This exhibit will run during August in C4NM’s Atrium!
Artist Statement:
My asemic writing – writing with no semantic meaning – gradually developed from my notations for sound poetry. These are functional scores with a script consisting of the International Phonetic Alphabet with a lot of added symbols of my own invention. Sometime around the turn of the millennium the signs started ’emancipating’ themselves from the task of representing sounds to an independent life as pure image. Since then I have been developing the writing in various directions: sometimes it takes the form of tiny beings, sometimes just short phrases or small clouds of signs.
In many cases I design backgrounds, mostly in greyscales, to be printed and then drawn on by hand. These backgrounds are basically made in two different ways. On the one hand, geometric structures, either based on number sequences or generated with non-linear equations. On the other hand, photos I took or scans of collages I made, that I then processed with small programs I wrote.
Artist Bio:
Jaap Blonk (born 1953 in Woerden, Netherlands) is a self-taught composer, performer, poet and visual artist.
His unfinished studies in mathematics and musicology mainly created a penchant for activities in a Dada vein, as did several unsuccessful jobs in offices and other well-organized systems.
In the late 1970s he discovered his potential as a vocal performer, at first in reciting historical sound poetry and later on in improvisations and his own compositions.
As a vocalist, Jaap Blonk is unique for his powerful stage presence and extended vocal abilities. He has performed and taught around the world, on all continents.
Blonk’s recorded / published output comprises some 60 titles: CDs, vinyl, books and cassettes.
From his sound poetry scores he developed an independent body of visual work, which has been exhibited in various countries. Selections have been collected in books by publishers in Germany, Ireland, Canada and the United States.
Send purchase inquiries to gallery@centerfornewmusic.com
AsemiQuad #61 – $45
Conjecture #92 – $90
Conjecture #120 – $90
Friendly Ghosts #7 – $45
Lockdown Variation #83 – $45
Lockdown Variation #84 – $45
Possible Garden #18 – $90
Possible Garden #58 – $90
Somnambulism #83 – $45
Somnambulism #90 – $45
A list of my recent artist’s books includes:
111 Recipes (Xexoxial Editions, West Lima, Wisconsin, 2019)
Garbage Collection (Redfoxpress, Argyll, Ireland, 2021)
Possible Gardens (Post-Asemic Press, Minneapolis, 2022)
Stampscapes (nOIR:Z, Ontario, 2022)
AsemiQuads, Timglaset Editions, Malmö, Sweden, 2023)
Books can be ordered here: https://jaapblonk.