ASA and going international Seiichi Niikuni

pierre garnier s pik bou

although @ time of zero-on niikuni not yet aware of international avant-garde poetry movement, arrived @ same methodology concrete poetry movement in countries used alphabet. when pierre garnier saw zero-on, amazed @ how similar works strove , produced although languages spoke differed much. beginning of friendship. later, garnier , niikuni collaborated on nichifutsu shishū (日仏詩集), producing works such micropoem. niikuni noted abroad example of writer relied on ideographs (kanji), , requests display works kept coming in. niikuni progressed methods graphic design , emphasizing communication after zero-on, not budge expressing through kanji characters.

in asa niikuni presented notable works, such kawa mata wa shū (川または州) , ame (雨). place characters if surface, bringing forth visuality of both complete surface , individual characters @ same time. in yami (闇), character sound (音) seen breaking away character of darkness (闇). niikuni started using gothic typeface instead of minchō. thought kind of breaking kanji parts , varying shape of characters done western audiences in mind.

also around time, works started incorporating explanatory notes in english meaning of kanji characters used. example, uso (嘘) in 1966 explained (口)=mouth (虚)=void (嘘)=lie . in response requests abroad.

niikuni himself disliked fact these visual poems regarded being borderline art, , denied based on photography. however, in actuality works talked point of view of there being relation between pictures , poems, , opined cannot avoided poems utilized spatiality approach realm of art.