Franklin Furnace's Matthew Hogan curates a selection of poetic works as part of Concrete Poetry (1988). This exhibition held at Franklin Furnace featured an array of books, audio, and videotapes of concrete poetry—a form of poetry depicted through semantic, visual, and phonetic elements of language. It drew from Franklin Furnace's artists' books collection, the nation's largest repository of the avant-garde book form, and also included materials on loan from anonymous donors. The works featured in Concrete Poetry (1988) expand upon the motifs of pop-up poems, constellation poems, and typopoems explored in Concrete Poetry: The Early Years (1986), an exhibition organized by Franklin Furnace and presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This video includes poetic works by Augusto de Campos, Emmett Williams, Paul de Vree, Jiri Kolar, and Wolfgang Schmidt.
Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. was founded by artist Martha Wilson in 1976 to champion ephemeral forms neglected by mainstream arts institutions. Franklin Furnace’s mission is to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize, and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content. The organization is dedicated to serving artists by providing both physical and virtual venues for the presentation of time-based visual art, including artists’ books, installation art, performance art, and unforeseen contemporary avant-garde art forms. Franklin Furnace is committed to serving emerging artists; to assuming an aggressive pedagogical stance with regard to the value of avant-garde art to life; and to fostering artists’ zeal to broadcast ideas. The organization has developed a place in art history for artists’ books, temporary installation art, and performance art. www.franklinfurnace.org
Concrete Poetry press release 