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.


31 March 2010

Letter-winged shallow M(ind)


Behind Isidore Isou, in this 1951 photo, are the magazines SEE, LOOK and POST. It could be the prescription for this bLOG.


Isou was the founder of Lettrism.
"Fondé en 1945 par Isidore Isou (1925-2007), le lettrisme s'est imposé dans un moment de l'histoire universelle comme le seul mouvement révolutionnaire après le dadaïsme et le surréalisme. Ami de Tristan Tzara, père spirituel de Guy Debord, Isidore Isou proclame la destruction de la poésie à mot au profit d'une esthétique basée sur la lettre et le signe." ...

lelettrisme.com

Letter-winged Kite
Elanus scriptus Gould, 1842.
Elanus inscriptus Gould, 1842.
Elanus scriptus victorianus Mathews, 1917.
"The Letter-winged Kite (Elanus scriptus) is a small, rare and irruptive Australian raptor with a core range in central Australia. It is similar in appearance to the Black-shouldered Kite except for a very distinctive black underwing pattern of a shallow ‘M’, seen when in flight."

As depicted by John Gould :

2010.03.31_JG_Letter-winged K_400

And, by our Artist-In-Residence,
Letter-winged shallow M(ind) of a certain Regard
after Yves Klein and in the manner lettrism :

2010.03.31_Blue Letter of Elanus Scriptus_400
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30 March 2010

Vincent en plein air

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Continuing the theme of recent posts is this 1895 portrait of Vincent Van Gogh by Lucien Métivet.

Published in the magazine Le Rire (Laughter) only five years after Vincent's death, the artist has already entered into myth.

1895c_Le Rire_V G portrait_400
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29 March 2010

O

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Oh, so slow! Of course...

Winged Victory is to be the sky

see : Paint It Blue


Leap Into the Void-Winged Victory_Yves Klein
Le Saut dans le Vide (Leap into the Void)
by Yves Klein
at Rue Gentil-Bernard, Fontenay-aux-Roses
October 1960
photomontage by Harry Shunk

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28 March 2010

AlphaBetiCalMonoLogoGram

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From Which Cometh
&
To Which Returneth
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25 March 2010

Paint It Blue

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On March 18 we made reference to the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Here's another.



Yves Klein
Victoire de Samothrace
(1962)


"Et moi?
Peut-être que je suis son grand-père."

(1880s)

1880s_boy paints statue blue_sRGB_400
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24 March 2010

Another whole new way of looking at art

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bLOGOS/HA HA has tested our own whole new way of looking at art.

Following closely Eric Satie's prescription for Vexations
"Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses."
(In order to play the theme 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.)
last night a team of 840 one-by-one performed
Vexatious monoLOGOS/HA HA
(whole new way of looking at art)

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( x 840 )
to a select audience of Art Cult notables.

1880s_le monologue_LEFT_800
1880s_le monologue_RIGHT_800
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22 March 2010

Title Song

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Song Sung Blue
Who would have thought so few

(Neil Diamond meets Samuel Beckett meets Yves Klein)



"Funny thing, but you can sing it with a cry in your voice
And before you know, start to feeling good
You simply got no choice"

Sing it now
Sing it loud
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21 March 2010

30,000 years of art

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who would have thought so few

2010.03_30,000 art

two and a half million seconds
who would have thought so few?
...
thirty thousand nights
who would have thought so few?

from A Piece of Monologue
by Samuel Beckett


2010.03.10_new way of looking_400h
A whole new way
of looking at art :

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18 March 2010

ECCE HOMO beholdeth WINGED VICTORY

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"The work is notable for its convincing rendering of a pose where violent motion and sudden stillness meet, for its graceful balance ...
is seen as an iconic depiction of triumphant spirit and of the divine momentarily coming face to face with man. The power of the work is enhanced, to many people, by the very fact that the head and arms are missing."

Winged Victory of Samothrace (Wikipedia )


Still Life (2009) by Ron Mueck
@ National Gallery of Victoria (International) until 18 April 2010

2010.03.10_ECCE HOMO beholdeth WINGED VICTORY_flat_400
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15 March 2010

B/Lest We Forget

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Melbourne's favorite unfixed Public Projection-Space summons forth another page






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11 March 2010

MELBOURNE⪥BRISBANE: punk, art and after (until 16 May)

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MELBOURNEBRISBANE: punk, art and after was officially opened at the Ian Potter Museum of Art last night.

Special guest Robert Forster sang about the time, in the early 1980s, when the Go-Betweens relocated from Brisbane to Melbourne. How they slowly realised, among their circle, there were two Melbourne music scenes: the unreconstructed Rock wannabes of St Kilda and the cold anaemic theorists of Fitzroy-Northcote, as each group characterised the other. The Go-Betweens had friends in both camps, north and south of the Yarra: "We weren't called the Go-Betweens for nothing".

2010.03.10_Robert Forster at Potter Museum opening_400

Robert was accompanied on lute by a member of The Angels ...



... an early Melbourne little band formed by the artist John Perceval in 1958 ...


... and depicted by John Brack, John Perceval and his angels, in 1962 ...



... much as Jenny Watson would in 1981 picture the Go-Betweens for the cover of their LP record Send me a lullaby ...



... much as this exhibition's curator, David Pestorius, in his turn ...


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10 March 2010

On the way to a teaching

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In Melbourne last night were two visiting pointers to the mind.



Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book Of Living and Dying, gave a public teaching at the Collingwood Town Hall. In considering the nature of mind, one of Rinpoche's favorite analogies is the film projector, with it's passing image filters and it's projections, behind which, uninvolved, is a pure intense light. He quotes the summary of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche:
Samsara is mind turned outwardly,
lost in its projections.
Nirvana is mind turned inwardly,
recognising its true nature.
During last night's teaching there were references to clear seeing and to empty projections, empty prejudices ...

On the way to the Sogyal Rinpoche teaching, this student of mind, already aware the Dirty Projectors were also in Melbourne, photographed their poetsoftheinterverse listing outside the hi-fi bar.

What a marvelous work of name, he thought again. He imagined them taking the stage and declaring to their followers :



Hi, we're Dirty Projectors.

2010.03.09_HI FI BAR_Dirty Projectors
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05 March 2010

Poema Futurista

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Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was!
David Byrne, Once in a lifetime (1984)
1922_Poema Futurista_400

After the previous two posts, from 1515 and the 1880s, this one from 1922. Bought in Rome in 1984 from a postcard collector who, to my surprise, seemed to say it was the work of a child, and priced it accordingly. Have long wished I knew the story of it, of Francesco and Maria.


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04 March 2010

And again

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This French fold-out is circa 1880s.

1880s_LE PEINTRE_345
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03 March 2010

You

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Giovanni Francesco Caroto
Portrait of a Young Boy holding a Child's Drawing
circa 1515

G F C_400
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01 March 2010

Object ov You

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