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 April 2017

T|AR|P



 1926 portrait (retouched) of Hans Arp with navel-monocle


 Shadow hand points at navel of Hans Arp, Brittany, 1930s

 Supreme Goddess as Void, with projection space for TARPoem 
Theatre of the Actors of Regard 
click image to enlarge 
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

27 April 2017

Ned Kelly monocled


Original sketch of Ned Kelly 
with Chinese coin as monocle 
located by researchers of TAR


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
AAA_Art Archive Australia  
click image to enlarge  
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

26 April 2017

AusTARal Asia In Focus



Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
Fosterville Institute of Applied & Progressive Cultural Experience devised the apparatus below for Theatre of the Actors of Regard by a progressive application of the teachings of Hakuin to the monoptic frame (L'introuvable) of Marcel Mariën and a Qing Dynasty coin found in 2014 at Elcho Island.


FIAPCE  
Recent speculative research suggests that Ned Kelly may have used a similar Chinese coin from the Victorian goldfields as a muck-around monocle prior to his realisation of the iron mask eyes frame.
Curator of Australian art, Denise Mimmocchi, says Nolan is one of the most significant Australian artists of the 20th century. "He changed the way we look at the landscape and think of the landscape," she says.

"He looked at the landscape in terms of the inner life of the place – he wasn't content with just the appearance of things. His Kelly series is a classic example of how he used myth and legend, and also history and place, to frame how we look at the landscape.


"It's hard to disassociate the way we think of Kelly country from that iconic black mask he painted."


Sidney Nolan: Australian Synchrotron helps reveal the man behind the Ned Kelly mask
The Age / Debbie Cuthbertson, Arts Editor, 22 April 2017

AAA_Art Archive Australia  
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 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
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24 April 2017

Ideo Spex : 'Mon Oncle'



 Marcel Mariën, L'introuvable, 1937


Theatre of the Actors of Regard      
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  A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
  someone looks at something... 
         
  LOGOS/HA HA 


  

22 April 2017

The Clive Palmer Poetry Party presents


Recent tweets from Clive Palmer :



and now his Frog Poem contribution :
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

21 April 2017

Vale Ti Parks (1939 - 2017)

     
The experimental artist Ti Parks had a major influence on the development of conceptual art in Australia, especially in Melbourne.
 Introduction to Biography (stub) at National Library of Australia

 More info here.

 Ti Parks, Black desks, 1967                                 collection NGV

 Ti Parks, The Tent, 1968 
 1980 reconstruction at Art Projects, Melbourne (above)
 see (below) the 2005 text for Pitch Your Own Tent :

