introduction

 

 notes on kaldron, an international journal of visual poetry and language art

    i began publishing kaldron in the spring of 1976, about nine months after moving to shell beach, california, northern pismo beach. contents focused on lyrical and narrative lexical poetry accompanied by smatterings of contemporary and historic visual poetry. tabloid format (11x17); each run, 1000 copies. issues 1-10 are newsprint, 11-21/22 book paper. 21/22 is bound by staples, slick cover stock, 11x14. number of pages increased over the years from 12 to 24; the last double issue, 52. individuals on the bulk mailing list received copies gratis, an example of free enterprise. copyright belongs to contributors.
    in 1978 for issue #8, i decided to change contents to only visual poetry and language art (visual text art). at that time while small magazines were including concrete and visual poetry, no small or large press devoted itself solely to visual poetry and visual text art in the states. to begin with a bold national and international statement, i thought making the issue a catalog for an international exhibition. i asked david and patty arnold, living in oceano at the time, to join in curating. thus was born the visualog exhibition series associated with kaldron. the gallery director at california polytechnic state university in san luis obispo provided the exhibition space in the university gallery. glenna luschi of cafe solo press opened her doors for us (mainly david and patty) to publish a special issue of cafe solo. it is a slick cover edition with half tones printed on book paper. it too was 11x17. thus, visualog 1 is cataloged by kaldron 8 and cafe solo, series 2, numbers 3 & 4.
    the intent of the new direction for kaldron was publishing the best national and international work possible. egalitarian, it was open to all schools and nations. business model, maintain free enterprise with first bulk mailing free to those wishing a copy. efficient use of the mail systems, publish the addresses of each contributor for easy contact (a straight line is quicker than a triangle).
    kaldron entered into the arena of correspondence /mail art at this moment expanding its audience and attracting visual poets and language artists outside the usual visual poetry forums. some arenas were controlled by powerful groups excluding others. kaldron provided a new opportunity for many to be published in the states.
    issue 8 contains "wide crack in concrete," the first article on what i call the m.i.a.’s of concrete and visual poetry histories that generally are not actual histories. revisiting available anthologies and writings, i noticed in these “histories,” coverage after e.e. cummings jumps directly to concrete poetry with no mention of kenneth patchen and also countless others i discovered later. i set up a meet to interview miriam patchen, his widow. the article is reprinted on the e kaldron site. my revisit of patchen is found as the coda in my article on anther m.i.a., henri-martin barzun (The Enigma of Henri-Martin Barzun). the concerned focus on patchen for me and others is that it seems, he, as many of us view, is our william blake. generally speaking, it appears a major division among concrete poets, visual poets, visual text artists, scholars and academics is found by those influenced by patchen and those who ignore him. patchen being truly a street poet of the political left and a visionary sourcing from the higher realms as did blake. he suffered no fools and took no prisoners. he is a model most post modern poets and their allies have turned their backs on.
    issue 13 is devoted to my first rune volume. bern porter published a very limited first edition. issue 15 is a catalog for a mail art exhibition dedicated to visual poetry and language art. issue 16 is devoted to the work of the under discussed and under praised doris cross. she began her word paintings in 1965 now considered among the earliest treated text works. issue 17 is dedicated to the works of 3 Americans, Paula Hocks, Scott Helmes and Loris Essary. issue 18 is sourced from visualog 2 exhibited in the cuesta gallery at the local community college, cuesta college. issue 19 is devoted to five french, 4 of whom are lettrists, three arab word painters and eight japanese visual poets. issue 20 is an all american issue. issue 21/22 is the catalog for visualog 3 displayed in one of the roving galleries supported by the art collective of san luis obispo county, alternatives.
    below is an abridged list of visual poets and mail artists published in kaldron and or exhibited in visualogs 1-4. visualog 4 and 4.1 were exhibited in brooklyn in 1991. all were participants of visualog 3 plus undocumented additions by bill keith.



