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 recently read the Jacquelynn Baas essay
Wood/Steiglitz/Norton... 'Fountain'.
Alfred Stieglitz, photograph of Marcel Duchamp’s
Fountain, as published in Beatrice Wood, The Blind Man, No. 2,
May 1917.
Philadelphia Museum of Art,
The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection.
When the jurors of The Society of Independent Artists firmly rushed to remove the bit of sculpture called the Fountain sent in by Richard Mutt, because the object was irrevocably associated in their atavistic minds with a certain natural function of a secretive sort.
Yet to any ‘innocent’ eye how pleasant is its chaste simplicity of line and color! Someone said, ‘Like a lovely Buddha’; someone said, ‘Like the legs of the ladies by Cézanne’; but have they not, those ladies, in their long, round nudity always recalled to your mind the calm curves of decadent plumbers’ porcelains?
At least as a touchstone of Art how valuable it might have been! If it be true, as Gertrude Stein says, that pictures that are right stay right, consider, please, on one side of a work of art with excellent references from the Past, the Fountain, and on the other almost anyone of the majority of pictures now blushing along the miles of wall in the Grand Central Palace of ART. Do you see what I mean?
And more such (from wikipedia) :
In a letter dated 23 April 1917, Stieglitz wrote of the photograph he took of Fountain: "The "Urinal" photograph is really quite a wonder—Everyone who has seen it thinks it beautiful—And it's true—it is. It has an oriental look about it—a cross between a Buddha and a Veiled Woman."[2][25]
In 1918, Mercure de France published an article attributed to Guillaume Apollinaire stating Fountain, originally titled
"le Bouddha de la salle de bain" (Buddha of the bathroom), represented a sitting Buddha.[26]
. . . .
Since the photograph taken by Stieglitz is the only image of the original sculpture, there are some interpretations of Fountain by looking not only at reproductions but this particular photograph. Tomkins notes
"Arensberg had referred to a 'lovely form' and it does not take much stretching of the imagination to see in the upside-down urinal's gently flowing curves the veiled head of a classic Renaissance Madonna or a seated Buddha or, perhaps more to the point, one of Brâncuși's polished erotic forms."[1][42]
It all reminded us of this 'wall-gazing Daruma' scroll by the Zen master Nantembō (1839–1925).
collection : FIAPCE
The inscription as translated by John Stevens :
The form of our Grand patriarch
facing the wall in meditation
or is it a tasty melon or an eggplant
from around here in Yahata?
(signed)
Eighty-five-year-old Nantembo Toju
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
Theatre of the Advertisements of Regard
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Supreme Goddess as Void, with projection-space for TAR
Theatre of the Agit-tarTAR of Regard
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
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Theatre of the Auctions of Regard
ART : TOO BIG TO FAIL?
Imagine that the elements all suddenly
collapsed
FIAPCE -1975-
click image to enlarge
collection : Art Gallery of South Australia
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
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Performed in the Storm
Observed in the Calm
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
- 1976 -
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The Gateless Gate #29
Not the Wind, Not the Flag
Two monks were arguing about a flag.
One said:
'The flag is moving.'
The other said:
'The wind is moving.'
The sixth patriarch happened to be passing by.
He told them:
'Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving.'
Mumon's comment : The sixth patriarch said: "The wind is not moving, the flag is not moving. Mind is moving." What did he mean? If you understand this intimately, you will see the two monks there trying to buy iron and gaining gold. The sixth patriarch could not bear to see those two dull heads, so he made such a bargain.
Wind, flag, mind moves,
The same understanding.
When the mouth opens
All are wrong.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
- 1976 -
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The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as if the river shores were opening out.
It seems that things are more like me now,
That I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can't reach.
With my senses, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
in the ponds broken off from the sky
my falling sinks, as if standing on fishes.
Rainer Maria Rilke [1875-1926]
Untitled Part 1
1988
Cy Twombly
Untitled Part 9
1988
Cy Twombly
Untitled (Bassano in Teverina)
1985
Cy Twombly
Theatre of the Aquas of Regard
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The word idiot comes from the Greek ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs 'a private person, individual', 'a private citizen' (as opposed to an official), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant' from ἴδιος, idios 'private', 'one's own'...[3]
An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek ἰδέα idéa idea and γράφω gráphō to write) is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases.
The word idea comes from Greek ἰδέα idea "form, pattern," from the root of ἰδεῖν idein, to see.[3]
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
The Courtesan Jigoku-dayu and Priest Ikkyu, 1899,
by Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908)
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so many paths go up from the foothills
but one moon grazes the peak
- Ikkyu (transl. Stephen Berg)
Netsuke depicting Ikkyu and his TAR prop skull
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
The Courtesan Jigoku-dayu and Priest Ikkyu, 1899,
by Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908)
No One Sees It The Same
The mind flows like water through the four
mindfulnesses never the same.
Buddha realm, Mara's fortress the then and now.
Cold wind, wind-blown snow, moon among the
plum blossoms;
The drinker toys with his cup, the poet hums
a poem.
- Ikkyu (transl. Sonja Arntzen)
*the four mindfulnesses : this is a discipline of meditating on
the "body" to realise its impurity, on "sensation" to realise that the perception of things pleasant and unpleasant is the root of pain, on "thought" to realise its impermanence and on objects"
to realise their absence of self. p. 236 here
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Australian fiction writer Gerald Murnane is tipped to win this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. There’s no better time to watch Philip Tyndall’s little-seen 1989 film about Murnane,
Words And Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane, which will screen at MIFF in celebration of its 30th anniversary.
"In the Oxford Companion to Australian Film published in 1999, Philip Tyndall's Words and Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane – one of my personal all-time favourite Australian films – does not rate a mention. This is sadly symptomatic of how strange, unique, unclassifiable works tend to go underground rather speedily in Australia."
- Adrian Martin ( here )
Before the renewal of interest in Melbourne-born writer Gerald Murnane that followed a 2018 feature article in The New York Times which dubbed him “the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of”, as well as his winning the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Border Districts, filmmaker Philip Tyndall (someone looks at something, MIFF 1987) created this inventive hybrid film. Divided into two parts, the first details Murnane’s ‘Imaginary’ world, using abstract images, shapes and textures. In contrast, the second section stays in the ‘Real’ world, where Murnane speaks directly to the camera in a more formal way.
Words And Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane is at its heart about Murnane's love of writing and horse racing, built around an interwoven mosaic of still imagery, archival footage, dramatic re-creations and talking head, reflecting the film's fine line between fact and fiction. The result is a poetic, vital study of arguably Australia’s greatest living fiction writer – more compelling today than he ever was. Words And Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane is a unique and empathetic portrait of the artist and his creative process. Don’t miss this very rare opportunity to see it on the big screen.
"Gerald Murnane, as he presents himself, is like a modest but furiously noble hero from a Straub-Huillet film: he conjures his struggle with language, with words, with truth and with fiction, his way of forming and retaining images in his mind – by setting down (as he so intensely testifies) one sentence after another. This writing is like a thin red line that separates the author from the terror of some unnameable void, or chaos. Words and Silk, in its own relentless progression from frame to frame, word to word, and image to image, joins forces with Murnane's struggle to express and master that void – and it is a spellbinding spectacle."
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【三輪月底】1778-1860 江戸時代後期の俳人。 安永7年生まれ。尾張名古屋藩の大工。文化8年大工与頭代。はじめ井上士朗,のち竹内塊翁(かいおう)にまなび,名古屋俳壇を指導した。 万延元年5月13日死去。83歳。通称は勝四郎,直九郎など。別号に蓼光庵。里村逸八とも称した。編著に「さみたれ」など。
Miwa moon bottom
(reading)
Miwa Tsukisoko 1788-1860
The late Edo period haiku. Born in Yasunaga 7 years. Owari (end) Carpenter of Nagoya Sakai. 8 years of culture carpenter Yodai. He first taught Inoue Shiro, and later Takeuchi Kouki (Kaiou), and he taught Nagoya Haikan. May 13th died on May 13th. 83 years old. Known as Katsushiro and Naokurou. Another issue Tadekoan to. It is also called Satomura Itohachi. "Samitare" in the editorial book.