Monash University Museum of Art presents Pitch Your Own Tent: Art Projects | Store 5 | 1st Floor, an exhibition and publication examining the recent history of contemporary Australian art from 1979-2002 through the activities and practices of three influential artist-run spaces: Art Projects, Melbourne 1979-1984, established by John Nixon; Store 5, Melbourne 1989-1993, established by Gary Wilson; 1st Floor, Melbourne 1994-2002, established by David Rosetzky.
The exhibition explores a strong lineage in the recent history of contemporary Australian art; of avant-garde, experimental and innovative practices and discourses developed by communities of artists through independent artist-run exhibition and publishing initiatives.
Each of the three respective artist-run spaces will be represented through one of MUMA’s three galleries, which will provide the opportunity to represent each organisation in context, whilst also allowing a comparison of the ideas, modes of display, and material culture of each respective enterprise. One contention of the exhibition is the degree to which it is artists themselves who are responsible for the interpretation and writing of art history.
One important parameter that has been established within the curatorial framework is to involve only those works of art which were actually presented in the programs of the respective artist-run spaces, thereby invoking the forms, production values and materiality of the respective periods.
The title, Pitch Your Own Tent, makes reference to Gustave Courbet who pitched his own tent in front of the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, to Ti Parks tents (one of which was exhibited at Art Projects and will be included in the exhibition), to Rikrit Taravanija’s tent installed in front of the AGNSW, and to the perpetually provisional and itinerant nature of artist-run spaces generally.
Given that the programs of Art Projects, Store 5 and 1 st Floor were each ambitious, diverse and encompassed exhibition and publishing programs conducted over periods of 5-9 years, the exhibition will inevitably focus upon the principal artists, and selected works which have made influential and/or lasting contributions, or are strongly representative of innovative visual arts culture of the time.
Artists include:
Art Projects – Anti-Music, Tony Clark, Peter Cripps, John Davis, John Dunkley-Smith, Richard Dunn, Robert Jacks, Robert MacPherson, John Nixon, Imants Tillers, Ti Parks, Mike Parr, Peter Tyndall, Ania Walwicz, Jenny Watson.
Store 5 – Stephen Bram, Sandra Bridie, Tony Clark, Bronwyn Clark-Coolee, Marco Fusinato, Diena Georgetti, Melinda Harper, Gail Hastings, Anne-Marie May, John Nixon, Rose Nolan, Kerrie Poliness, Kathy Temin, Gary Wilson, Constanze Zikos.
1st Floor Artists and Writers Space – Amanda Ahmed, Guy Benfield, Kate Beynon, Martine Corompt, Michael Delany, Kate Ellis, Mira Gojak, Eliza Hutchison, Raafat Ishak, Brendan Lee, Andrew McQualter, John Meade, Sean Meilak, Callum Morton, David Noonan, Alex Pittendrigh, David Rosetzky, Jacinta Schreuder, John Spiteri, Lyndal Walker.
Text: Carolyn Barnes, Max Delany, Tessa Dwyer, D.J Huppatz, Andrew Hurle, Robyn McKenzie, Sarah Tutton, edited by Max Delany.

Ti Parks lived in Melbourne from 1964 to 1973 
and during that period was one of the number of significant artists associated with Bruce Pollard's Pinacotheca Gallery at St Kilda then Richmond.

The final exhibition at Pinacotheca was in August 2002, of recent artwork by Ti Parks. The images below come from a film of that event - Parks at Pinacotheca by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos - with commentary by Ti. 


 Parks at Pinacotheca by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos  2002 / revised 2011


 Parks at Pinacotheca by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos  2002 / revised 2011

In 2007, Christian Capurro collaborated with Parks at the Venice Biennale, as recorded here :

  
Ti Parks

Pensa con i sensi - Senti con la mente. L'arte al presente /
Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense

'Off-Site' Performances, June: Venice


As an invited collaborator for the 'off-site' component of the Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette work at this year's Venice Biennale 52nd International Exhibition of Art, Ti Parks will be presenting a series of performances - 'performontages' as the artist calls them - twice a day in public spaces across Venice from June 11 to 13, 2007.



 Ti Parks performance at 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007
 photograph by Christian Capurro


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


  

20 April 2017

Blood Soaked Sight Gag (Hermann Nitsch)


Dark Mofo artist Hermann Nitsch's 'ritual' slammed by animal rights groups   The Age

Herman Nitsch at Dark Typo :


  The Age, 20 April 2017  
        Dear Theo
        Send more paint.
        Vincent

        Dear Sigmund
        Send more blood.
        Hermann 
        

        
        Dear Father
        Send more wine.
        Jesus

Memories of observing the malaktion (above) by Hermann Nitsch and his assistants at the 1988 Sydney Biennale. Never felt so Catholic as then.


Theatre of the Actors of Regard    
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

19 April 2017

Enso Spex by TAR (advertisement)


1.  On stage, the enso scroll :


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
2.  Among the many in the auditorium, certain practitioners of clear seeing :


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1768)  
3.  For those not yet so fortunately endowed, we recommend Enso Spex by TAR :
advertisement 

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

17 April 2017

Speed of Sight




MoMA  
Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

14 April 2017

Passion Play


Good Friday essay: Passion plays and the ethics of spectacular violence

Though still alive -
His hair and nails
continued to grow.

 Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

13 April 2017

Sight Gag

 

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
click to enlarge  
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

12 April 2017

BAR click NETT click NEW click MAN click BAR NET NEW MAN


Modern Merican Painted Canvas didn't always float free to be seen in Independence Daze on the staged walls of Theatre of the Actors of Regard.
Various photos of Barnett Newman in his studio show him with heavily-suspended stretched right-angles of canvas anchored by chains before during and after the paint. 

These proof sheet photographs are from the 1965 studio portraits of Barnett Newman by Ugo Mulas.
In the mid-1940s Newman painted a small number of mostly untitled circle/sun motifs. One was clue-titled Pagan Void. After that, the vertical line motif ("zip") on the field (of colour) motif predominated the play. 

His 1948 consolidation work - one vertical zip centred on a vertical format canvas - he titled Onement (at one out of atonement). The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, he had studied philosophy in New York and it all showed. Soon came By Twos (1949).

We do wonder about the presence/influence/role/
dynamic of the suspension chain verticals 'outside' 
on the painted verticals 'inside'?
Photos of the early exhibitions of these artworks, such as at Betty Parsons gallery, show them still in obvious suspension, not 'free floating'.

Ditto when shown in Melbourne in 1967.
We conclude this now with the Sight Gag song as...
Barnett Newman conducts the Choir of Eyes (TAR) 
               detail 
               A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
               someone looks at something... 
         
               LOGOS/HA HA 


 

10 April 2017

Vale John Clarke (1948 - 2017)


John Clarke : writer, satirist, broadcaster, actor, comedian, everyman, everywoman. 

Of wit, wisdom and compassion (Shakespeare). 


Up there and down there with Spike Milligan.
     
 John Clarke and Fred Dagg - the early years 

Fred Dagg's Greatest Hits (1976) 
 John Clarke and Sam Neill -
 an antipodean Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Death In Brunswick , 1990 
 John Clarke and Brian Dawe for 27 years

  Look, again : nothing, everything, nothing, everything...

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


  

06 April 2017

TARd edge



Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 Two boys of TAR en regarde Malevich 'Black Square'


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 Woman of TAR delighted to behold TARd Edge Label 


  extract from Diary of a TARd Edge Teen

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


  

04 April 2017

The Hou_e That sLaughter Built (Le Regard Mental)

       
In my Father's house are many mansions: 
if it were not so, I would have told you. 
I go to prepare a place for you.

- John 14 : 2 (King James Bible) 



 Rene Magritte, Le Regard Mental, 1946

Those houses!... Just like in my dreams!


  FIAPCE (Black Bats) at Architectura Picta, Ewing Gallery, 1984
click image to enlarge  
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

03 April 2017

The House That Laughter Built

  
 ...has fallen down again.


TAR  
Imagine that all the elements suddenly collapsed...

FIAPCE (-1975-)  
collection : Art Gallery of South Australia  
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA 


  

02 April 2017

Patrick Pound : The Great Exhibition


Patrick Pound's grandest work so far opens at the National Gallery of Victoria this month. Four thousand of his own collected objects and photographs will be installed amid his selections from the gallery's collection. Hubristically titled The Great Exhibition, it's Pound's version of a world expo.

"It's a mad folly," he says, erupting with laughter. 



Pairs (and the double), 2016−2017 (detail)    
  

"It's another version of the world," he says. "A tragic comedy of the world through things. It's a bit like Balzac's Human Comedy – that vast novel cycle that had all of Paris in it. The whole world can be pulled into this one constraint so that it can have things about race and class and gender, and history, and culture, and the everyday life and death, and fun and daftness or serious implications, but they are all drawn in by one thing. And it makes us look at what they are differently.


The photographer's shadow, 2000-2017 (detail)    

"It's collage meets a car-boot sale," he says, before bursting into laughter.

Patrick Pound's The Great Exhibition is at NGV Australia, Federation Square, March 31-July 30. Patrick Pound In Conversation, April 1, at 2pm.

- Extracts above are from From eBay to the NGV: Patrick Pound's 'mad folly' makes art of our cast-offs by Ray Edgar in the week-end AGE/SMH.    

Positions Vacant :

photo courtesy the aether of j  
 detail 
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA