la (qbdp # 404)

Compass Landing Apartments, Newport, NC

Recipients:

1. Marvin Sackner
2. Ron Silliman
3. qbdp

un violin d’ingres

llllllll (qbdp # 403)

Compass Landing Apartments, Newport, NC

Recipients:

1. Marvin Sackner
2. Karri Kokomo
3. Rosaire Appel
4. Jon Cone
5. endwar 
6. Claudia Franken and Karl Thönnissen
7. Stephen Nelson
8. qbdp

un violin d’ingres

“there ıs üs” (qbdp # 402)

Compass Landing Apartments, Newport, NC

After many years, I have finally revived my mailart “press” (after figuring out the last number of these I had released), and here is the simplest card ever, or almost ever. These I have created on the backs of the long postcards bearing paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán. 

These cards will go out to the following people: 

1. Marvin Sackner
2. Roy Arenella
3. RF Côté
4. Márton Koppány
5. richard canard
6. Ryosuke Cohen
7. DC Spaulding
8. Dees Stribling
9. Jay Stribling
10. qbdp

un violin d’ingreôté

The pencil writes about itself. (qbdp # 293)

In pencil and pen, for once. An old-fashioned conceptual poem, not the newfangled kind. This went out to the following:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Marton Koppany

5. frips

6. qbdp

un violin d'ingres

To Knit the Net of Relations Tightly and Clearly and Visibly

Roy Arenella, "My Last Mailbox in Brooklyn" (30 Sep 1991)
Every human being is a strand in a web of connections. The first web is genealogical, an unavoidable and geometric regression of ancestors that, in some way, overlaps the ancestors of everyone else. The next is of acquaintances, a web that functions similarly but which is much less ordered and unpredictable. Plenty of other webs exist as well, such as webs of ideas. We are all tied together, whether we want to be or not.

And Roy Arenella, mailartist, is a node on many many webs and continues to find ways to tie me to new webs. After moving a few years ago to Greenwich (pronounced "Green Witch") in Washington County, New York, he has met just about everyone in his small town. This has allowed him to develop ties through him to people I know: David Greenberger (of Duplex Planet and NPR commentating fame), Gary Saretzky (the archivist for Monmouth County, New Jersey), Al Cormier (the Village of Salem historian), and, most recently, to Art Reinhart (who works with me at the New York State Archives).

Roy Arenella, Note to Art Reinhart (13 Jan 2008)
Roy met Art recently, and sent him a card, asking Art to give it to me briefly so as make the quote that entitles this entry "active in practice." And so Art has, and so I've completed the web and documented it. Let me point out some of the art of this card to Art. First, the blue web he has stamped on the card. Second, the two unscanned stamps he's added to it: one commemorating the National Archives (since Art and I both work at an archives) and one one John Trumbull, American Artist (because Roy sent the card to Art and wrote about art on the card).

Connections::Art

un violon d'ingres

Archival Impermanence (qbdp # 188, Film Clips # 6)

The documentation below was included in each of the ten issues of Film Clips # 6, produced by Geof Huth on 29 December 2007 and featuring the work of Márton Koppány. The edition was distributed as follows:

1. Geof Huth (though destined for the University at Albany, SUNY)
2. Nancy Huth
3. Erin Huth
4. Tim Huth
5. The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
6. Márton Koppány
7. Karl Young
8. Karl Kempton
9. Bob Grumman
10. endwar

Film Clips # 6
A Self-Destructing Compilation
of Cultural Iconography and Mail Art
o + + + + + + + + + + + + r
The Purprestor’s Attempts Excoriated

What About This is About

An envelopzine, it enwraps. It enshrines an assortment of recordings of human tendencies, words and images, colors and blacks and whites, shapes and thoughts, desires and tendencies, loves and losts. It does not mean, but is. It does not continue, but exists. It does not adhere, but floats. Given a purpose, it refuses. Given an opportunity, it looks the other way. Given away, it accepts. It is not designed to last nor to be remembered, being but a thought thought briefly on a walk, a slash of sunlight across the wrist catching the outline of hairs, a whiff of something like your childhood that is then gently urged away by a breeze, one fleeting electric touch of skin on skin. All of these evaporate as experience piles upon experience, and the mind refuses to hold it all in, refuses to do reality’s insistent bidding, and sets free those small thoughts, those tersest memories, that it no longer needs. Yet there seems something significant about any group of objects amassed. We struggle to create sense out of them. Why, we wonder, these objects? How do they mean together? At one level, this is but a collection of decades. Each decade says something about the products of our culture, what they are, how they look, what they do. Each contains some kind of recorded information, so each item is a message to the future, which is all that writing, all that any art, ever is. These messages we create to exist, to remember ourselves to posterity, to provide experiences to ourselves and others, to try to see if we might not fail.

