Asemic collabs by Laura Ortiz & Peter Ganick

Asemic-vispo collaboration by Laura Ortiz (Toronto, Canada, USA)

 & Peter Ganick (West Hartford, Connecticut, USA) (1946-2020)

I am thrilled to be able to share two spectacular collaborations by Laura Ortiz and avant/postavant artist, poet & composer Peter Ganick, who sadly passed away this year. Laura Ortiz is well-known in the visual poetry & asemic writing communities; she has been a faithful contributor to the Asemic Front project. Deepest thanks to Laura.

Laura Ortiz has spoken of Peter Ganick as a favored collaborator & mentor. These calligraphic pieces indicate why she has enjoyed working with him. I am deeply saddened we have lost him but know his work will continue to enlighten us.

- De Villo Sloan

By Laura Ortiz & Peter Ganick

Asemic art & image-text by Beate Sonntag (Berlin)

Asemic collage by Beate Sonntag (Berlin, Germany)

I am very pleased to welcome Beate Sonntag to Asemic Front 2. I have only learned of her work recently through the international mail art community. Her work is being increasingly appreciated in the asemic writing & visual poetry communities. Clearly, she is an accomplished collage artist & already has an appreciative following in this area. 

I have been very excited to view her work & thank Beate Sonntag for agreeing to share this sampling of her image-text with AF2. I look forward to presenting more of her art in the future!

- De Villo Sloan

By Beate Sonntag

By Beate Sonntag

By Beate Sonntag

By Beate Sonntag

By Beate Sonntag

By Beate Sonntag

"Scorpion" : Concrete asemics by Chris Wells

"Scorpion" by Chris Wells (Worthington, Ohio, USA)

An expressed goal of Asemic Front 2 has been, among other pursuits, to explore the relationship between concrete poetry & asemic writing. Thanks to faithful contributors, I have been able to share exciting work in this area consistently.

In this post, visual poet & longtime Asemic Front contributor Chris Wells adds an exciting new piece to the asemic-concrete roster. His "Scorpion" creates asemic signs via overstrikes & distortion. In the wake of visual poetry, I see today's concrete poetry ( aka typewriter art, Neo-Concrete, New Concrete) as being image-text that is still language-oriented. Use of typewriters & fonts associated with "classic" concrete poetry also make helpful allusions & establish tones. 

This piece by Chris Wells stands as impressive image-text even without the asemic focus applied here. He also establishes himself a master of the gritty, industrial school that is associated globally with North American vispo.

Deepest thanks to Chris Wells for permission to publish "Scorpion" on AF2.

- De Villo Sloan

"Scorpion" by Chris Wells (detail #1)

"Scorpion" by Chris Wells (detail #2)

"Whistle" by Kristine Snodgrass & De Villo Sloan published in the Asemic Front Series

Collab by Kristine Snodgrass & De Villo Sloan

June 22, 2020 -- The Asemic Front project is thrilled to announce the publication of Whistle, a collaborative book of visual poetry, asemic writing and collage by Kristine Snodgrass and De Villo Sloan. This is the first full-length book published in the Asemic Front Series.

Whistle includes over 50 large-format, full-color compositions and in-depth essays on the process by both Snodgrass and Sloan. The book is available through Amazon.

Whistle is the result of an extended collaboration between Snodgrass and Sloan conducted during March and April of 2020. Snodgrass (in Florida) and Sloan (in New York State) exchanged drafts both digitally and via snail mail during the challenging and uncertain weeks of the pandemic lockdown in the USA. 

Whistle will doubtless be viewed in the context of the global creative outpouring that occurred during the 2020 pandemic. However, Whistle readers will also discover a thoughtful dialogue in images and text about gender, sexuality, violence and power.

“We discussed our conscious modalities of gender at work,” said Kristine Snodgrass. “We agreed there was something to be worked out. This led me to tour the pieces we did with a closer eye: for signs of power, gender dynamics, sexuality. I think all of this remains unresolved. But that is the place where we invite readers to join in the process.”

De Villo Sloan explains, “I engaged in Whistle at a time when I was making a lot of concrete poetry with an old, electric typewriter. I typed over work by mail art friends with thick layers of type then returned it to them and posted the results online.

“I charged into the Kristine collabs with type-over fervor; but as soon as I began my usual process, I had an intuitive pang that this was a wrong approach and that with no prompting from Kristine. Thus, you will see my type-overs in Whistle; and you will also see the type-overs evolve into forms that allow for dialog.”

Poet Michael Rothenberg writes about Whistle: “Cats, fish, faces, roosters, and orchids make a sudden appearance in the asemic veil, and then return to fatal abstraction and illumination. Whistle is the vehicle, instrument, lip, lung and death rattle exhale, where collaboration becomes one emanation.”

