Astounding art, vispo & asemics by Ruud Janssen

Mail art by Ruud Janssen (Breda, Netherlands)

 

 

 

Ruud Janssen is a preeminent figure in the contemporary mail art network (aka the Eternal Network). He is a scholar of network history and theory, an archivist, visual artist, visual poet and asemic writer. Like many networkers, he has embraced the concept of "intermedia" as described by Dick Higgins.

 

Ruud Janssen is also the founder of the International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA), an organization that has brought the tradition of correspondence art rooted in Ray Johnson and associates into the digital, post-literate age. On the IUOMA-Ning site Janssen has contributed to the "Asemic Writing for Mail Artists" group and thus is already a participant in the Asemic Front project whom many will recognize.

 

Somehow, Ruud Janssen manages to continue to send out mail art (although newer initiates must understand that more established figures simply (and sadly) are not able to respond to the amount of mail they receive). Thus, I am even more grateful for the envelopes Ruud Janssen sends and especially for his support of asemics and visual poetry.

 

Though delayed, I am thrilled to be able to share a very fine mailing from the Netherlands assembled in January 2020. Ruud Janssen has been sending me copies of some of his major, larger-scale works for years. Since I am a copyart fan, this arrangement has worked out very well.

 

In this posting I am pleased to share four Ruud Janssen compositions that, while certainly qualifying as visual art, also can be read as visual poetry and asemic writing. In fact, Janssen has achieved much positive recognition in the asemic writing movement.

 

He blends images derived from high-tech with older "technologies" of artistic expression to create new symbols, narratives and visual-verbal rhetoric. (Sometimes I see Janssen pieces as essays.) The blending of high-tech iconography and classic calligraphy make for entirely original asemics.

 

For this Asemic Front 2 entry. I will document the complete mailing as I know it will be of interest to the mail artists in the audience too.

 

- De Villo Sloan

 

 

 

Mail art by Ruud Janssen (Breda, Netherlands)

 

  

 

 

Mail art by Ruud Janssen (Breda, Netherlands)

 

 

 

 

Mail art by Ruud Janssen (Breda, Netherlands)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mail art by Ruud Janssen (Breda, Netherlands)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



From the Anger Asemics Series by Kerri Pullo

Asemic writing & art by Kerri Pullo (Arizona, USA)

Kerri Pullo has released previously unseen pieces composed in 2017-18 that I think will be of interest to Asemic Front 2 visitors. She needs no introduction in the visual poetry, asemic writing and mail art communities. Kerri Pullo has a faithful following on AF2 where she generously shares her work. I offer special thanks to her for granting permission to post these works. I have named them the "Anger Asemics," which deserves an explanation. 

These works were composed in a notebook and are either unfinished or more minimal and transparent than the complex pieces we usually associate with Kerri Pullo. Some of them have the quality of being studies. In recent AF2 posts I have discussed the structures she is making (as opposed to her elegant calligraphy) and their importance to the development of asemic forms. These pieces offer unusual insight into her process for building layered structures. It is as if we can gaze inside the forms, which are usually masked by the overlays. 

Specifically why the "Anger Asemics"? In a March 31, 2020 post on Facebook where these pieces were first shared, Pullo writes, "I typically wouldn't post most of these because they make me angry..." Then in the same post she responds to a question about the anger from Kristine Snodgrass. "I was probably in a prolonged, unnecessary bad mood at the time," writes Pullo. "I can see I was frustrated with myself. I don't know really. I usually go back and add layer after layer until I like it but I gave up on these." In one sense, we are fortunate she did.   

Thus  on behalf of AF2 I apologize to Kerri Pullo for having to endure negative memories yet again. But I believe the contribution to cultural studies and exploration of asemics will be a benefit to many. Furthermore, in the "Anger Asemics" we see a direct relation between the emotional experience of the writer and the production of the asemics as explained by Kerri Pullo herself. This adds to our understanding of how to "read" asemic writing. And even more, I think they are great pieces.

- De Villo Sloan

By Kerri Pullo 

And then among the "Anger Asemics" is a piece that I believe is among Kerri Pullo's finest: