The Box as Meeting Place Artistic Encounters in Aspen Magazine (1965-1971)

129 Maarten van Gageldonk Aspen was a multimedia magazine, each issue presented as a box full of surpri- ses by artists, writers, thinkers, and unknowns. What kept contributors as diverse as John Lennon, Yoko Ono, J.G. Ballard, and David Hockney together?

In 1965 New York magazine editor Phyllis dia revolution. Aspen would return the func- Johnson travelled to Aspen, Colorado, to tion of the magazine to ‘the original meaning partake in the International Design Confe- of the word, as “a storehouse, a cache, a ship rence Aspen (IDCA) and returned home asking laden with stores”’, and in doing so it would herself how the traditional magazine could be liberate it from its linearity and two-dimen- adapted for the modern age. Later that year sionality, as well as from the dominance of she launched her answer: Aspen Magazine, printed matter.1 Accordingly, throughout the the multimedia magazine in a box. Between years Aspen’s slim boxes and folders contained 1965 and 1971 ten issues of Aspen appeared, posters, flip books, newspapers, stamps, a each put together by a different guest editor kite, a miniature sculpture, flexi discs with and devoted to a different theme, ranging music and audio recordings, and in 1967 even from Pop Art and Minimalism to psychedelic a reel of Super 8 film – a first for any magazine. art and Asian culture. Opening one of Aspen’s To its subscribers the contents of each issue boxes now is like unearthing a time capsule came as a surprise and connecting the various and its contributor list reads like a sample items demanded a non-trivial amount of activ- sheet of the 1960s, including work by William ity on the account of the ‘reader’. To borrow Burroughs, John Cage, , a term from Roland Barthes (whose famous John Lennon, , Robert essay ‘Death of the Author’ was first published Rauschenberg, Jack Smith, and , in English in Aspen’s no. 5-6), Aspen subscrib- among many others. As Johnson stressed in a ers needed to have a writerly, not a readerly, letter to Aspen’s readers included in the first is- frame of mind.2 sue, the magazine was intended as a multime-

1 P. Johnson, ‘A Letter From Phyllis Johnson’, Aspen Maga- 2 R. Barthes, S/Z, Oxford 2002, p. 4. Originally published in zine (1965) 1, s.p. Paris 1973.

130 Kunstlicht nr. 2 / 3 – 2012 1. Advertisement for Aspen no. 7. In: Evergreen Review (1970) 76.

131 The Box as Meeting Place – Maarten van Gageldonk 2. Selected contents from Aspen 7. Design by John Kosh.

Since the assemblage of each Aspen in common usage in 1965, Aspen fits within issue depended largely on the individual a growing multimedia or intermedia ap- cultural networks of its guest editor, the proach to art in the second half of the decade, magazine’s boxes became preeminent places which did away with the rigid categories that where texts – in the broadest sense of the word separated the various art forms. But Aspen – by artists, authors, critics and others met. also intended to create active and engaged It should come as no small surprise that one readers. While the loose-leaf format first of all of Aspen’s key inspirations was the Canadian made the inclusion of both sound and moving media guru Marshall McLuhan, to whom images possible, it also stimulated interac- Johnson devoted an entire issue in 1967. In his tion with the reader. It was the reader who groundbreaking book The Medium is the Mas- needed to assemble Tony Smith’s miniature sage, McLuhan observed that when different sculpture included in nos. 5-6 (1967), who forms of information touched, unexpected needed to perform the Philip Glass score ‘1 + results might occur, and Aspen wholeheartedly 1 for One Player and Amplified Table-Top’ in embraced this mantra.3 For sure, much more no. 8 (1970), and who needed to fold and fly the than within the rigidly linear pages of regular kite designed by Nori Sinoto included in the magazines, within Aspen’s boxes its contents last issue (1971). But the best example of the literally touched. As much as it was a maga- magazine’s experiential approach came in late zine, Aspen was also intended to be an experi- 1968 when Aspen produced its own edition of ence that addressed all the senses simultane- the Judson Church publication Manipulations, ously, blurring the boundaries between texts, a collection of fourteen and perfor- images and audio. While neither term was mance art pieces staged at Judson Church by