Kristine Snodgrass is a poet, curator, Co-Director of Anhinga Press and Associate Professor at Florida A&M University. She has published books, chapbooks and her writing has appeared in numerous literary journals. Kristine has participated in successful poetry collaboration projects, including work with her mentor Maureen Seaton. Recently, she has applied her considerable talents to the postavant areas of visual poetry and asemic writing.

De Villo Sloan currently focuses his energy on concrete poetry, asemic writing and writing reviews and theory in these areas. He earned a Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo where he studied with Robert Creeley. His writing has appeared in numerous literary journals. Last year the second installment of his “Neo-Concrete Series” was published as issue #71 of Miekal And’s Xerolage.

Asemic Front is an ongoing project, rooted in the international mail art community, that encourages the creation and sharing of asemic writing, visual poetry, concrete poetry and – especially – collaboration in these genres. 

Visual poetry collaborations by Kristine Snodgrass & andrew topel

Collab by Kristine Snodgrass (Florida, USA)

 & andrew topel (Illinois, USA)

Could the Lettrist-oriented, concrete visual poetry of andrew topel ever combine with the organic, abstract style of Kristine Snodgrass to create coherent & consequential compositions? I believe this is a fair question for anyone interested in the chemistry of collaboration. 

The answer, fortunately for this humble blog, resides here on Asemic Front 2. Kristine Snodgrass & andrew topel are so well known in the vispo & asemic communities that I will dispense space reviewing biographies. Both are also known for their successful collaborations.

They have pooled their talents in these pieces to explore that region where recognizable letters dematerialize into asemics. Kristine Snodgrass adds expressiveness, tone & texture that illuminate & transforms andrew topel's trademark alphabetic solidity. They also create larger structures to contain the transmuted symbols.For me, the result is magical and revealing. 

- De Villo Sloan

By Kristine Snodgrass (Florida, USA)

 & andrew topel (Illinois, USA) (glitched)

By Kristine Snodgrass (Florida, USA)

 & andrew topel (Illinois, USA) 

By Kristine Snodgrass (Florida, USA)

 & andrew topel (Illinois, USA) 

Pointillist asemics by Donmay Donamayoora

Asemic text by Donmay Donamayoora (Connecticut, USA)

I have always been interested in a niche I have identified in asemic art/writing that I call asemic pointillism. Perhaps I complicate my own explanation by making a connection to a very wonderful painting style (Pointillism) but which does not equate perfectly to the actual work of a few asemic writers. Perhaps instead I should call this niche "Dot Asemics" & acknowledge its debt to minimalism & abstraction. I hope some of this will add to the appreciation & understanding, even produce some new experiments, in a promising area of asemics. 

In terms of an operational definition, these two new pieces by Asemic Front contributor & acclaimed visual poet Donmay Donamayoora are ideal & representative of why I adore pointillist asemics. I am thrilled to have these great pointillist examples for AF2. I vow to put together a posting of my fave pointillist asemics; however, they are fairly uncommon & I will have to do some archive diving. (If you have done some, contact me please!) 

Donmay Donamayoora uses color, repetition, & linear & geometric pattern to create a work that is language- & text-suggestive. The linear patterns of dots suggest syntax and/or prosody. Pontilist asemics often have a formalist 0r structuralist aspect. The use of dot arrangements defies recognizable signification but still offers the possibility that the work is somehow "readable." The presence of slashes & smaller strokes above the dots adds expression & displaces the work somewhat from the sterile rows of red & black, uniform dots that a more minimalist approach might produce. 

As far as I am concerned, either approach (pure minimalist 0r added abstraction) could yield fine results. Donmay has made a choice in these pieces. Again, I am thrilled to be able to share them on Asemic Front 2.

- De Villo Sloan

By Donmay Donamayoora

A report on textual decomposition in Mangawhai Heads, New Zealand by Gerda Osteneck

Mail art by Gerda Osteneck (Mangawhai Heads, New Zealand 

& Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada)

Gerda Osteneck is a Canadian artist, book artist & visual poet who is active in the Eternal Network & thus likely familiar to the Asemic Front audience. Indeed, she is yet another consistent contributor to this ongoing project. 

Earlier this year, Gerda Osteneck made an exciting journey to New Zealand. She used the trip as an opportunity to make new art & distribute it through the postal system. Mail art is an ideal medium to share creativity while travelling; it can function as a serial narrative & express immediacy. (I've written about travel or "on the road" mail art in the past). This large postcard size work is a result of her art-journalism. As Gerda's kind note on the reverse side explains, this piece was composed in Mangawhai Heads.

Gerda is an artist interested in process & was warmly received by Diane Keys' Trashpo contingent for her use of found materials. These talents conspire to create this amazing study of textual decomposition above & fits well into my theory of deconstructive asemics. 

Gerda explains in the note that she makes paper & has certainly applied insights from this unique knowledge of material culture into a work that documents a process of textual change on the physical page that is usually ignored. The piece certainly adopts the Gutai stance - so prevalent in mail art - that explores the process of decay & decomposition.

- De Villo Sloan

By Gerda Osteneck (detail study)