David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


30 January 2010

Blue Moon Observed

.
Tonight, a blue moon.

Inside, we are watching TV : Serena Williams v Justine Hennin in the Womens Tennis Final at Melbourne Park.

During the breaks we go outside to observe the moon's rise.

At the window of the bLOGOS/HA HA Office ...

1880s_un lune to the moon_400

... our lunatique-in-residence also watches. He sings to the Blue Moon 108 verses of The Title Song :
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA


detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA


detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA




24 January 2010

Full Body Scans : A Brief History

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Full Body Scans have figured in popular projection for a long time.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Genesis 3 : 6-7
King James Bible

Recently there's been a kerfuffle over the proposed introduction of full body security scans at Australian airports.


image courtesy Red Frame Brigade

When we were young, the ads in comic offered that possibility.



Here's an even earlier favorite, an 1880s intimate love-pic.


Rayon X
Mademoiselle, your fiancé has sent his photo.

detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...


LOGOS/HA HA

22 January 2010

SCAN ME

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A letter arrives from the USA

SEE ME FEEL ME TOUCH ME SCAN ME


detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...

LOGOS/HA HA

20 January 2010

Google looks at ...

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This headline and article scanned from today's Age (Melbourne).


detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA

16 January 2010

History of The Void ( continued )

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Robert Smithson's depiction of and thoughts about The Museum of the Void (see previous several posts) have disturbed some dust.

The notes below are from 1981. They are first draft jottings about my contribution to Tom McCullough's The First Australian Sculpture Triennial. Set in the rooms and grounds of the then Preston Institute of Technology and La Trobe University, both at Bundoora, this was Tom's attempt to revive and relocate the Mildura Sculpture Triennial model after that event's dramatic demise in 1978.



In the extract above, any nominated ( as "Sculpture") work is regarded, rather than as 'self-contained', as an interdependent detail; and The First Australian Sculpture Triennial is reconceived as The First Australian (dependendent-arising projection-space) Festival.

Below are the two lines that headed page one of that draft. Thus, being at the start, (continued) refers not to something continuing from a previous page but to some grand imaginary-true History of t/The Void project. Immediately upon that follows the rhetorical terminus: WHY MAKE ONE MORE SCULPTURE?



Some of these thoughts found form in a manifesto-like text. Here's a detail of it, about detail :



The full text accompanied 230 culled newspaper images - each of someone looking at something - that were exhibited at Art Projects (566 Lonsdale St, Melbourne) concurrent with the 230 Sculptures installed at Preston and La Trobe.

198 _fam & 230xideogram_400w

The text also accompanied a photo of a decisive moment (C-B) in Bourke Street, Melbourne, during Tyre Week (see : Object Names of Time). This was exhibited at Preston-La Trobe as my 1-in-230 parts contribution to the new Sculpture Triennial.

In the exhibition catalog all this was properly assigned to the NONCATEGORISED category.

1981-TyreWeek obs_400
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA

12 January 2010

What's On At The Void (after RS)

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After those "void thoughts" of Robert Smithson in the previous post, here are some recent newspaper advoidisements.
("To the void! To the void!")


Melbourne
(The Ian Potter Centre : NGV Australia)



detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA

Brisbane
(
Gallery of Modern Art & Queensland Art Gallery)

2009-10_QAG-GOMA 6th APT_slas_400
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA

Canberra
(National Gallery of Australia)



detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA

07 January 2010

Robert Smithson's Museum of the Void

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J has sent an image previously unknown here :
Robert Smithson's (1969) Museum of the Void

R S_T M of the V_detail_400w
Click here to see the full image and some empirical information
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA

Also at the Robert Smithson website, from Selected Writings by Robert Smithson, the following :
Some Void Thoughts On Museums

... Visiting a museum is a matter of going from void to void. Hallways lead the viewer to things once called 'pictures' and 'statues.' Anachronisms hang and protrude from every angle. Themes without meaning press on the eye. Multifarious nothings permute into false windows (frames) that open up into a variety of blanks. Stale images cancel one's perception and deviate one's motivation. Blind and senseless, one continues ...
Read the full text here

03 January 2010

The Gift of [ ]

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Seeing my response, M recounted how, acting upon a waking intuition, she eventually arrived at a Salvation Army Store.

A while back I had described to her a pair of 1920s dimestore stands recently acquired for the heap.



Vernacular incarnations of The Supreme Goddess as Void, with projection-space for image, I reckoned.

It was this came to mind in the Op Shop when M beheld there the object of her uncanny summons, a Scandinavian-style projection-space.

Would this also be of interest to bL, she wondered?

Would it!!! (Thanks again M)
2009.12.30_ideogram from Nada C_400w
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something . . .


LOGOS/HA HA

01 January 2010

New Year with projection-space & sunflowers

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New Year's Day. Up the street there's a house with a single magnificent sunflower in the front yard.

2010.01.01_Sunflower at Hepburn Springs_400w

2010 Projection-Space Dance
-----------------------------------
Round and round
and round we go :
I see thee
Thee see me

1880s_proj-space with sunfl-gatherers #1_sRGB-400w

Sunshine Of Your Love
----------------------------
A flower each
For this wee three
Leaves one for you
And one for me


1880s_proj-space with sunfl-gatherers #2_sRGB-400w
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something . . .


LOGOS/HA HA