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.
We appreciated this morning's ABC.RN Mine Field discussion of "slow journalism" en regard :
What if the greatest threat to a free media was from within?
Our lives are saturated with 'news'; but far from creating informed citizens, this is producing forgetful, inattentive citizens. Megan Le Masurier joins us to discuss whether "slow journalism" could help us remember what matters?
Last week we discussed the moral and political principles laid bare by the Australian Federal Police’s raids on the home of a News Corp journalist and the Sydney offices of the ABC. But such external threats to the 'free' press are not the only, or even the most dire, threats to the proper functioning of the media in a healthy democracy.
The threat posed by the AFP raids is the threat feared by George Orwell: external pressure, obfuscation or intimidation by a censorious, overbearing, totalitarian state. But there was another threat, no less real, articulated by Aldous Huxley: there is no need for the state to censor the truth, when the 'capitalist propaganda industry' can simply bury the truth in an avalanche of the trivial, the salacious and the manufactured. Why censor the truth, when over time people can no longer tell the difference between the true, the trivial and the manufactured? Then throw speed and the ubiquity of smart phones into the mix, and you have the makings of a democratic catastrophe.
Under conditions of speed, of instantaneity, and information overload, can journalism still fulfil its ethical vocation?
Following upon that came this email text and image from QAGOMA :
TOUR: SLOW-LOOK
1.30pm, Sun 30 Jun
GOMA | Free
Look slowly and closely at one artwork by Margaret Olley and Ben Quilty with QAGOMA curators and discover connections between the artist’s work and lives. Auslan interpreted.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
The Metropolitan Museum Shrouded a Mark Chagall Painting to Draw Attention to World Refugee Day
The museum shrouded the painting to ask the question: “What would the Met’s walls look like if there were no refugees?” Works by other famous artists including Max Ernst, Piet Mondrian, and Mark Rothko are labeled as works “made by a refugee.”
- Hyperallergic article here
The shrouding of Marc Chagall’s painting “The Lovers”
courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art
We are reminded of Yosa Buson's Veils of Regard.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
collection FIAPCE
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Label Code 0132129
Artist ********
Title Alexander Calder's 'Lobster Trap and Fish
Tail', a hanging mobile commissioned by the
advisory Committee for the stairwell of the
Museum's new building in 1939
(photograph 1949)
Location Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
City New York
Country USA
Period/Style 1900/1945
Genre Documentary
Note PA315.
Credits Digital image,
The Museum of Modern Art, New York/
Scala, Florence
Rights and restrictions
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
Medium A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
CULTURAL CONSUMPTION PRODUCTION
Artist Theatre of the Actors of Regard
[Intro: Suffa]
For my people in the front
In the nosebleed section
[Hilltop Hoods : The Nosebleed Section]
[Verse 1: Suffa]
This is for the heads that's loving the mix
My people in the front, all covered in spit
Batter's in the box, Suffa to pitch
Hilltop Hoods all up in this bitch...
courtesy AAA_ArtArchiveAustralia
[Verse 2: Suffa] ...
This is a comeback, tongue that’s sharp like a thumbtack
It's so tight James is saying, "Give my funk back"
One track, eight track, ADAT, residual noise
Man, fuck that, we clean with the digital toys
I'm the Apache, you're failing to match me
Throw your hands in the air like you're hailing a taxi
And move to the funk flow, you stepping? Are you drunk, bro?
This is for my peeps and the freaks in the front row
[Verse 3: Suffa]
People don’t complain if Suffa’s in here
And you’re in the front row all covered in beer
And club owners don't say,
"The place is wrecked, it's your fault"
If the roof is on fire, it's an electrical fault
Man, I bet you all bolt when I bring it live
Like Friday night footy, in my hoody I can hide...
Theatre of the Authors of Reaction
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
Each Friday at 5pm in Daylesford, Victoria ...
... protest continues against the offshore detention
of refugees to Australia.
Last evening,
one driver shouted,
"It's just three words."