132 Kunstlicht nr. 2 / 3 – 2012 Jon Hendricks the year before. Appropriately, tend to stress Aspen’s diversity, but both issues the issue came free of charge. also provide key examples of how the boxed Early issues of Aspen came in ‘a rather approach facilitated interaction across the dignified format’, as Johnson put it, with the borders of the various media. shape of the booklets dictated by the dimen- sions of the box.4 From the start, though, Britain in a box: artistic interaction in Aspen each issue included a flexi disc, adding sound no. 7 to an inherently silent medium. But in 1966, Not burdened by the need to make overtly Aspen radically changed course. That year artistic statements, Aspen no. 7 intended to be Johnson approached Andy Warhol to assem- a light-hearted ‘Pandora’s box of British whit ble the third issue, whose ‘Fab’ box imitated & whimsy, fun & games’, as advertising for it a laundry detergent box of the age, a cul- stressed at the time.7 It should be read in the tural re-appropriation that ingeniously wed context of what is often inimically dubbed Warhol’s obsession with consumer products the British Invasion of popular culture, which to Aspen’s three-dimensional format. In the washed over the United States in the wake period 1966-1969 Aspen further explored this of the appearance of The Beatles on the Ed newfound interactivity, culminating in the Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. The inva- often discussed double issue on minimalism sion was not just a musical one, though. The designed by Brian O’Doherty (nos. 5-6, 1967) period also showed a growing influence of and the ‘Art-Information’ folder, edited by Dan British fashion designers in the United States, Graham (no. 8, 1970), both of which pushed with Mary Quant’s mini skirt as its prime the limits of the format. exponent, as well as the belated re-evaluation While Aspen’s boxes were long neglected of British pop art as equivalent to its more by scholars, recent years have seen several famous American counterpart. Of course, studies of the magazine.5 Most of these have Aspen’s box came too late to truly contribute been from an art historical perspective and to the movement, and it was, in fact, mostly focus almost exclusively on the abovemen- intended as a commemoration of the closing tioned issues edited by O’Doherty and Gra- decade. Its designer John Kosh recalled: ‘It ham. As such, they to an extent misrepresent was sort of a celebration. […] Harold Wilson, Aspen as a scholarly American art magazine, the prime-minister, was about [to leave office]. neglecting its interest in popular culture. As a We’d all had a wonderful time and I think it counterweight, this article limits the discus- was mainly retro, a sort of retrospective of the sion to two of the later issues that represent stuff.’8 Kosh had been brought in by guest edi- Aspen’s wildest experiments with the multi- tor Mario Amaya, a friend of Warhol’s and the media formula, namely the ‘British’ box edited editor of Art and Artists, a London magazine by Mario Amaya and designed by John Kosh which, much like Aspen, aimed ‘to fill the gap (no. 7, 1969), and the ‘psychedelic’ or between life and art’, if in a more conservative 'Dreamweapon' issue edited by Angus and format.9 Hetty MacLise (no. 9, 1971).6 In doing so I in-

3 M. McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage, Corte Madera 6 The issue is often referred to as the psychedelic Aspen. 2001, pp. 76-77. Originally published as The Medium is the When interviewed Hetty MacLise seemed rather amused Massage. An Inventory of Effects, New York 1967. by the name, judging it to be a misnomer. Her own des- 4 Johnson, op. cit. (note 1), s.p. cription of the issue was ‘colourful’. 5 See for example: E. King, ‘Thinking Inside the Box: Aspen 7 ‘Advertisement for Aspen no. 7’, in: Evergreen Review Revisited’, in: M. Beirut, W. Drenttel and S. Heller (eds.), (1970) 76. Looking Closer Five: Critical Writings on Graphic Design, 8 Interview with John Kosh, May 19 2009. The interviews New York 2006, pp. 62-69; B. Moore-McCann, Brian cited in this article were originally conducted by the au- O’Doherty / Patrick Ireland: Between Categories, Surrey thor for a 2010 Master’s thesis on Aspen for the Radboud 2009, pp. 72-77; G. Allen, Artists’ Magazines: An Alterna- University Nijmegen. tive Space for Art, Cambridge 2011, pp. 43-67. A full digital 9 ‘A New Art Magazine’ [advertisement], in: Art Internatio- version of Aspen is available online at: http://www.ubu. nal 10 (1966) 3, p. 18. com/aspen.

133 The Box as Meeting Place – Maarten van Gageldonk 3. Selected contents from Aspen 9. Design by Angus & Hetty MacLise.

Amaya intended the British Box to il- artists and many of them also deliberately lustrate the diversity of contemporary English sought out these borders between the various culture, but he also felt that the disjointed media. Eduardo Paolozzi’s Gay Atomic Colour- contents of the box needed to speak for them- ing Book combined images from popular selves. It was not up to the editor to connect culture and abstract art in a piece that was the dots; instead, an explorative, writerly read- both a unique work of art and a children’s er might discover unexpected links, points divertissement. Similarly, David Hockney and of overlap and tension. As Michael Instone Peter Blake’s contributions borrowed materi- observed in one of the essays included in the als from popular culture – a fairytale, a post- issue: ‘[O]ne mark of a nascently critical and card, a clipping from a 1930s magazine – and essentially new view of the world is a restlessly reconfigured them as art. eclectic and explorative borrowing of bits In line with Instone’s essay, Amaya and pieces from other cultural areas where clearly intended there to be a dialogue be- they just happen to fit.’10 As such, many of the tween the works included in the box. In one works in the box undercut the distinction example, J. G. Ballard contributed the short between high and low culture, turning the story Crash!, which freely combined narrative everyday into art. Amaya’s Aspen issue con- prose with seemingly non-fictional accounts tained work by a number of young English pop of scientific experiments.11 As such, the story

134 Kunstlicht nr. 2 / 3 – 2012 transmuted the everyday into art, mixing labelled ‘Dreamweapon’, edited by the artist literature with objective research results. The couple Angus and Hetty MacLise. Angus effect on the reader closely resembled the MacLise is now mostly remembered as the effect of the pop art works in the box: both first drummer for , Crash! and the works by Blake, Hockney and while Hetty MacLise had previously been Paolozzi called into question what constituted responsible for the ‘souped-up, kaleidoscopic art, but also deliberately mixed the artistic color’ of the Oracle (1966-1968), with the pedestrian. In the same vein, the the unofficial chronicle of the Haight-Ashbury audio recordings by John Lennon and Yoko scene.12 A recent study of his work called Ono extended pop art’s rejection of high cul- Angus MacLise ‘a human link-document’, in ture, and its tendency towards fractionation the sense that he united artists of all stripes into youth culture. Together Lennon and Ono and colours, ‘acting as a catalyst, and as an recorded an untitled radio play, which in its imp’.13 This label could easily be applied to disjointedness resembles John Cage’s work at Hetty as well. Accordingly, even more than the time: bleeps from a radio gradually form previous issues, Aspen no. 9 depended on a words, only to dissolve again into noise while localized network of writers, poets, filmmak- Lennon and Ono talk in the background. The ers, musicians, experimentalists and others. play is significant for several reasons. For one, As Hetty MacLise recalled: ‘All the people who it purports to give an inside view into a private contributed were actual friends, who Angus life; it presents Lennon and Ono as regular could reach comparatively easy. Meaning they people, concerned with everyday things, but all lived nearby, in the Lower East Side.’14 then turns this into art. But it also breaks up While some of the artists included have communication, celebrating the disconnec- reached popular recognition (, La tion and decontextualisation of culture, much Monte Young, ), others remain as the pop art contributions did. relatively obscure (Lionel Ziprin, Benno The British Box was intended as a Friedman, Don Snyder, Vali Myers), or wholly multimedia adventure: within the cardboard unknown (Dale Wilbourn, Aymon de Sales, confines of the box the reader was intended to Nikki Grand). ‘Dreamweapon’ presented a discover the breadth of contemporary British motley of work, including drawings, poems, culture, stretching from Peter Blake’s kitsch speculative texts, musical scores, calligraphy, elevated to art, to concrete poetry by Ian experimental photography and, of course, Hamilton Finlay and a sewing pattern by sound recordings. The folder was designed in Ossie Clark. Divided as these artists seemed to spray paint by Hetty MacLise; on the inside, be at a first glance by their diverging disci- the various foldouts, posters and booklets plines and materials, Amaya’s box brought show a strong similarity to other work that them into dialogue and pressed the reader to Angus MacLise produced at the time, work find a form of unity in their shared irreverent which has only recently drawn renewed approach to art. attention.15 For Angus MacLise the Aspen issue was A Closely Knit Network: Aspen no. 9 part of a larger project under the title Dream- In early 1971, Aspen’s penultimate publication weapon, ‘an artistic enterprise involving thea- arrived in the form of a colourful folder tre, music, dance and multimedia as well as

10 M. Instone, ‘London Subcultures’, in: Aspen 7 (1969), s.p. 13 J. Kugelberg, W. Cameron, Dreamweapon: The Art and Life 11 It should be noted that while the story shares its title with of Angus MacLise, (exhibition catalogue), New York 2011. Ballard’s 1973 novel of the same name it is not, as is often 14 Interview with Hetty MacLise, May 22, 2009. inferred, an early excerpt from the book. It is, in fact, a 15 For examples see Kugelberg and Cameron, op. cit. (note separate short story, which, despite being described as 13). an excerpt in Aspen, later appeared verbatim in Ballard’s 16 A. MacLise, ‘Career’, (typescript, circa 1974), reproduced 1970 short fiction collection The Atrocity Exhibition. in: Kugelberg and Cameron, op. cit. (note 13), p. 9. 12 S. Heller, Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant-Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century, New York 2003, p. 188.

