FYI, George Meyers Jr. for some years now has been an editor at the Columbus Dispatch, the major paper here. I haven't seen any sign that he's doing anything with visual poetry any more, but back in the 1980's he did quite a bit.
John
At 06:19 PM 5/24/2004 -0500, you wrote:
dear fiiends and fello workers in community/communication--secret and unsecret--
to bring up some things perhaps of interest--
i have just been rereading a book wd highlly recommend:
ALPHABETS SUBLIME Contemporary Artists on Collage and Visual Literature
dited by George Myers Jr. (Washington D.C.: Paycock Press, 1986)
Among those interviewed in the book are current fluxlisters Joel Lipman and John M. Bennett--
others of interest for fluxus/fluxlist are Alsion Knowles, BernPorter, Doris Cross, Carolee Schneeman, and a host of other fascinating artists/visual poets/book artists/performance artists-
have been rereading it for brief essay writing re "Unreadability" (others on this list and myself contributed to the exhibiton and boxes deing done for this also, public works now on display in Atalanta) and some other projects including Bob Grumman's two anthologies of asemic and hyposemic works--
the interview with Alsion Knowles, whose work i always find of great interest and challenge, is terrific--it is called
"To See Clearly & Afresh Eash Moment"--
in it she brings up something which i think has been lost to some extent in disussions of Fluxus--that is, she sees it very much in the relationship with the East--Eastern thought as in the Taoism of Lao Tzu and the writings of Cunag Tzu--( apersonal favorite of mine)--
she goes into a discussion of the example of Duchamp, its great bearing on her work and that of those she respects and works with--in oppostion to the example of Picasso, whom she sees as the culmination of Western art--in that he works with art that comes out of art, whereas the approach of a Duchamp is that the art and life--are entertwined--
she also discusses woemn in art and life, performances--much on the role of daily life and use of simple found materials--
if you like, i can write out some pertinenet quotes, passages--
what interests me is her presenting the influence of the East and of Duchamp--
Duchamp was greatly inspired and in oppsotion to a French phrase which says:
"bete comme un peintrre"--stupid like a painter--ie.e the famous cliched image of the artist as being inarticulate, having inspirations which s/he cannot express or work with in terms of ideas, concepts--
Duchamp set out to refute this--and introduced the conetpual into his works--
i found this interesting, the conjunction of the Tasoim, which is a presencing, an experience and action with, something that is outside of naming and concepts--
and th conceptual, intellectual approach of Duchamp--
this makes the essay wonderful to read, as Knowles moves into the areas of the daily--as an experince which is ongoing with the making of projects--
as i was about to qwrite this letter, one of the women who works here asked me if i could leave for a bit and let another person use the email--
so i went out to smoke and walk about the streets and see what i couod find, as i do this daily for mywon works and inpsirations,ideas--
a dumpetr, series of them--yesterday i had found they have people moving out of the adjacent building--and had found manywonderful things--but being constrained re larger materials where i currently live--limited myself to a small table to use for word processor has just acquired second hand--a perfect fit--and took home on bus--
so that solved apractical probeom--where to put the machine in order to use it!
today i found a great deal of interesting things until chased away by an officious individual wielding alrge broom and dustpan claiming to be employed in the act of cleaning up the alley there--between the building and the fence seprating a small yard from the dumpsters lined in a straggling row--
found sevral things with raised letetrings to use for ruBEings (what officially are denoted as "frottage")--also sevralpairs of excelletn sunglasses in cases no less (i have an addiction nealry to sunglasses)--also wonderful very old large emobssed and decoarted can that had list taped to it of the contents--tons of thumbtacks stil in there cardboards--pins, needles etc--and a small box for storing objects in--wil go backlater when the officious person shal haveleft--though may be lurking about, who knows--
Knwoles i find speaking of the use of the found, which is basis for most of what i do--materials from the street--so that this here may be presnet in the there of whomever whever--
i first heard of Fluxus in the late 1960s--and associated it much with Eastern thought from the little i knew of it at the time--also the idea of a community of like minded person working toegether--spontaneous events and scored events--this interested me much--as big infleunces on me have been Dada and the likes of Jarry--also poets of the streets like Villon, Mayakovsky, Rimbaud--later wc williams--kurt schwitters--thsi all from long ago and stil ongoing--
i think of it and wrote of it as "refuse/Refuse" for the journal KAIRAN--which other fluxlist people have much contibuted to--NBB/nancy butrr, john m. bennet and others--this is re husing refuse as a a way to refuse-the sytems of the "art" world--which i think Fluxus does also--growingout of that little piece came another: "Necessity is the Motherfucker of Invention"--this details how a person devoted to working in the street as a hieroglyph of site/sight/cite--lives for a period in a resttricted place--almostdevoid of materials--and finds much in the way of eastern thought (began writing haikus out of the blue)--and also doing ruBEings even in meager circumstances--so that no matter where one is no matter how little to work with, there is always something--be it movements of dust or scratches in walls, cracks in floors or ceilings, the play of light thrown venetian blinds over the long hours--all the sounds of the people in there--the gestures and actions--and being a
"the commonthing anonymously about us" as wcw put it--
also, in terms of Picasso/Duchamp--always inspired by a phrase of Picasso's: "I do not seek, I find"--
ithink this also has a quality of the Tao, chance, and a call and repsonse with the materials--to share--
Dada i think of in terms of Fluxus, wondering for myself--as the ferocity and "robustiousness" (Bob Cobbings term, in conversation)--of Dada has always inspired me and enjoyed its DIY aspects which resurfaced in Punk--also Russian Futurism, Zaum--so made up ZADA--for a book--a score--ZA meaning "beyond" and DA in Russian "yes"--beyond yes!--and DA in german being "there--beyond there! wehich i would think of as
beyondt/here--which is at once here--and there--call and response-
i was wondering if others have thought along the lines of the estern influences in Fluxus that Knowles speaks of?--my knowledge of the history is scattered--
also the bringing up of the Picasso as the embodiement of the stardom of the art world--and duchamp and his influence on Fluxus--as being something quite other--
hopefully these may be of use for a discusiion?--and i imagine many here also work with found materials and would be interested in hearing of this, and others' ideas and makings with these--
ever onwo/ards--davidbc oh a big thank you to m denino for a wonderful letter!
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__________________________________________
Dr. John M. Bennett
Curator, Avant Writing Collection
Rare Books & Manuscripts Library
The Ohio State University Libraries
1858 Neil Av Mall
Columbus, OH 43210 USA
(614) 292-3029
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.johnmbennett.net
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