New pansemic vispo by Jim Leftwich

Visual poetry by Jim Leftwich

As the dates on these seven pieces indicate, they were made during October and November of 2019. But they are new in the sense that they are previously unseen & unpublished. From the Asemic Front perspective, any work by Jim Leftwich is of interest as he is a legend (even if reluctant) in the asemic writing movement. 

His work is always of interest here, although he now prefers the term "pansemic" rather than "asemic." The work was sent as mail art, testifying yet again that the Eternal Network is a robust conduit for vispo & asemics. 

Some time ago I heard Jim Leftwich had left his longtime home in Virginia, USA for Nevada. Any update on his location & address would be much appreciated!

- De Villo Sloan

By Jim Leftwich

Found asemics by Dave Araki (New York City)

Found asemics in the Lower East Side, New York City, USA.

Photo by Dave Araki April 27, 2020

Dave Araki & his wife Li are New York City residents who have taken an interest in Ray Johnson, correspondence art, visual poetry, asemics & related pursuits. As a result, they have made many friends in the Eternal Network, including me. They are making excellent postavant art themselves. Today I am  thrilled to welcome Dave Araki to Asemic Front 2 & his continued involvement in the Asemic Front project. 

His earlier pieces were cryptic, found asemic writing with, I believe, great visual resonance. I still remember them clearly after three years & thousands of images. This recent work is extraordinary found image-text that fits my definition of deconstructive asemics. We can also see the element of Gutai that has influenced so many in the mail art community. The elements & natural decomposition "wrote" these lines & made from human language a new language. 

Dave Araki stays very busy as a film producer. In his travels around New York City during the day & evening, he has been capturing extraordinary pics of the city during the pandemic. He has a naturally sharp eye for image-text, so we are bound to find vispo in these images. I have no doubt these recent pics will be historic. 

Deepest thanks to Dave & Li Araki!

- De Villo Sloan

Dave Araki has taken a special interest in asemics. Readers might recall he made two appearances on the original Asemic Front blog:

Dave Araki, Asemic Front, September 22, 2017

https://asemicfront.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/found-asemics-by-dave-araki-new-york-city-usa/

Dave Araki, Asemic Front, September 25, 2017

https://asemicfront.wordpress.com/2017/09/25/asemics-letter-essay-by-dave-araki-new-york-city-usa/

Asemic visual poetry collaboration by Serse Luigetti (Italy) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

Asemic vispo collab by Serse Luigetti (Perugia, Italy) 

& De Villo Sloan (Auburn, New York, USA)

Lettrist visual poetry by Serse Luigetti (Perugia, Italy)

Visual poetry & asemic mail art by Serse Luigetti (Perugia, Italy)

Italian visual poet & mail artist Serse Luigetti sent this Lettrist-oriented work ideal for Asemic Front 2. Serse He is an established visual poet of note whose work is inherently asemic & was asemic long before the famous Jim Leftwich & Tim Gaze declaration of the mid-1990s.

Luigetti employs either by knowledge or intuition the aesthetic of letters & font explored to such benefit in the 20th century by the Lettrist group. I would guess that Luigetti is, in fact, a student of Lettrism & works in their tradition but also beyond them in the 21st century. His work, of course, is not exclusively Lettrist; however, the emphasis in this mail art package serves as a guide to connections between Lettrism & asemics.

Many of Luigetti's asemic symbols & structures involve the decomposition - or even dismemberment - of existing printed language. Often these involve a focus on specific letters dismembered in variations & repetitions. Sometimes complete letters survive. The lack of a root text denies the possibility that these compositions can be deciphered or "read" in any conventional way. 

During the Asemic Front project, I have come to recognize this method as "deconstructive asemics." I believe Serse Luigetti's vispo vision encompasses far more than decomposition, but I believe an examination of his work in this context provides helpful insights.

- De Villo Sloan

By Serse Luigetti (Asemic Front 2 2020)

By Serse Luigetti

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:

Asemic Visual Poetry by Alicia Starr Ryan

Asemic vispo by Alicia Starr Ryan (Maplewood, New Jersey, USA)

This is Alicia Starr Ryan's first appearance on Asemic Front 2. As the work you see here testifies, she is a talented artist; her image-text pieces are rooted in an aesthetic, even painterly, visual arts tradition as compared to those who enter the genres explored on AF2 through text: specifically, writers who have become visual poets. 

This work has, for me at least, a retro quality - not at all unusual in contemporary vispo - that invokes DaDa collage and specifically Kurt Schwitters. Having the context of a historical continuum is by no means a liability and often, in fact, is useful.

That said, Alicia Starr Ryan has been active in the Eternal Network for the last decade (or at least that is how long I've known her work). Many AF2 readers in the network are, no doubt, familiar with Alicia's art already. 

She has been involved in exchanges and projects with visual poets including Eduardo Cardoso, Bruno Neiva, Diane Keys, Cheryl Penn, Kerri Pullo, Nancy Bell Scott, TicTac and others who have become influential and recognized in contemporary image-text via the network. 

In fact, Alicia Starr Ryan deserves credit along with those already named for shaping contemporary asemics and vispo.

- De Villo Sloan

By Alicia Starr Ryan

By Alicia Starr Ryan

By Alicia Starr

By Alicia Starr Ryan