Three New Pieces of Asemic Art Visual Poetry by Nancy Bell Scott (May 2021)

 

"Marathon" by Nancy Bell Scott (Maine, USA) (May 2021)

"Mid-Spring" by Nancy Bell Scott (Maine, USA) (May 2021)

"Unidentified Desert Fauna" by Nancy Bell Scott (Maine, USA)

Asemic Front 2 Review: Attic Magazine (#15 April 2021) (Nicola Winborn, Editor) (UK)

 

Attic Magazine (#15 April 2021) (edited by Nicola Winborn) (Yorkshire, UK)

In terms of transparency, I am thrilled to be included in this issue (April 2021) of Attic Magazine. 

Nicola Winborn's zine - in addition to being a notable presence in the current re-surgence of mail art - welcomes asemic writing & vispo as well as other tropes of the postavant. Attic Magazine & Asemic Front 2 have shared interests & intersections for some time. I am very pleased to have this opportunity to recognize Attic Magazine with some particulars.

First, Attic is an assembling zine. Contributors create their own pages & - ideally - no two pages in any issue are the same. Thus, assembling zines require more work for the artist; but I have always found my own involvement in assembling zines deeply rewarding. I find my favorite archival pieces are often assembling zines from other eras. Nicola Winborn provides a wonderful resource for the current visual poetry community.

Nicole Winborn is a talented artist. She also displays considerable skill as an editor: Managing the glitches & inevitable bumps inherent in assembling a global publication still relying mainly on the postal system. 

Reading Attic Magazine is a smooth & harmonious experience. Contributors' pieces seem to complement each other, build upon each other, even though I know most assembling zines are primarily at the mercy of randomness. 

Winborn uses a quiet, steady editorial hand to weave an aesthetic that synthesizes avant disruption with folk art & populist trends emerging in mail art. (The selection of the orange color theme creates a remarkable coherence, for instance.) 

Attic Magazine gives its audience a focused view of interesting current image-text work. Participation as a contributor is illuminating as well because one sees new relationships with one's contemporaries, thanks to Winborn's perceptive editing. 

The international mail art community has long been a supportive conduit for visual poetry, including asemic writing. Attic Magazine shows the vital synergy that emerges when these two groups connect.

Contributors to Attic #15 are Nancy Katzman (USA); Devin Cohen (Mexico); Lina Stern (Ukraine); Racovita Carmen (Romania); Laurence Gillot Artpostaliste (France); Nicola Winborn (UK); Kristen Szumyn (Australia); Michael Leigh (UK); Annapatrizia Settembre (Italy); Attilia Garlaschi (Italy); The Book of Blat (UK) (& me). 

The issue is dedicated to Picasso Gaglione. His presence might explain why Attic is also a venue for innovative stamp art. This could possibly earn the zine an "eccentric" designation in some circles, but my point throughout has been that Attic succeeds and, indeed, is a creative voice in these most puzzling times.

Deepest thanks to Nicola Winborn. See below for more information on Attic Magazine.

https://www.facebook.com/AtticZine

- De Villo Sloan

Attic Magazine (#15 April 2021). Page by Lina Stern (Ukraine)

Attic Magazine (#15 April 2021). Page by Kristen Szumyn (Australia)

Attic Magazine (#15 April 2021). 

Attic Magazine (#15). Page by Laurence Gillot-Artpostaliste (France)

Attic Magazine (#15)

Attic Magazine (#15)

Asemic mail art by Francis Lamme (Amersfoort, Netherlands)

Asemic mail art by Francis Lamme (Amersfoort, Netherlands)

Francis Lamme of Amersfoort, Netherlands, recently became a member of the asemic writing group at the International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA). Her first contribution to Asemic Front 2 is this extraordinarily beautiful piece of asemic calligraphy. 

In addition to her approach to asemic signs, the larger structure she creates should be of great interest to AF2 visitors; we see some interest in asemic structures & asemic syntax. I look forward to the continued participation of Francis Lamme in the days ahead.

- De Villo Sloan

By Francis Lamme (Amersfoort, Netherlands) (detail study)

Asemic Front 2 Review: "Yes I No" by Robin Tomens (A Book of Visual & Neo-Concrete Poetry)

 

Cover of Yes I No by Robin Tomens (London, UK, 2020)

Yes I No by Robin Tomens. Designed and printed by Robin Tomens. 64 pages

https://rtomens.blogspot.com/2020/08/vispoconcrete-poetry-book-yes-i-no.html

by De Villo Sloan

Literature written in plague years amounts to a genre for the morbid. The notorious plague year of 2020 produced an astonishing amount of visual poetry. 

British visual poet Robin Tomens published two volumes during this grim time. One of these, Yes I No, is presented for your consideration here at Asemic Front 2.

