that the artist-author refines and manipulates.
Yet rather than an overriding preoccupation with decay and bleakness associated with the gothic-noir, the Snodgrass book also emanates joyful emotions and a very non-gothic aesthetic. This might, indeed, be a stellar example of Derrida's "deconstructive thread." Through the shear magic of artistry, Snodgrass overcomes the seeming contradictions of the work and creates a unity. In other words, the book is successful; you can test my perceptions by comparing them with your own.
The fluid meandering of asemic signs that engulf the pages and the lush contours, colors and tones beyond the black and white, in fact, communicate a feeling of exuberance and freedom. Snodgass's medieval asemics meld in places to a writing that has the appearance of street art. Astute readers have already noted that the book has at least two styles of asemic writing: the trademark Snodgrass medieval-rooted symbols and a stylized, post-modernized variant of the root style. Areas of color provide relief from the Existentialist noir.
While many asemic-vispo texts are sterile meditations on the nature of signification (and thus successful in terms of their purpose), this work by Jay Snodgrass is highly expressive and explores complex emotional states. This vision, fairly unusual in vispo I have reviewed, reflects the postmodern concept of a fragmented, shifting self not adequately defined in traditional literary and psychological notions of "character." In the same way, Snodgrass appropriates and subverts elements of gothic art and literature.
I am thrilled to be able to share this interesting work as part of Asemic Front 2.
- De Villo Sloan
By Jay Snodgrass
Back cover of asemic-vispo artist's book by Jay Snodgrass