The Things Inside of Which Be

First, we have the alkaline envelope, each of which carries information about a separate semi-annual meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (each of which Geof Huth attended). The title of the envelopzine is handprinted on the outside top of the envelope, and each is numbered on the premlip on the reverse of the envelope. Inside the envelope, we find an unused two-cent postal card mimeographed with an announcement for a 1950s meeting of the Mid-Hudson Valley Joint Board of the Textile Workers of America and carrying the handwritten title of the envelopzine on its front, a yellow card with a Kendall Q-Trace 5400 electrocardiogram tab electrode and with the text “e.(k.)g.” handwritten at the bottom, a three-row sample of jacketed microfiche, a plastic baggie with three small pieces by Márton Koppány (“?,” “Happy Snowman,” and “instrumental:”), a fake Discover credit card used as an advertising gimmick, a New York State Lottery Quick Draw card, a small silver envelope containing a copy of Márton Koppány’s “Ellipses No. 13-14,” an advertisement (in English and Spanish) for the McDonald Corporation’s 2004 Instant Prize Giveaway, a booklet advertising Tom Phillips’ 2005 show (“Works from A Humument”) at the Flowers gallery in New York City, an errata sheet for an item elsewhere in the envelope, a page from a copy of the minutes of a meeting of the City Council of the City of Mount Vernon in New York from 2003, a copy of a booklet (Archives & You: The Benefits of Historical Records) produced by the New York State Archives and Records Administration in 1990, a copy of issue No. 1 of the Gazette du Commerce et Litterarie, pour la Ville & District de Montreal from the 3rd of June 1778, an advertisement for the Rotary Club’s Lord of the Rings Movie Festival at Proctors in Schenectady (New York) on 31 July 2004, and a copy of the March 1997 issue (Vol 1, No 4) of Serving New York, a publication of the New York State Office of National and Community Service

Why Would This Even Be?

We create to be, we read to know, we know to live, we live to love, we love to feel ready to die. One envelope of Film Clips is no panacea, yet it provides what is essential for human life: Experience. We run through the paces of our lives in search of those experiences that bring us joy and meaning. We do not always find them, and this would not be such an experience to many, but maybe it is to some. Film Clips expects nothing of its intentionally few readers but a moment’s attention.

The Can’tributor’s Address

Márton Koppány, 1145 Budapest, Bácskai u. 22 HUNGARY

C+O+M+P+I+L+E+R

Ge(of Huth), 875 Central Parkway, Schenectady, New York 12309 USA

qbdp # 188 + published & assembled the 29th of disember 2007

this copy under your eyes is copy number [ ] of 10

un violon d'ingres

A Tin of Ideas (qbdp # 154, Film Clips # 5)

The following is the documentation included in each of the twenty-three issues of Film Clips # 5, produced by Geof Huth and endwar on 22 July 2007 and officially released and published on 23 July 2007. The edition was distributed as follows: a through k to Geof, and l through w to endwar.

Film Clips # 5
A Self-Destructing Compilation of Cultural
Iconography and Mail Art, or
The Nidifier’s Nictation Enhanced

what is this about this about?

A can of mailart condensed for one’s enjoyment, a collection of leftovers transformed into a main course, Film Clips presents clippings from the recorded world for use by the lonely.

what inside of this can there be?

In a can of peppermints emblazoned with cartoon characters from Peanuts, you will find a reproduction of a Peanuts cartoon on translucent paper; an orange sticker imploring you to “QUIT GRIPING! JOIN TWUA”; a photographic slide found in Syracuse, New York in 1987; a flat piece of white cardboard stamped with the address of Geo. J. Huth (using his address stamp from the 1960s) and backed with a found UPC label, which is identical in every instance; two transfer labels of George Washington, an airplane, a ship, or an African lion; a washer found in the parking lot of JFK Airport in 2004; a small oval gummed label ringed with red; a small piece of leather from a wallet of Geof Huth’s; a pwoermd card (“WH( )LE”) by endwar; a single feather of a ring-necked pheasant; a copy of the micro-chapbook “sight” by endwar; a short strip of audiotape; and a piece of film with one letter in 72pt Bauhaus Light, each letter representing the letter of its particular copy of Film Clips.

whose this creation this made?