Yes I No is a sturdy, substantial and well-printed volume. Tomens designed and oversaw the book’s production and thus receives additional kudos from AF2 .

In an announcement of the publication, Tomens explains that his dual-role enabled him to establish an overall concept for the production. This post-avant approach guides the reader to an awareness of the book’s materiality, the object poem concept, the artist’s book and the DIY ethos.

Tomen’s involvement in jazz, fanzines, and Punk (especially the anti-art stance) all conspire to establish an aesthetic for Yes I No, albeit very subtle. This is a tempered volume. Adolescent rage and shock techniques are absent or at least restrained, suggesting visual poetry has matured.

However, some pages of Tomens' book contain raw, dissonant Kerouacian "gone" typing that can hold its owns alongside raw, industrial-era vispo. In fact,  if there is a dissonant "double" lurking within Yes I No, Tomens might have exerted less control and allowed a different version of the book to reveal itself. But reviews are yet another manifestation of the necessity of dealing with what is before us rather than what we wish were before us. Tomens' constraints most likely allow greater accessibility to readers.  

What remains is fairly brilliant work rooted in (but moving substantially beyond) classic concrete poetry and an improvisational style rooted in jazz.

Excerpt from Yes I No by Robin Tomens

Yes I No is a fine collection of language-centered Neo-Concrete (or New Concrete) compositions in a volume that requires touch and direct contact rather than scans flickering on a tiny screen. 

The red and black compositions that constitute the majority of the volume will likely be the main attraction for the reader. However, the book begins with what appear to be serial image-text poems in black and white (pages 1 – 15, my measure). They are gritty and organic, generating movement, fading in and out of coherences, producing moments of lucidity then fading in deconstructed language (similar to the effect of asemics). 

This series seems to want to become a much longer and more ambitious composition transcending the lyric. This reviewer wonders if we are yet to see a much more ambitious work by Tomens.

In the meantime, Yes I No belongs in every personal visual poetry library. 

Excerpt from Yes I No by Robin Tomens

Visual poetry collaborations by Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan (USA) (Part 2)

By Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

 

By Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan

By Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

By Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

Visual poetry collaborations by Robin Tomens & De Villo Sloan (Part I)

 

Asemic Front 2 collab by Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

Collab by Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

Collab by Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

AF2 Commentary: "P O S T L I T" by Jack Foley

Visual poetry collab by Robin Tomens (UK) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

P O S T L I T

by Jack Foley

"How many grammatical errors, in printed articles, everywhere

*as our culture slowly moves away from writing as a primary mode*.

People no longer HAVE to master writing, so they don’t."

"Many people don’t."

"It has become only one medium among others."

"But if you can't write, it will still limit what you can do."

"Yes. Writing is not gone. We are not illiterate but post literate. So many of my poet friends, when they are touched by something, turn to popular songs. They are far more likely to quote Bob Dylan than William Shakespeare. You probably know that Shakespeare was known and widely quoted in the Nineteenth Century and throughout major parts of the Twentieth."

"Your poet friends have probably not read Shakespeare since high school."

"One person I know has *performed* Shakespeare. He still quotes Dylan. And writes in a style resembling a song lyric. Writing is no longer 'the queen of the arts' but, again, only one medium among others."

"Something is lost."

"Much is lost. But there is also gain, and a realization of what writing, wonderful as it was, could NOT do.

This is the world we live in. Words matter but writing as a form is losing ground. Novels become films or a TV series. Gore Vidal wrote of "screening history." Writing will not vanish but it will no longer rule--and "correctness" will matter less. We have lived with writing for centuries now. *There is a world elsewhere*.

What we call Modernism was the search for a new language. It was writing's attempt to open itself to the world that was arising. Something was done, certainly, there were many extraordinary achievements, but the new language did not appear. Perhaps it will. *All may yet be well*. I think of this language as the language spoken by the head of Orpheus after he has been assassinated and the head, still talking, is tossed upon the water."

...

I am your voice—It was tied in you—In me it begins to talk.

I celebrate myself to celebrate every man and woman alive;

I loosen the tongue that was tied in them,

It begins to talk out of my mouth.

[The concluding four lines are by Walt Whitman, who also wrote, "Camarado, this is no book...I spring from the pages." Two italicized phrases are from Shakespeare.]

Jack Foley (photo by Sangye Land)

Jack Foley is a widely published poet, critic, performer and radio host on (legendary) Berkeley radio station KPFA. He grew up in New York State, attended Cornell University and has been a guiding light in San Francisco Bay Area poetry for many years. Jack has mentored several generations of poets. A number of them have emerged as visual poets, including Jake Berry. Deepest thanks to Jack for granting permission to re-post "POST LIT" on Asemic Front 2.

- De Villo Sloan