135 The Box as Meeting Place – Maarten van Gageldonk publishing’.16 In any case, many of the contrib- on closer inspection Zazeela’s work attests to utors to the Dreamweapon Aspen produced art a similar attitude: in an accompanying prose that straddled two or more distinct disciplines poem she accords a level of unintentionality and aimed for a multisensory effect, an ap- to her art, noting how on their own ‘[t]he let- proach that tied in with the many , ters grow larger, extend curled tentacles out performances and expanded cinema experi- toward each other, begin rubbing and burying ments of the age. To MacLise it was essential their shoots in each other’.17 that the various components overlapped and Several other themes also return that freely mixed within the folder, creating a sal- connect the various artists, most of them to an magundi that addressed readers as a whole. Of extent unsurprising given the time and place course, this multisensory approach was easily the issue was produced in. As such, there is wedded to Aspen’s multimedia aspirations. an emphasis on drug use, which returns in Despite the great variety of contents, Aymon de Sales’s poetry and Dale Wilbourn’s the work of twenty different artists, several speed-infused triptych of paintings. Another themes return in Aspen no. 9, themes that Sixties hallmark, an interest in South Ameri- establish a dialogue between their works. Per- can and Far Eastern culture returns in, for haps the most obvious shared theme is that instance, De Sales’ drawings and Don Snyder’s of improvisation. Despite its careful design, ‘Goeralegan’, which derives its imagery from ‘Dreamweapon’ espoused a feeling of flux, a . Once again, though, like in the British sense that the artists involved had directly Aspen, the reader was expected to correlate the transposed their shared artistic qualities into items. The folder stimulated readers to freely this issue of Aspen, without undue preparation rummage through it, to listen to the music or deliberation. Examples of this improvisa- while immersing themselves in the art, with tional spirit came in various forms. Included no prior pattern in place to govern them. Left were six postcards with stills and a flexi disc to their own devices, they could make their of music from ’s The Invasion of the own connections and, as such, Aspen no. 9 Thunderbolt Pagoda (1968). The short film, stressed the immersive and multimedia ap- shot in Cohen’s trademark oleaginous Tech- proach many of its contributors espoused. nicolor blur, undercut traditional plot-driven cinema in several ways. Most obviously, it The Box as a Meeting Place was more of a than a film, but In 1971, Aspen managed to produce one last Cohen’s mylar photography even subverted issue before it folded, a victim to financial the stability and predictability of the image woes and a prolonged conflict with the United itself, distorting the real in a capricious way. States Postal Service. In the six years it was More improvisation came from Christopher published, Aspen’s boxes and folders consti- Tree, whose ‘Spontaneous Sound’, played on tuted microcosms of their own. In a sense, the 150 different instruments, was included on box functioned as a mini gallery space, its the flexi disc. Improvisation also came on works selected by the guest editor, the curator, paper, for example in ’s con- who also established a theme between them tribution, an unnamed poem, handwritten and created a potential narrative. It should across a large sheet of photographs. Malanga’s come as no surprise that artists like Andy various corrections – parts were crossed out, Warhol, Brian O’Doherty and Dan Graham one stanza was written down, then crossed saw Aspen as a vehicle to circumvent the out and moved – stressed its extemporary gallery system. Yet, the box transcended the aspects, something that also returned in the white cube, as its break with the linearity of three sheets with letters from the Australian the bound magazine made it more versatile artist Vali Myers. Other objects in the folder at than the traditional gallery, where each visitor first sight contradict this spontaneity, such as is still to an extent guided by the spatial the delicate calligraphy of Marian Zazeela. But arrangement of the works. Aspen offered its

17 M. Zazeela, ‘The Soul of the Word’, in: Aspen (1971) 9, s.p.

136 Kunstlicht nr. 2 / 3 – 2012 subscribers a freeform exercise, asking them to create their own narrative from the mate- rials offered. That this exercise often reached across disciplinary and medial borders made it all the more interesting. Within the logical confines of the box, artworks could form dialectical networks of any shape, supple- menting, contradicting or even negating each other. As such, in a symbolic sense the magazine formed an artistic meeting place, but one which explicitly included the reader. It was his or her cultural capital that connected the various disjointed dots in a particular shape, thus bridging gaps between artists, disciplines and media, but most of all, between the artist and the reader.

Personalia

Maarten van Gageldonk wrote a Master’s thesis on Aspen Magazine for the Radboud University Nijmegen in 2010, which won the Theodore Roosevelt American History Award. He is currently preparing a PhD the- sis on the American publisher and its literary magazine Evergreen Review.

137 The Box as Meeting Place – Maarten van Gageldonk