class collage

MAUREEN-O-GRAM


The child fell into the sea, searching for the hatch in the phosphorescence.

Posed its triple edict of taboo, nonexistence, and silence,

including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases

to mourn the meaning in loss.

(you crazy?)

I feel bad when he tells me I’m too self-centered

For her unblessed children.

The ‘Don’t Walk’ sign became a walk sign.

His other hand held her by her cunt-hairs.

This caused a great deal of pain,

And let us always be kind in this world.

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MAUREEN-O-GRAM 2


The organization of the ‘conventional’ family came to be

To mourn the meaning in loss

In Brooklyn, in a delicatessen, on and on.

Your benefit and ours.

Eat my mother’s crazy glue.

Sometimes it makes me sad, he will begin.

She pulled it from her cunt and put it into another round hole p laced a little lower down, like the eye of a Cyclops between two cool white fleshy globes.

If you insist on weaving that wool scarf I’ll be forced to tell you very much I love you,

But it would be untrue.

I feel secure when he puts his legs over mine when we’re falling asleep.

Prof Bohn & class

Prof Bohn & class, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

Last night the distinguished professor Willard Bohn visited our class and he gave an exciting presentation about a visual poem by the avant-garde poet from Chile Vicente Huidobro. He then spent the rest of the class talking about what makes visual poetry unique in the areas of literature as well as in the art world. In the pic Prof. Bohn (white shirt, dark trousers) and the class is gathered around Neil de la Flor's mac to see and hear his computer generated visual poem. At the end of the inspiring and informative visit I asked Willard if he had any advice for young poets who had serious thoughts about entering this line of creative expression. He said one must always have fun while making visual poetry. The sense of play with language, play with text, and play with the visual elements is very important.

Visual Poetry exhibit @ Harvard

My kindly students, please click on the following link that will take you to one of the major visual poetry events happening this Spring in the U.S.: Infinity: An Exhibition of Visual Poetry. The exhibit is up right now and will last the whole month of March. There is also an online exhibit where we can get glimpses of the exciting new work by some of the foremost practitioners of the art. For a description of the opening see this entry by a sassy blogger named Roger.

Here, we have Neil de la Flor!

Neil is an integral part of our class who prefers to use the digital arena for his vispo pieces. He has been creating computer generated work which has to have its own forum so here is his blog called: transliminal.

by Joan Varini

by Joan Varini, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

Here we have a continuation of Joan's circular themes but this piece is more intricate and fully interactive. She said she was driving home from the last Vispo class and her head was spinning with ideas and images and on the radio was some government voice talking about some policy changes. The collaged text repeats the words "mind control" over and over. This is what is going through her mind as her head is spinning.

Joan 2

Joan 2, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

In this pic we see the cylinder has little windows cut out and there are collaged images seen through the windows. The piece is made interactive when the reader moves the wooden base (which is a lazy susan mechanism) and the images inside move to illustrate a visual and textual narrative. Very exciting!

Joan 3

Joan 3, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

This is a detail of the interactive windows.

by Yasbel Fernandez-Acuna

by Yasbel Fernandez-Acuna, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

Yasbel's piece has text written on the right side which says "America the beautiful." I think she is working on several of these appropriated images, taking them out of their fashion ad contexts and using the text to change the meaning.

by Maya May

by Maya May, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

Maya's piece is large and powerful and the fist is made of text from her poems. In process.

by Janet Tamez

by Janet Tamez, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

Janet's piece is pure collage inspired by one of her salty performance poems called 'La Morenita."

by Cyd Apellido

by Cyd Apellido, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

Cyd's piece is a map collaged with the url's and descriptions of web sites that come up when one googles the word "Filipina." Over 90% of the sites are sexual and degrading to Filipino women or about mail order brides. The arrows all point away from the Philippines depicting the recent past and current Filipino diaspora of overseas workers finding jobs in other parts of the world due to the untenable condition of poverty and political oppression found back in the homeland.

by Sorina Panaitescu

by Sorina Panaitescu, originally uploaded by Vispo504.

Sorina's piece is wonderfully done with painted flower motif and with the right portion collaged with newspaper text/headlines and personal images of her family and friends.