The Small Machine Talks Episode 83 – Kristine Snodgrass, WAAVe Gallery
Recorded on December 22 , 2021
Kristine Snodgrass: https://www.kristinesnodgrass.com/
Hysterical Books: https://www.hystericalbooks.com/product-page/waave-global-gallery
Anhinga Press: http://www.anhingapress.org/
We discuss the recently published Women Asemic Artists and Visual Poets (WAAVe) Global Gallery anthology published by Hysterical Books in 2021. We start with finding out more about Kristine. She tells us how the WAAVe group began on Facebook and the importance of safe, welcoming spaces for women. We discuss the importance of community and collaboration. She muses about contemporary collages by men and what they contribute to art. Kristine talks about the structure and collaborative process of the book.
We discuss how we both came to asemic writing. Kristine talks about calligraphy styles over the ages.
We talk about whether there are more women doing asemic writing or whether they are just getting more visibility as there are more spaces for women. Much of the work in the book was new to Kristine. She discusses our genealogy as women artists. I compliment the design of the book.
We talk about Kristine’s section in the book on collaboration. I ask Kristine about the thrill of collaboration. We talk about her collaborations with Lova Delis and Karla Van Vliet.
SHE SPEAKS TONGUES BY KARLA VAN VLIET
We talk about how WAAVe is a testament to friendship.
[NOTE OF PRAISE]
WAAVe Global Gallery is a much-needed anthology that adds to the conversation of women making visual poetry that should have been happening all along. From Mirella Bentivoglio’s need to find and connect women artists and visual poets to my own attempts at curation with Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry, to Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 published last year by Primary Information to compensate for the republication of Emmett Williams’ dreadful Anthology of Concrete with its ridiculously low representation of women of the era , we can see evidence of the strength, joy, creativity, versatility and power of the work made by women.
Kristine Snodgrass and her collective of editors have demonstrated in WAAVe Global Gallery the power of connection, collaboration, and friendship. The contributors in the book have talked about their work and its connections to other women. Their work has threads of connection with fellow creators, the body, nature, flow, colour, hybridity, ephemerality, science, society, disobedience and activism, and more.
While astonishingly man-heavy visual poetry anthologies continue to be published and male visual poets and editors persist in promoting and pandering to one another , we are seeing a rise in work being published by women, and it’s interesting, creative, compassionate and celebratory.
WAAVe Global Gallery is an important contribution and will help to empower women to make visual poetry now and in the future. It’s amazing how beautiful and strong work made out of love can be. We need more books and movements like this.
Final words
Kristine is thinking that there may be a continuation of the book with digital sections, textiles, and more in subsequent books, with women who were not included in the first book.
She ends with an offer of friendship and assistance to women with a role in the visual poetry world. If she hasn’t messaged you or supported you, she encourages you to reach out to her.
Thank you to Kristine Snodgrass for being on the show, to Charles Earl for processing the episode, to Jennifer Pederson for her help with the intro and outro and to you for listening and sharing the Small Machine Talks.
Stay tuned for our final episode of 2021, a conversation with local filmmaker Jennifer Mulligan about the poetics of film. 2022 will be a celebration of small presses and reading series in North America, UK and USA.