Saturday, June 29, 2019

A Case for the Gothic Asemic: An Artist's Book by Jay Snodgrass



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
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Collab Book by TicTac (Patrizia) (Germany) & Serse Luigetti (Italy) + More Solo Tic Tac




"Wooden Totem" by PC TIC TAC (Starnberg, Germany)
 
 
Patrizia Tic Tac has long been one of my favorite visual poet-artists in the Eternal Network. Her work is highly original, always surprising and often uses ironic humor and wordplay. Tic Tac has created a space in the vispo landscape all her own.
 
So I am thrilled to be able to share a selection of her work - both collaborative and solo - on Asemic Front 2. Included here is an artists' book by Tic Tac and visual poet Serse Luigetti of Perugia, Italy. Serse Luigetti is widely known and admired in the visual poetry community. Having him join forces with Tic Tac is a special occasion indeed. I am pleased to be able to document the results on AF2.
 
- DVS
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
Below is the collaborative artists' book by Patrizia Tic Tac and Serse Luigetti:
 
 
 
 
 
Cover of collaborative book by Tic Tac (Starnberg, Germany)
& Serse Luigetti (Perugia, Italy) (2017)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
By Tic Tac & Serse Luigetti
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Front and back covers of book by TIC TAC & Serse Luigetti
 
 
 
 
And now a solo artist's book by Patrizia Tic Tac:
  
 
 
 
The Small Book of Etcs - Rubberstamp Performance by Tic Tac (n.d.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 By Patrizia Tic Tac
 
 
 
 
 











 

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Collaborative Visual Poetry Book by Matt Taggart (USA) & Luc Fierens (Belgium)



Cover of Trajectory EXTRA POSTFLUXPOST collaborative book by Matt Taggart
(Billings, Montana, USA) & Luc Fierens (Weerde, Belgium)
 


I have written extensively elsewhere about the highly original and important work of visual poets in Belgium including Luc Fierens, Thierry Tillier, Little Shiva and the late Guido Vermeulen, among others. A collab by Luc Fieren and Thierry Tillier can be found on the original Asemic Front (let's call it Asemic Front 1). Their image-text explorations make a vital contribution to the Asemic Front project.

Luc Fierens generously sent, at my invitation, a quantity of relevant material for AF2. I will document this work in several installments. To begin, here are scans of Trajectory by Matt Taggart and Luc Fierens.

These complex image-text structures first appeared in 2013 as part of Fieren's well-known POSTFLUXPOST publications. Trajectory is presented on 16 panels. As is my usual practice, I will not re-publish the entire work in digital form. I will present excerpts that I believe are particularly notable and that address in insightful ways the process of signification, so central to asemic theory. Asemic Front has confirmed the view, widely held but not without dissenters, that asemics and visual poetry are inherently connected.

Matt Taggart and Luc Fierens have styles and concerns that, for me, are unusually well-matched for the purposes of collaboration. The results are exceedingly successful, which also makes them of great interest to Asemic Front 2.

- DVS













by Matt Taggart & Luc Fierens
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 






Trajectory by Matt Taggart & Luc Fierens
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

2 X Jayne B. Lyons & De Villo Sloan




Asemic visual poetry collab by Jayne B. Lyons (Minnesota, USA)
& De Villo Sloan (New York, USA)
 
 
Here are two more pieces that complete the recent series of Asemic Front 2 collaborations by Jayne B. Lyons and me. The starters for these were - from my perspective - incomplete and problematic. I did not really expect to see them again. Jayne did, I think, exceptional work salvaging them for the Asemic Front project. She has made them transcend and outshine their origins. In comparison to our previous collabs, I believe these two are more complex and textural. I have documented them in some detail, but the scans do not completely capture the subtle nuances of these compositions, mostly the work of Jayne B. Lyons.
 
- DVS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Visual poetry collab by Jayne B. Lyons & De Villo Sloan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Asemic Concrete Poetry Collabs by Jayne B. Lyons & De Villo Sloan



Concrete asemic poetry collaboration by Jayne B. Lyons
(Minnesota, USA) & De Villo Sloan (New York, USA)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Collab by Jayne B. Lyons & De Villo Sloan
 
 
 
 
 
By Jayne B. Lyons & De Villo Sloan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
By Jayne B. Lyons & De Villo Sloan