Four asemic visual poetry collabs by Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet

 

Asemic visual poetry collab by Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet

I am thrilled to be able to share these new collaborations by Asemic Front 2 regular contributor Kristine Snodgrass (Florida, USA) & Karla Van Vliet (Vermont, USA), who makes her AF2 debut with this entry.

AF2 faithfuls (thank you so much for all your current support & interest!) doubtless recognize in these pieces the dynamic, singular style emerging from Kristine's glitched asemic vispo experiments. I am very pleased to be able to provide ongoing documentation of her "femmeglitch" pieces. Examples can also be found in her recent book American Apparell & at other web & print locations.  

Karla Van Vliet is a poet, artist & Integrative Dream Analyst, among many other endeavors & accomplishments. She works at the New England Young Writers Conference in Vermont. An explanatory statement on her website says that Karla "engages in asemic writing as a radical act, that of not being silenced in this time where she is often at a loss for words. Using the gesture of writing she explores the transitory realm between the internal experience and expressions." Her website - so aptly named "Organic Form" - displays many examples of her solo work & other information about her; it is definitely worth a visit:

http://www.vanvlietarts.com/index.html

To the reader not particularly familiar with solo work by Snodgrass or Van Vliet, these compositions must surely appear harmonious & integrated: The artists have reached that elusive unity - transcending themselves (if that is not too cosmic!) to form a greater third entity - sought but not always achieved in collaborations. 

In several years of Asemic Front 2, I have found this "Third Mind" (Brion Gysin) achievement is the key to the most successful collabs, although I am also convinced all collaboration experiences promote growth & self-knowledge. 

For those more familiar with Kristine's visual poetry, her femmeglitch concept/process provides structure for these pieces. Karla's personal development of asemic symbols & syntax provides the collabs with richness of content, depth & numerous possibilities for "reading." Her contributions are rooted in calligraphy & painting. (A binary structure from her recent work also contributes to form in the collabs.) It is an excellent partnership from which the audience benefits greatly. 

With her femmeglitch experiments, Kristine Snodgrass entered new territory for herself & asemic & visual poets generally. She found a vast & unexplored territory; but the worlds beyond the limits of our own cultural constraints & expectations appear vast, chaotic & strange at first sight. In the end, few have the courage to enter. 

Kristine Snodgrass has been exceptionally adept at finding form & beauty at the borderlands. I believe these collabs reveal a new formal mastery of the femmeglitch on Kristine's part. (The compositions are, indeed, surprisingly formal). I see this as a positive in this case. Kristine has provided new structures (especially color-related), an interesting theme/variation pattern & incremental repetition for the pieces. This is, indeed, poetry!

Deepest thanks to Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet. 

- De Villo Sloan

By Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet

By Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet

New asemic journal entries by Carien van Hest

 

Asemic writing by Carien van Hest (Zutphen, Netherlands)

Carien van Hest is a frequent contributor to the Asemic Front project. She is a member of the Asemic Writing for Mail Artists group at IUOMA-Ning (International Union of Mail Artists). She is keeping an asemic journal. I am very pleased to share excerpts here at AF2.

- DVS

"The decoder outputs NULL & plays a laugh track" + Other Vispo Collabs by Jeff Crouch & John M. Bennett

"The decoder outputs NULL & plays a Laugh Track" 

by Jeff Crouch & John M. Bennett

"The variants of the word look to mean run" 

by Jeff Crouch & John M. Bennett

"The house alphabet is in your hands" 

by Jeff Crouch & John M. Bennett

"I think it is a letter bag" 

by Jeff Crouch & John M. Bennett

"Chick pea pizza with remarks " 

by Jeff Crouch & John M. Bennett

AF2 Commentary: Adriana Kobor on Collage, Visual Poetry, Fluxus and the Creative Process

 

Adriana Kobor (Italy)

Editor's note: Adriana Kobor is an artist, writer and contributor to the Asemic Front project. She wrote this response to a question I asked a group of asemic writers & visual poets: Where does collage end & visual poetry begin?

I do not like collage with words. I do not hate vispo without them. (That is the very lacunaeous interpretation of a "non-expert" observer.) 