Fernando Aguiar, Portugal
Josefina Alcala, Mexico
Ana Aly, Brasil
Miekal And, USA
Avelino De Araujo, Brasil
David Arnold, USA
Patty Arnold, USA
Francisco Arias, Mexico
Denise A Aubertin, France
Vittore Baroni, Italy
Kum Nam Baik, Korea
Carlyle Baker, Canada
Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Russia/USA
Michael Bell, USA
Shaunt Basmajian, Canada
Guy Beining, USA
John M Bennett, USA
Ilya Bokshtein, Russia/ Israel
Daniel F. Bradley, Canada
Jonathan Brannen, USA
Hart Broudy, Canada
Paulo Brusky, Brazil
Ernst Buchwalder, Switzerland
Sergio A. Burquez, Mexico
Paulo Brusky, Brazil
Barbara Caruso, Canada
Sergio Cena, Italy
Paula Claire, England
Ryosuke Cohen, Japan
David Cole, USA
Ruth Cowen, Australia
Doris Cross, USA
jw curry, Canada
CURVD H&Z, Canada
Anna Cusenza, USA
Betty Danon, Italy
Carlos Dantas, Brazil
Elwood Decker, USA
Brian Dedora, Canada
Guillermo Deisler, Bulgeria / Germany
Peter Klaus Dencker, Germany
Wally Depew, USA
Frederique Devaux, France
Bill DiMichele, USA
Michael Dudley, Canada
Bela Egyedi, Canada
K.S. Ernst, USA
Loris Essary, USA
Greg Evason, CANADA
Bartolome Ferrando, Spain
Aaron Flores, Mexico
Giovanni Fontana, Italy
William Fox, USA
Lisa Frank, USA
Bill Gaglione, USA
Philip Gallo, USA
Jesus Romeo Galdamez, El Salvador
Giuliano Gallela, Italy
Generator Press, USA
Andrei Gennadiev, Russia
Michael Gibbs, England
Anthony J. Gnazzo, USA
Bob Grumman, USA
Alexander Hamburger, Brasil
Norm Hammond, USA
Scott Helmes, USA
Michael Helsem, USA
The Hermetic Press, USA
Villari Herrmann, Brasil
Dennis Holt, USA
Tom Hibbard, USA
Dick Higgins, USA
David Highsmith, USA
Crag Hill, USA
J.R. Hines, USA
Paula Hocks, USA
Davi Det Hompson, USA
Wharton Hood, Canada
Channa Horowitz, USA
Isidore Isou, France
Motoyuki Ito, Japan
Jon Iverson, USA
Noboru Izumi, Japan
Alaistair Johnston, USA
R. K.Joshi, India
Eduardo Kac, Brasil
Hideo Kajino, Japan
Kyuyo Kajino, Japan
Edith Kallman, USA
Hiroo Kamimura, Japan
Edward Kaplan, USA
William Keith, USA
Karl Kempton, USA
Ruth Kempton, USA
Sylvia Kempton, USA
Joseph Keppler, USA
Bleim Kern, USA
S. E. Kohler, USA
Rachid Koraichi, Tunsia
Richard Kostelanetz, USA
Marco Kurtycz, Mexico
Suzanne Lacy, USA
Mary LaPorte, USA
Peggy Lefler, Canada
d.a.levy, USA
Torbjorn Lime, Sweden
Fred Lonidier, USA
Aaron Marcus, USA
Stephen-Paul Martin, USA
John Martone, USA
Hassan Massoudy, France
Kurt Mautz, Germany
Tony May, USA
Florivaldo Menezes, Brasil
Philadelpho Menezes, Brasil
Hassan Massoudy, France
Hansjorg Mayer, Germany
David McLimans, USA
George Meyers Jr., USA
Steven Moore, USA
Tomoko Miyajima, Japan
Ikuo Mori, Japan
Peter Murphy, Australia
Shutaro Mukai, Japan
Shutaro Mukai’s Group: Mukai + Ishibashi + Ejiti + Shinozaki + Nagasa + Washiyama, Japan
Rodrigo Munoz, Mexico
Giulia Niccolai, Italy
Tom Ockerse, USA
Richard Olson, USA
Peter Peshkov, Russia
Pawel Petaz, Poland
Tom Phillips, England
Lamberto Pignotti, Italy
Howardena Pindell, USA
Margerite Pinney, Canada
Harry Polkinhorn, USA
Gabriel Pomerand, France
Bern Porter, USA
David Powell, Australia
Tim Prather, USA
Dmitriy Prigoff, Russia
Ronald Prost, USA
Betty Radin, England
Robert Reheldt, Germany
Ruth Wolf-Reheldt, Germany
Beryl Reichenberg, USA
RETROFUTURISM, USA
John Riddell, Canada
Kirk Robertson, USA
Marilyn R. Rosenberg, USA
Dieter Roth, Germany
Runaway Spoon Press, USA
Neide Dias Se Sá, Brazil
Roland Sabatier, France
Karla Sachse, Germany
Abilio-Jose Santos, Portugal
Alain Satié, France
R. Saunders, USA
Ken Saville, USA
Klaus Schnitzer, USA
Robert Sennhause, USA
Karen Shaw, USA
Toshihiko Shimizu, Japan
SHISHI, Japan
Mieko Shiumi, Japan
Falves Silva, Brazil
Harry Smallenberg, USA
Maynard Sobral, Brasil
Sober Minute Press, Canada
Eric Solstein, USA
Adriano Spatola, Italy
Pete Spence, Australia
Buzz Spector, USA
Carol Stetser, USA
SOBER MINUTE PRESS, Canada
Carolyn Stoloff, USA
Marcel Stussi, Switzerland
George Swede, Canada
Shohachiro Takahashi, Japan
Hiroshi Tanabu, Japan
Lowell Tanquary, USA
TEXT POETICO, Spain
THE METAL FARM, Canada
Miroljub Todorovic, Yugoslavia
Arrigo Lora-Totino, Italy
Fred Truck, USA
David UU, Canada
Ed Varney, Canada
John Vieira, USA
Shoji Yoshizawa, Japan
Elizabeth Was, USA
Chuck Welch, USA
Larry Wendt, USA
Michael Winkler, USA
Madam X, USA
XEXOXIAL ENDARCHY, USA
Constantin Xenakis, France
Ryojiro Yamanaka, Japan
Shoji Yoshizawa, Japan
Karl Young, USA
ZEDITIONS, France.
Paul Zelevansky, USA
Hossein Zenderoudi, France