Circling
the Start,
Dixie Denman Junius
Anhinga Press, 2023
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| "Unexpected Delight" |
Circling the Start (Anhinga Press, Visual Poetry Series) is a collection of asemic and glitch works by Dixie Denman Junius. In Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry (Timglaset Editions, 2021), Natalie Ferris refers to the adoption of the term asemic writing in 1997 by Tim Gaze and Jim Leftwich as “artistic practice ‘involved with units of language for reasons other than producing meaning’.” Ferris also notes that, “for women the gestural, indecipherable or encoded offered not only the opportunity to challenge language’s monopoly on expression, but to challenge the patriarchy’s monopoly on meaning.”
In her book, Denman Junius gives us riotous colour, glitch and engagement with the spiritual. In her preface, the author discusses her experiences of the dangers of words.
She makes reference to glitchery, something she learned from the editor, Kristine Snodgrass, founder of Women Asemic Artists and Visual Poets Global and editor of the anthology WAAVe Global and Asemic Writing. What the aesthetics of these two creators have in common is a vibrance and an unwillingness to follow the rules.
This
book engages with the Japanese word Ensō, a word that
represents eternity, hence the circle theme of the work. The work moves forward
as a progression of images but is always anchored to the circle.
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| "Enso with Red" |
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| "Circling the Start III" |
I love the move from the tactile materiality of the pieces to the digital industrial computer-made glows. One of the things I love about all visual poetry, especially asemic writing is that it looks like so much fun to make.
The glitch is another way to disentangle oneself from the patriarchy or break down its structures of assigned meaning and hierarchies.
There are pieces that gain our attention with their brightness and others that are more subtle and delicate with titles such as Feeling the Rain and A Delicate Order. I like the use of different palates to go with the various moods of the pieces, from the palate of fire in Running for Cover I and II to the pastels and blood of Mining for Memories and Dream Mapping.
The indecipherable text is combined with titles, which gives us a framework, but I’d just as happily read these works without their titles. I see sadness in the work entitled Transcending Sadness, in the valleys of faint white lines on the spring green and purples.
These works rebel against the grid, spill out of borders and into the dreams of the reader.
In her afterword, visual poet and artist Karla Van Vliet, who sees this work as an offering and a meditative series of poems. In her introduction, editor and fellow visual poet/glitcher, Kristine Snodgrass sees these images as expanding the field of asemic writing through glitching.
Glitch art is the introduction of errors to corrupt or manipulate data. In recent years women making visual poetry have been using glitch programs, such as Photomorph to play around with their visual poems. Many women are making glitched selfies with text, shapes and indecipherable lines. I’m fascinated by the empowerment that playing around with these concepts and techniques is causing, and I’m thrilled to see this strong and memorable collection of glitched asemic works.
Amanda Earl’s latest book is Beast Body Epic (AngelHousePress, 2023). Her latest visual poetry chapbook is Leviticus from the Vispo Bible (Sigilist Press, 2023). More information can be found at AmandaEarl.com.