collection FIAPCE
TAR moon bottoms
(pointing, after Sengai))
Pay Your Respects To Art, Continually
Fosterville Institute of Applied & Progressive Cultural Experience -1976-
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
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Once more unto the breach, dear friends,
once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
TARists with Untitled (2006-07) by Anish Kapoor
dedicated to former QAG director Doug Hall, AM
...for there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
- from 'Henry V' by William Shakespeare
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
TARist with Water-Orb (2018) by Natasha Johns-Messenger
photo by Christian Capurro
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22 July 1969 The Sun
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"We choose to go to the moon..."
- President Kennedy, 12 September 1962
Today is the 50th anniversary of the 21 July 1969 moon landing. From the FIAPCE Earth Archive, some front pages of The Sun, Melbourne :
17 July 1969 The Sun
18 July 1969 The Sun
19 July 1969 The Sun
21 July 1969 The Sun
22 July 1969 The Sun
collection FIAPCE
Otagaki Rengetsu (Lotus Moon)
enlightenment project : from mud to the moon
The following text is from the website of the
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.
Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875) was born in the spring of 1791, and was like the secret daughter of a geisha and Todou Yoshikiyo, chief retainer of the Iga-Ueno fief. She was soon adopted into the samurai-class family of Otagaki Tsune’emon and his wife Nawa, and was given the name Nobu. She spent her early childhood on the grounds of Chion-in, head temple of the Jodo sect of Buddhism, where she began training in literature, poetry and martial arts. At age eight, she was sent to serve as a lady-in-waiting at Kameoka castle outside of Kyoto. There she spent nearly a decade studying calligraphy, dancing, flower arranging and tea ceremony – all the appropriate cultural adornments of the refined, yet narrow, world of the upper class elite.
Around the age of 33, heartbroken and in a seemingly endless cycle of personal tragedy and changing fortunes (as a result of the loss of her step-parents, two husbands and the death of all five of her children) Nobu renounced her worldly existence and took formal vows to become a Buddhist nun at Chion-in temple. Symbolizing her transition and devotion to the path of the Buddha, she took the name Rengetsu, or Lotus Moon.
At the age of 42, alone and without resources, Rengetsu moved to the Okazaki district of Kyoto and took up pottery making to support herself. Appreciation for her work grew, despite the fact that she was self-taught, because of her insightful, often witty, poetry that she inscribed on her pieces. Rengetsu’s distinctive, rough-surfaced, lop-sided, hand-molded vases, tea bowls, and sake bottles, incised with her spare verse in exquisite kana script, imbued each piece with a truly unique spirit. In fact, Rengetsu’s work became so popular that many imitated, and even copied, her work leading to the rise of Rengetsu-yaki, or Rengetsu-ware, that continued to be produced even years after her death. Her rich artistic legacy emerges not only from her eclectic and prolific body of work, but also from a life spent in deep meditation on the illusory nature of existence.
Rengetsu’s artistic productivity reached its peak when she was in her late 70s, after which she became increasingly fragile battling several illnesses. She spent her last days meditating, chanting and reciting mantras, and refused any medications. She died in seclusion on December 10, 1875. Upon her request, Rengetsu’s friend and long-time collaborator, Tomioka Tessai, had prepared her funeral shroud by painting an image of a lotus and the moon on it. In the last years of her life, Rengetsu composed a beautiful and haunting farewell poem, or jisei, the final version of which was buried with her :
Negawaku ha
Nochi no hachisu no
Hana o ue ni
Kumoranu tsuki o
Miru yoshi mo kana
How I hope to pass away
While sitting on
The lotus flower
Gazing up at the moon
In a cloudless sky
sake cup by Rengetsu collection FIAPCE
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