A glimpse into the asemic journal of Carien van Hest (Netherlands)

Asemic writing by Carien van Hest (Zutphen, Netherlands)

I am very pleased to welcome Carien van Hest of the Netherlands to the Asemic Front project.

She has recently joined the Asemic Writing for Mail Artists group at IUOMA-Ning where she is sharing pages from an asemic journal she has begun keeping. This post presents the pages to the larger AF2 audience. The asemic writing group is an ideal place for this kind of experimentation. 

Surely many asemic writers & artists keep journals of their work, but I cannot claim to have seen many excerpts online or in print. Perhaps asemic journals are an overlooked genre? 

Carien van Hest is developing her asemic style & these pages document an ongoing process & evolution. The concept of organic, process-oriented asemics is intriguing & evident in Carien's work. I hope she continues to keep the journal & share these exciting entries with us.

Once, as an aside, I heard the poet & critic Hayden Carruth lament, "All those journals we [poets] keep - what happens to them? We scribble & scribble inspirations but most often they are lost. Where do they go?" I've always thought that was an interesting point. We are fascinated by glimpses into the originally private journals of writers & artists when they are available. Certainly asemic journals hold a similar allure. I hope AF2 can help preserve them.

- De Villo Sloan

Asemic journal entries by Carien van Hest 

New asemic vispo by Yayoi S.W.

Asemic vispo mail art by Yayoi S.W. (Kirkland, Washington, USA)

I am thrilled to share new work received from longtime Asemic Front project contributor Yayoi S.W. from Washington State, USA. Yayoi S.W. is among the talented artists contributing to vibrant image-text work in the Eternal Network (international mail art network). It is a privilege indeed to follow the evolution of Yayoi's work as part of AF2.

- De Villo Sloan

Asemic vispo mail art by Yayoi S.W. (Kirkland, Washington, USA)

Asemic concrete poetry collaborations by Andrew Brenza & De Villo Sloan

Asemic concrete poetry collab by Andrew Brenza (New Jersey, USA) 

& De Villo Sloan (New York, USA)

By Andrew Brenza & De Villo Sloan

By Andrew Brenza & De Villo Sloan

By Andrew Brenza & De Villo Sloan

By Andrew Brenza & De Villo Sloan (detail study)

By Andrew Brenza & De Villo Sloan

Textile asemics by Lisa Iversen (Indiana, USA)

Asemic visual poetry by Lisa Iversen (Indiana, USA)

I am very excited to welcome artist and legendary mail artist Lisa Iversen to Asemic Front 2. 

Lisa Iversen is a longtime veteran of the Eternal Network who attained much of her revered status in the last decade due to her association with Trashpo, a correspondence art "movement" that achieved unexpected popularity. Trashpo was inspired by Jim Leftwich and centered around Diane Keys (both USA visual poets of note); it focused on language-centered found material. 

Those familiar with Iversen's work will, doubtless, identify her use of found material and organic form in the work above as a Trashpo encore, a tip of the hat, a bow, a nod (and wink) to the re-energized mail art network of the last decade. 

Iversen's work exists in that all-important intersection between visual poetry and the Eternal Network. She experimented with asemic writing when the practice was still relatively unknown and even less understood than it is today.

Many of us, myself included, will see the work through a lens of nostalgia and a yearning for old friends; but this response is misleading.

I suspect Lisa Iversen, aka Skybridge Studios. is too often associated with a Fluxus-based anti-art. (Sadly, this was the fate of a number of Trashpoets who were far, far from the postavant.) A search through Lisa Iversen's work online is well worth the investment in time, although I wish more of it was easily accessible. 

She participated in a number of Cheryl Penn's (South Africa) collaborative book projects, has created visual poetry of an extraordinary caliber and has produced very fine textile art. (She is reticent and perhaps even reclusive.) I believe the textile nature of this piece is far more significant than the gleeful play of anti-art tropes, which she commands flawlessly. 

I hope Lisa Iversen will continue to contribute to Asemic Front 2.

- De Villo Sloan

 

Asemic art by Penny Reinecke (Western Australia)

Asemic art by Penny Reinecke (Cottesloe, Western Australia)

I am thrilled to welcome Penny Reinecke in Western Australian to Asemic Front 2. Her first piece is asemic vispo sent as mail art in a postcard format. Penny is a member of the IUOMA asemic writing group, which provides so much excellent material and inspiration for the Asemic Front project.

From my perspective, she is off to a great start with this composition that combines calligraphy, the cut-up technique and a textile element giving the imposed fragmentation unity. I look forward to seeing more of her work.

- De Villo Sloan

By Penny Reinecke