Blaster Al Ackerman
Encyclopedia
Blaster Al Ackerman is the most commonly used name by an American mail art
ist and writer who has been active since the early 1970s.
Heavily influenced by post-war pulp writers like Theodore Sturgeon
, Raymond Chandler
and Fredric Brown
(with whom Ackerman corresponded as a young person) as well as by modernists like Ray Johnson
, Francis Ponge
and the Oulipo
, the name Al Ackerman is a pseudonym most likely alluding to the Science Fiction editor and collector Forrest J. Ackerman.
Al Ackerman's writing has dealt playfully, if obsessively, with themes of madness and weird phenomena. His visual work is also in the tradition of black humor, often including a trademark character, the hebephrenic
, with a wide upper lip and two protruding teeth.
His voluminous mail art
output was anthologized in The Blaster Omnibus and given a one-man show at the Chela Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland. Other books include Let Me Eat Massive Pieces of Clay, I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun, and Corn and Smoke. Over the past twenty years, he has been mostly frequently published The Lost and Found Times, published by frequent collaborator John M. Bennett
, and in the Shattered Wig Review published by Rupert Wondolowski, although his massive body of work is difficult to track due to his regular use of a variety of pseudonyms (which he relates to his childhood love of the pulps), including Eel Leonard, Luther Blissett (nom de plume)
(a reference to the footballer
of the same name), and Swarthy Turk Sellers among many others, as well as regular anonymous and collaborative works.
His influence in the 80s was strongly felt by neoism
founder Istvan Kantor
, performance artist Andre Stitt
, photographer Richard Kern
(who published Ackerman's writing in his magazine Dumb Fucker) and musicians Genesis P-Orridge
who used one of Ackerman's letters as the text of Throbbing Gristle
's song "Hamburger Lady." Many of his stories have been made into videos by Steve "Sleeze" Steele, and one, about a man who give his life over to the creation of a garment made of vienna sausages, was given feature-length film treatment by Catherine Pancake
under the name The Suit. In 2005 a long playing record of his spoken performances, titled I am Drunk, was issued. His latest book entitled "Misto Peas: Tiny Special Stories", was published in 2009 by Luna Bisonte Productions. The book contains reworkings or "hacks" of poet John M. Bennett's writing. He read most recently from this new book at Shattered Wig Nite hosted by Rupert Wondolowski at Baltimore's 14 Karat Cabaret in November 2009.
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
ist and writer who has been active since the early 1970s.
Heavily influenced by post-war pulp writers like Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
, Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
and Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.He had two sons: James Ross Brown and Linn Lewis Brown ....
(with whom Ackerman corresponded as a young person) as well as by modernists like Ray Johnson
Ray Johnson
Raymond Edward Johnson , known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art...
, Francis Ponge
Francis Ponge
Francis Jean Gaston Alfred Ponge was a French essayist and poet. In many ways, he combined the two — essay and poem — into a single art form.-Life:...
and the Oulipo
Oulipo
Oulipo is a loose gathering of French-speaking writers and mathematicians which seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais...
, the name Al Ackerman is a pseudonym most likely alluding to the Science Fiction editor and collector Forrest J. Ackerman.
Al Ackerman's writing has dealt playfully, if obsessively, with themes of madness and weird phenomena. His visual work is also in the tradition of black humor, often including a trademark character, the hebephrenic
Disorganized schizophrenia
Disorganized schizophrenia, also known as hebephrenia is a subtype of schizophrenia as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV code 295.10....
, with a wide upper lip and two protruding teeth.
His voluminous mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
output was anthologized in The Blaster Omnibus and given a one-man show at the Chela Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland. Other books include Let Me Eat Massive Pieces of Clay, I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun, and Corn and Smoke. Over the past twenty years, he has been mostly frequently published The Lost and Found Times, published by frequent collaborator John M. Bennett
John M. Bennett
John M. Bennett is an American experimental text, sound, and visual poet.- Writing and publishing :As well as steadily producing and distributing his own work, Bennett, through "Luna Bisonte Prods", a small press founded in 1974, has published thousands of limited edition items by writers who...
, and in the Shattered Wig Review published by Rupert Wondolowski, although his massive body of work is difficult to track due to his regular use of a variety of pseudonyms (which he relates to his childhood love of the pulps), including Eel Leonard, Luther Blissett (nom de plume)
Luther Blissett (nom de plume)
Luther Blissett is a multiple-use name, an "open reputation" informally adopted and shared by hundreds of artists and activists all over Europe and the Americas since 1994...
(a reference to the footballer
Luther Blissett
Luther Loide Blissett is a former professional footballer and manager, who is currently a first-team coach at Hemel Hempstead Town. Blissett played as a striker, and is best known for his time at Watford, whom he helped win promotion from the Fourth Division to the First Division...
of the same name), and Swarthy Turk Sellers among many others, as well as regular anonymous and collaborative works.
His influence in the 80s was strongly felt by neoism
Neoism
Neoism is a parodistic -ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and more generally to a practical underground philosophy...
founder Istvan Kantor
Istvan Kantor
Istvan Kantor is a Hungarian born Canadian performance and video artist, industrial music and electropop singer, and founder of Neoism....
, performance artist Andre Stitt
Andre Stitt
Andre Stitt , is a performance artist. Stitt's family moved from Belfast in the early 1960s and spent his early life in Seymour Hill, Dunmurry, near Lisburn, where he attended Dunmurry High School before going to Art College...
, photographer Richard Kern
Richard Kern
Richard Kern is a New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground prominence as part of the underground cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films featuring underground personalities of the time...
(who published Ackerman's writing in his magazine Dumb Fucker) and musicians Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is an English singer-songwriter, musician, writer and artist. P-Orridge's early confrontational performance work in COUM Transmissions in the late 1960s and early 1970s along with the industrial band Throbbing Gristle, which dealt with subjects such as prostitution,...
who used one of Ackerman's letters as the text of Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
's song "Hamburger Lady." Many of his stories have been made into videos by Steve "Sleeze" Steele, and one, about a man who give his life over to the creation of a garment made of vienna sausages, was given feature-length film treatment by Catherine Pancake
Catherine Pancake
Catherine Pancake is an American filmmaker and musician, based in Baltimore, Maryland since ca. 1993. A native of West Virginia, she is a relative of the writers Breece D'J Pancake, Ann Pancake, and actor Sam Pancake...
under the name The Suit. In 2005 a long playing record of his spoken performances, titled I am Drunk, was issued. His latest book entitled "Misto Peas: Tiny Special Stories", was published in 2009 by Luna Bisonte Productions. The book contains reworkings or "hacks" of poet John M. Bennett's writing. He read most recently from this new book at Shattered Wig Nite hosted by Rupert Wondolowski at Baltimore's 14 Karat Cabaret in November 2009.