the header image fpr this page is a detail from a 31cm x 31cm piece
that was one of the first small pieces i did in the fall of 1974 for the Beyond Baroque show
the source was a three page article in Psychology Today titled the mechanics of genius
so remaining with the process of distillation referred to on the typed writing page,
the piece was a triptych, each page 1/3 the original size
so i cut each page into 3 equal strips, the middle strip became the ground
and the left and right strips were cut into slivers and overlaid onto it
HAGIOGRAMMZ
while CONTEXTS ultimately became my most used title for visual poems,
at the time of the Beyond Baroque show i referred to them as HAGIOGRAMMZ
a constructed word with a meaning of ‘revealed communications’,
revealed then alluding to the visual nature of the written communique
so they were an extension of the cut-up method,
introduced by Tristan Tzara to affect the linear ordering of words, to the ordering of words themselves
i sought to articulate the visual space within and between its’ letters
by cutting-up and overlaying multiple renderings of one word
and but so another radical shift took place at this time,
which was the introduction of ‘calligraphy’ to the production of the source materials for the large scale pieces
the largest ‘pen’ i could find to use was a rubber stamp ink pad re-inker
which gave me a line that was 1.5inches in width
so besides producing the smaller cut-ups, i also began to work large scale
there were two such pieces in the show, one of which was 7 feet x 9 feet
and the other was 7 feet by 6 feet [pictured below]
and there was a composite piece made up of 6 panels arranged in two horizontal rows
each panel measured 29 x 23 inches – so it was about 8 x 6 1/2 feet of total area
and as with the smaller overlays, i also completely covered the surface of the large pieces with Scotch Magic Tape
this had a sort of lensing effect, that brought the pieces into focus
as there were no longer any shadows at the edges of the overlays
examples [from left to right]
another small vertical overlay, one of the large scale horizontal overlays and a detail
and a vertical overlay calligraphic triptych, that also featured a variety of line and no scotch taping