I love poems without words, though, because they are the highest expression of feelings of life, after all. I would love James Joyce without meaning; but I do not love Scrabble, if not by kids. Where does my patience end? When will I really drop that poem-scarabeus on the canvas, finally? I am still in the pre-preparation process... drinking coffee. Regarding the fact that you are far, what would you think about a cozy chat without the distance? I am kidding. But the original idea of the thought is that it can be diminished into such tiny parts that it can compose itself in its opposites, still containing a black hole in the middle. Anything, that is considered art, loses its original purpose, some way. I do not want to be long and cheesy, but I go with the thought of Lowell (as soon as it is published, it is destroyed) and Cortazar ("What good is a writer if he can't destroy literature?") The thought is not about “elemental destruction” or "deconstruction.” For me, it is in the seasonal decay of the Fluxus, which builds and rebuilds and destroys it, after all. (I do not like to use the word Fluxus, because it is a cult, a way too symbolic one, so we could just constitute it with the fluctuating waves.) It is all brains and feeling. If one creates without feeling, it is absolute zero, but it is cute; if one creates without brains, it is cute trash; if one creates because s/he cannot do otherwise, it is a great deal of life of his/hers destroyed, altogether. So whatever you called it, let us stay with the nominal value and not the theory. Do not call it a thing; you will get even closer. I want to excuse myself for my indecent adagio, but I had this on my mind while reading your "words.” In cumulating fashion/passion: art exhibited should be watched from the opposite side of the wall (where it is hanging). This is the didactic I would use during an exhibition, or in a gallery; but everyone would hate me, not being able to use their natural quantum juxtaposition with the “subject.” Yes, I can detect my anxious word-flow, but I do not give a shit about the condescending psychology which would legitimately muddy my words, wanted to be written, so let us leave it like this: Let us leave it how it is. That is the beauty of it all. (I am not a writer and surely not self-promoting. I am for free expression, that I would always promote. If I were a collage, I would not give a shit what they would call me. I would just exist and be happy if people would get “some impressions.” I will not wash this comment off me for long, but I am not in the least ashamed having said it. Being offended for the essence of it, would remain the only thing which lasts. Closing question: Who the heck invented the word asemics and since when is it considered an art form? Same for Vispo. Same for collage. Same for anything which needed a name so people can talk about it. It is s not in the name, I suppose. It is the categorization which I personally hate, of course. But if one must, so be it. I will think further, in silence. The canvas is still “untouched” and “pure.” The coffee is getting cold in the meanwhile. I am still in a “poetic” distance from the reality I described, so far.

- Adriana Kobor

Adriana Kobor performs with visual poet Luc Fierens (Belgium)

Jim Leftwich Reacts to "American Apparell" by Kristine Snodgrass & the AF2 "Femmeglitch Fatale" Review

A femmeglitch noir by Kristine Snodgrass

Dear De Villo Sloan,

I am just now reading the Asemic Front 2 review of American Apparell by Kristine Snodgrass.

https://asemicfront2.blogspot.com/2021/02/femmeglitch-fatale-asemic-front-2.html

It makes me happy to see work developed under the umbrella of “asemic writing” circling back towards its origins in content-driven text/image poetry. This is important work, a textbook for teaching the true arc of our complexly current moment in the asemic movement. The personal is political and the political is polysemic. 

As Kristine Snodgrass writes, “The glitch reimagines the language, dissecting it and rearranging it in the spirit of asemics. Or pansemic. Or abstract.” This approach identifies asemic writing as one component among many in the ever-expanding constellation of experimental/innovative/difficult/restless poetries.

It may be difficult to find “news that stays news” in the field of asemic writing, but this looks to me exactly like that rarity, which is exactly what we need in our ongoing quest for clarity in this context.

- Jim Leftwich

February 28, 2021

Vispo by Jim Leftwich (Courtesy of MinXus-LynXus Archives)

Vispo by Jim Leftwich (Courtesy of MinXus-LynXus Archives)

Vispo by Jim Leftwich (Courtesy of MinXus-LynXus Archives)

Collabs by Kerri Pullo & DSF (Michael Kelly)

By Kerri Pullo & Michael Kelly (aka DSF)

I am thrilled to have gained permission to publish these new collabs on Asemic Front 2. 

Kerri Pullo (Arizona, USA) is a longtime contributor to the Asemic Front project. Michael Kelly aka DSF (Massachusetts, USA) is a contemporary mail artist of note. He is known for the imaginative persona he created as well as his Punk aesthetics & anti-art, popcult iconography.

Known primarily in the asemic & visual poetry communities, Kerri Pullo is also a mail artist who - like DSF - gained Eternal Network acclaim in the last decade. So I believe it will be of interest to AF2 visitors to see the results of this merging of two highly talented & deeply individualistic artists.

- De Villo Sloan

By Kerri Pullo & DSF aka Michael Kelly

By Kerri Pullo & DSF aka Michael Kelly

By Kerri Pullo & DSF aka Michael Kelly