Theatre for the Advancement of Refugees
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
TARhaus :
Poème Rire Défectueux
- après Wolfgang Sievers
Auction Information
Sale LJ8303
26 June 2019 - 6:00pm
Leonard Joel
333 Malvern Rd, South Yarra 3141
Saturday 22 & Sunday 23 June, 10am-4pm
Provenance
The collection of Deidre Cook
Other Notes
© National Library of Australia
Estimate $600-800
photograph by Wolfgang Sievers
Thoughts turn in rearrangement to
Raoul Hausmann's
Mechanischer Kopf (Der Geist Unserer Zeit)
Mechanical Head (The Spirit of Our Time)"
c. 1920
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
Students of Theatre of the Actors of Regard (STAR) would have immediately recognised this scene and its ongoing lesson.
photo : ABC News- Brendan Esposito
Scott Morrison says the recent AFP raids on journalists were "at complete arm's length" from his Government, but leading journalists say police were operating within laws created by the state — laws that will have a chilling effect on whistleblowers.
PM denies Government ordered AFP raids on journalist, ABC - AM ...
Rembrandt van Rijn
In Rembrandt's 'The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Nicolaes Tulp' (1632), above, we observe the investigative doctor interrogating the matter and meanings of 'an arm's length'.
Mr Lyons has revealed details of the warrant’s broad scope, which seeks: “Handwritten/digital notes, diary/ies, correspondence — internal, external, emails & other electronic forms of messaging, minutes, reports, briefing documents, assessments, graphics, sketches, photographs or imagery/vision — drafts & final, story pitch planning logs, broadcast and online schedules, raw or unedited footage in its entirety, journalist’s piece to camera, scripts drafts and finals including voiceovers, story boards/plans, status updates, website content, documents classified as ‘secret’ together with any manual, instruction, password or other thing that assists to gain access to or interpret or decode any of the above things.”
FreakingNews.com after Rembrandt van Rijn
left bank poet,
right bank gourmand --
the river.
after Yosa Buson


Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
Seek and ye
shall not find.
Find and ye shall not seek.
see : ventri-kundaLOGOS/HA HA
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
etymoLOGOS/HA HA
Borrowed from French camouflage, from camoufler (“to veil, disguise”), alteration (due to camouflet "smoke blown in one's face") of Italian camuffare (“to muffle the head”), from ca- (from Italian capo (“head”)) + muffare (“to muffle”), from Medieval Latin muffula, muffla (“muff”), from Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”)) + *fell (“hide, skin”), from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”), from Proto-Indo-European *pel(e)(w)-, *plē(w)- (“skin, hide”). Akin to Old High Germanfel (“fell, skin, hide”), Old English fell (“fell, skin, hide”). Alternate etymology traces the Italian and Medieval Latin words to Middle High German mouwe, mōwe (“sleeve”) (German Muff (“muff”), Dutch mouw (“sleeve”)) from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”) + fell (“skin”). More at mulch, fell.
Theatre of the Army of Regard
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
AI: More than Human
the Barbican
16 May—26 Aug 2019
Totem
Chris Salter
courtesy of the artist
photography Agustina Isadori
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
After a campaign of critical co-option ] Resistance Is Futile ( come auction night, Christie's realised a record price for a Work Of Art by a Living Artist : $US91,075,000 for a Jeff Koons 'Rabbit' (1986), number 2 from an edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof.
A full-page ad in the New York Times to promote the auction
of Jeff Koons’ 'Rabbit'.
A woman looks at Jeff Koons' "Rabbit" from the Masterpieces
from The Collection of S.I. Newhouse at Christie's New York
press preview on May 3, 2019 as part of Christie's Post-War
and Contemporary Art evening sale. (Photo by TIMOTHY A.
CLARY /AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY
MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE
THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION ( Photo credit
should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
The Loaded Dog (written by Henry Lawson, published 1901)
Plot summary from Wikipedia :
Three gold miners named Dave Regan, Jim Bently, and Andy Page are sinking a shaft at Stony Creek. The trio own a young retriever dog named Tommy, described as "an overgrown pup... a big foolish, four-footed mate." Andy and Dave, fishing enthusiasts, devise a unique method of catching fish using explosives. The dog picks up an explosive cartridge in its mouth, and runs the fuse through the campfire, prompting the three men to flee. Tommy, thinking it a game, playfully chases down his "two-legged mates," who try everything in their power to escape the cartridge. Jim tries to climb a tree and then drops down a mine shaft, meanwhile Andy has hidden behind a log. When Dave seeks refuge in the local pub, the dog bounds in after him, causing the Bushmen inside to scatter. Tommy comes across a "vicious yellow mongrel cattle-dog sulking and nursing his nastiness under [the kitchen]," who takes the cartridge for himself. A crowd of dogs, curious about this unusual object, gather around the cartridge. The subsequent explosion blows apart the yellow cattle-dog and maims numerous others. For half an hour, the Bushmen who witnessed the spectacle are laughing hysterically. Tommy the retriever trots home after Dave, "smiling his broadest, longest, and reddest smile of amiability, and apparently satisfied for one afternoon with the fun he’d had.".

We were reminded of Henry Lawson's danger dog and the after-laughter of his Bushmen of TAR when we first saw and mis-read/double-read this scroll-carrier scroll scene by Kano Tsunenobu.
Kanō Tsunenobu (狩野常信) (1636–1713) was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school. He first studied under his father, Kanō Naonobu, and then his uncle, Kanō Tan'yū, after his father's death. He became a master painter and succeed his uncle Tan'yū as head of the Kanō school in 1674. (Wikipedia)


Theatre of the Actors of Regard
After Kano Tsunenobu
after Henry Lawson
after...


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