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" Zend was one of those versatile geniuses who could do anything. Born in Hungary, he moved to Canada in 1956 after the failed revolt and settled in Toronto. For years he worked for the CBC, at the same time making himself into a skilled producer, poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, composer, filmmaker, and found-object artist.
"Something about his autodidact intensity appeals to me. Most people who call themselves by so many titles end up spreading themselves thin — they kind of suck at everything, without ever mastering one thing. It can seem pathetic. But Zend had the work ethic of a craftsman. His sober attitude toward his projects was mature. He imbued everything he worked on with rough-hewn depth. It was an attitude that’s rare in contemporary scenes where snark and nihilism are the base line and art is as much about identity as product. "As you’d probably expect from a person who was a workaholic as well as a multi-talented artist, there’s a lot of material to choose your favorite from. I can’t pick mine, there’s so much good stuff that he’s done, but if I had to make a recommendation, I’d pick “Arbormundi (Tree of the World)”. It’s a portfolio of seventeen [sic] concrete poems made on a typewriter. Of course, Zend didn’t invent typeface art and layering on a typewriter, but his are some of the best examples of how to do it. They’re meticulous, superimposing shapes and figures in a way that hints at dimension and gives a sense of fluidity. The shapes he makes express texture while still appearing delicate, urging you to reach out and feel their dimensions before they float away or disappear. It’s just great art. Look for yourself!" Scott Beauchamp in "Zend and the Art of Typewriter Maintenance ," Full Stop: Reviews, Interview, Marginalia (9 May 2012) |
Zend’s typescapes are remarkable for their meticulous execution... Part of the beauty of these concrete poems is the ethereal effect produced by the transparency of the overlaid shapes. View a sample:Download the full portfolio:
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Learn more about how the typescapes came to be:Here is the mystery story of how my types scales were born. Creation is a mystery, and how I created my type scales is a story. I am very good at telling stories and solving mysteries. I think mystery, like life, is much overrated.... read more |
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"Zend’s typescapes are remarkable for their meticulous execution, which often involves superimposed shapes and figures. At the areas of intersection of these shapes, the effect is far from being muddied or heavy. Instead, they retain the delicacy that is characteristic of the whole.
"Part of the beauty of these concrete poems is the ethereal effect produced by the transparency of the overlaid shapes. The result of this diaphonous quality is that it is difficult to determine which object is in front or behind the other: The objects seem to blend into one another, a visual legerdemain made possible by the open spaces of the typed letters and symbols: a superimposed “x” and “p” gives little hint as to which was typed over the other. Therefore the realm in which the ghostly forms interact spatially and symbolically is flattened into a plane of shared patterns and meanings. Zend’s often punning titles also reflect this idea of blending, as for example in “Peapoteacock,” where he brings “teapot” and “peacock” into verbal and visual contiguity so that one is contained within the other.
"Another aspect of the beautiful intricacy of the overlaid objects is that the areas of intersection naturally produce darker areas, which form shapes of their own consisting of outlines of both objects (as overlapping circles in a Venn diagram produce a shaded area formed with arcs from both circles). The interplay of the shapes of each object with the shapes produced by their overlay creates an impression of both dialogue and unity between the objects.
"The miracle of these concrete poems is that from what must have been a slow and painstaking process of planning and execution using paper inserted into a clunky machine come visions of airy lightness and delicate movement.
"All of these effects harmonize with Zend’s recurrent themes of commonality and universality: the Other within the I, and the endless cycle of creation and destruction. They seem to be part of Zend’s spiritual expression of the continuities of life and death; as Zend puts it in Daymares, from the “prenatal . . . to the land of time-spacelessness; to the tiny centre point of our individual self which strangely coincides with the three-billion other human centre-points, with those of the dead ones, with those of our more ancient ancestors: swimming, crawling and flying creatures, rooting-stretching plants and perhaps even with the centre-points of other alien-living-units, of agitatedly swirling atoms and majestically rotating galaxies.”
- Camille Martin, "Robert Zend's 'Typescapes': Concrete poetry from a Renaissance man of Canadian letters", Rogue Embryo, a.k.a. Camille Martin: a blog about poetry, collage, photography, whatnot, May 3 2012.
"Part of the beauty of these concrete poems is the ethereal effect produced by the transparency of the overlaid shapes. The result of this diaphonous quality is that it is difficult to determine which object is in front or behind the other: The objects seem to blend into one another, a visual legerdemain made possible by the open spaces of the typed letters and symbols: a superimposed “x” and “p” gives little hint as to which was typed over the other. Therefore the realm in which the ghostly forms interact spatially and symbolically is flattened into a plane of shared patterns and meanings. Zend’s often punning titles also reflect this idea of blending, as for example in “Peapoteacock,” where he brings “teapot” and “peacock” into verbal and visual contiguity so that one is contained within the other.
"Another aspect of the beautiful intricacy of the overlaid objects is that the areas of intersection naturally produce darker areas, which form shapes of their own consisting of outlines of both objects (as overlapping circles in a Venn diagram produce a shaded area formed with arcs from both circles). The interplay of the shapes of each object with the shapes produced by their overlay creates an impression of both dialogue and unity between the objects.
"The miracle of these concrete poems is that from what must have been a slow and painstaking process of planning and execution using paper inserted into a clunky machine come visions of airy lightness and delicate movement.
"All of these effects harmonize with Zend’s recurrent themes of commonality and universality: the Other within the I, and the endless cycle of creation and destruction. They seem to be part of Zend’s spiritual expression of the continuities of life and death; as Zend puts it in Daymares, from the “prenatal . . . to the land of time-spacelessness; to the tiny centre point of our individual self which strangely coincides with the three-billion other human centre-points, with those of the dead ones, with those of our more ancient ancestors: swimming, crawling and flying creatures, rooting-stretching plants and perhaps even with the centre-points of other alien-living-units, of agitatedly swirling atoms and majestically rotating galaxies.”
- Camille Martin, "Robert Zend's 'Typescapes': Concrete poetry from a Renaissance man of Canadian letters", Rogue Embryo, a.k.a. Camille Martin: a blog about poetry, collage, photography, whatnot, May 3 2012.
Arbormundi: 16 Selected Typescapes
by Robert Zend
Vancouver, blewointmentpress, 1982
A portfolio of concrete poems, created with a manual typewriter;
no electronics, computers or glue involved.
Limited edition of 500 copies.
ISBN 0-88971-073-2
Vancouver, blewointmentpress, 1982
A portfolio of concrete poems, created with a manual typewriter;
no electronics, computers or glue involved.
Limited edition of 500 copies.
ISBN 0-88971-073-2