The po.ed.it.or of this canazine is Ge(of Huth), long-time editor, few-time editor. This time, taking part in the production is endwar, mnmlst poet, who provided the cans, the comics that came with the cans, the booklets, the WH( )LE, and the magnetic poems on the inside of the lids of the cans.

addresses of con-conspirators

ge(of huth), 875 Central Parkway, Schenectady, New York 12309 USA
endwar, pob 891, athens, ohio 45701

qbdp # 154 23 July 2007 ltr

un violon d'ingres

El.li.ps.is

Marton Koppany, "Ellipsis No. 10 - for qbdp # 135" (May 2007)
My friend Marton Koppany sent me this little memorial/homage/extension related to my simple qbdp card ("star star star"). A joy to behold, and it is always interesting to see how Marton makes sense with punctuation.

un violon d'ingres

Flying Mailboxes

RF Côté, Flying Postbox Collage (27 Nov 2006)
I'm happy to report that I received a new piece of mailart from Reg. All mannet of mailboxes appear on the card, flying in formation. And if you look closely, you'll note that an artist's stamp is pasted on top of this image, a stamp that reproduces in miniature the postboxes flying already away.

un violon d'ingres

A Noted Silence

Ficus strangulensis, "cured bond" (22 Nov 2006)
The front of this card from Fike is a found scrap of text, a bit erased, and lightly contrasted. The back is a pasted note from Fike telling his mailart friends about the death of his father and how that has slowed his mailart. (Others have begun to post their copies of this card already.) Take care, Fike.

un violon d'ingres

Hands Held in Profile with Head

frips, Handheld Profile (21 Nov 2006) frips sends me a beautiful Prussian blue block printing on a simple card--no threads threading through it, but the margin of the stamps sticking over the edge as she often does, and a faintly printed text on the front of the card that I could hardly see. un violon d'ingres

Oppoetics

Roy Arenella, "OPEN / POEM" (Nov 2006)

This card from Roy is the 334th he mailed out this year. My numbers are much lower, but still it amazes me to think of the quantity of mailart, the number of pieces, one person might distribute in a year.

This is a simple card from the hand of Roy. He draws a few letters and a couple of arcing arrows (showing, I'm supposing, the different possible entryways into a visual poem). This piece is an example of Roy's oppo (optical poetry), which is clearly verbal, often quietly visual, and designed precisely to be a textual object of contemplation. Note that this poem spells two almost anagrammatic words, and that the first two lines of the poem (reading against the grain) give us the name of this form of poetry ("OPPO").

Quiet and insistent. Like a cat urging you to pet its head.

un violon d'ingres

Cornertangles

Mick Boyle, "Will you finally find" (Obverse, 15 Nov 2006)
Mick appears to like to draw radishes, since I've received a number of cards so decorated by him. They are delicate simple little things, I think (maybe) connected to the plucking of these beasts from the grip of the earth at the end of the season of growth.


Mick Boyle, "Will you finally find" (Reverse, 15 Nov 2006)
But the real "text" of this card appears to be the revers, where a bit of pencil frottage, a couple of pasted slips of paper (one enworded), and a dullish splash of silver ink come together to form a new nude crescending a staircase. The text entrances me a bit--not quite a question, certainly not a statement, it floats withing this field of corners looking for a place.

un violon d'ingres

The Light within the Wind (qbdp # 121)

"airlIGht" (qbdp # 121, 30 Nov 2006)
Holiday Inn, Room 335, Batavia, New York

After the third night of travel and mailart, I've reverted to my bare minimum number of cards: five. But even these took me a while. I had to select an appropriate fidgetglyph from the small collection I carry with me on my travels, to stamp my address on the card just right, to determine the colored inks I would use, and to create each of the five cards. This is one of my newest fidgetglyph, created yesterday in Caneadea, New York, and revised a few times until it evolved into this form.



I used an identical set of "vintage" postcards I purchased at With Pipe and Book (a used bookstore and pipe store in Lake Placid) as the canvas for my fidgetglyphing. It's a quaint little card, with a beautiful rendition of the word "Postcard" and one of those muddy landscapes common on old postcards. I thought it fit the fidgetglyph well.

The few recipients of "airlIGht" (qbdp # 121) were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Dan Waber

5. qbdp

un violon d'ingres

Voice of Lois, Dan, and Aubrey (qbdp # 120)

"Voici l'oiseau dans l'arbre" (qbdp # 120, 29 Nov 2006)
Webb's Lake Resort, Room 311, Mayville, New York

I'm tired from yesterday's creating and today's traveling and presenting, so I cut back to a set of a dozen cards today. (It would've been thirteen, but I produced one version of the fidgetglyph that wasn't acceptable.) This card was made more difficult by the slow addition of watercolors.


"Voici l'oiseau dans l'arbre" (Reverse, qbdp # 120, 29 Nov 2006))
The card took so long to create that I gave up on including a message on the back of each card. Instead, I used bits of the stamp sheet I was using in place of a message.

Those receiving "Voici l'oiseau dans l'arbre" (qbdp # 120) were as follows:

1. Ruth and Marvin Sackner

2. Bob Grumman

3. Roy Arenella

4. Dan Waber

5. Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

6. Wayne Alan Brenner

7. Reneé Wagemans

8. D. Mask

9. Ryosuke Cohen

10. Jassy Lupa

11. Steve Dalachinsky

12. qbdp

un violon d'ingres