.
From the Art & Photography section of Readings' Summer Reading Guide, three book covers.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.
(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.
28 November 2009
27 November 2009
See No Boundaries
.
If seeing boundaries is a definition of impaired vision ...detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .
LOGOS/HA
26 November 2009
Blot On Black
.

( click image to enlarge )
Following on from A Troubled See, from the bLOGOS/HA HA blotter collection comes BLOT OUT BLINDNESS!

( click image to enlarge )
Of these several hundred blotters, most are white to cream, then yellow, pink, green or blue. A light ground for a dark blot.
Only two provide a black blotter. Understandably, the Dependable Photostat Service of the Commercial Reproducing Company (1933 - Phone 6428: Detroit, Michigan) is proud of its rich blacks. Black on black. The other is the verso of BLOT OUT BLINDNESS!
Only two provide a black blotter. Understandably, the Dependable Photostat Service of the Commercial Reproducing Company (1933 - Phone 6428: Detroit, Michigan) is proud of its rich blacks. Black on black. The other is the verso of BLOT OUT BLINDNESS!
When this you troubled see ...
( click image to enlarge )
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .
LOGOS/HA
24 November 2009
The Good Oil
.
For reasons best known to themselves, the Advertising Dept at bLOGOS/HA HA has been pestering Editorial to share with you this weather-beaten old JPEG. Joseph's Oil : Antidote for A Troubled See.detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .
LOGOS/HA
21 November 2009
> review > Re-view > dis-regard >
.
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .
LOGOS/HA
20 November 2009
projection-space with crown
.
We first looked at this image during Grail Week. ( here )
Not commented upon in that post was the crown-like flourish atop the golden-framed mirror-stand. It's as if the mirror's frame also wears a hat, to echo or endorse the prospective hatted one.
This reminded bL of an old reference friend :
The Supreme Goddess as Void, with projection- space for image.

What's the connection? Not knowing, but surmising : the top section of the silhouette above is reminiscent of the sun and moon disc motif. Could this be the origin and form of the common hat? (In the way, for instance, a Christian bishop's mitre derives from a fish head.) A cosmic crown?
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .
LOGOS/HA
16 November 2009
Original Frame
.

Because this post has been held back, I've had this image on screen for the last two weeks. At once full (The Great Openness) and empty (The Great Openness), in that time it has appeared to this projector to fill fuller and flow emptier. Profounder & funnier.

The image accompanied an article by Michaela Boland in The Australian, Family portraits reunited with rescued gilt frames,
31 October 2009. It begins
WHEN John McPhee stumbled across a pair of colonial gilt frames in an antique shop in Inverloch, southeast of Melbourne, he suspected they were valuable.The then deputy director of the National Gallery of Victoria asked the gallery to buy them, which it did, for $600.
But it took another 12 years and some clever detective work for the frames to be reunited with the portraits they were originally made for. That happened yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
"It is very rare you can put a painting back in its original frame," said McPhee, a curator and art valuer who thought the frames could be attached to paintings at the NGV but never imagined they would be reunited with their original paintings.
Why does bL find this all so profound and funny?
1. National Portrait Gallery/HA HA
2. Original Frame/HA HA
3. Original Face/HA HA
4. LOGOS/HA HA
Cease practice based
— Dogen
On intellectual understanding,
Pursuing words and
Following after speech.
Learn the backward
Step that turns
Your light inward
To illuminate within.
Body and mind of themselves
Will drop away
And your original face will be manifest.
You cannot describe it or draw it,
You cannot praise it enough or perceive it.
No place can be found in which
To put the Original Face;
It will not disappear even
When the universe is destroyed.— Mumon
Picture Your Original Frame
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .
LOGOS/HA HA
14 November 2009
Please disregard
.
A number of posts were put on hold to cover Grail Week and the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Several feature gold frames, and it was to these we intended to return today. Yesterday, however, the following emails arrived. So, we turn to gold via them.
******/** **, surprise! You've turned Gold
From: Velocity Rewards : noreply@members.velocityrewards.com.au
Reply-To: noreply@members.velocityrewards.com.au
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:08:42 EST
----------------------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT.
Please disregard our last email titled "You've turned gold."
From: Velocity Rewards : noreply@members.velocityrewards.com.au
Reply-To:
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:08:42 EST
Hi ******/** **
Velocity Membership Number: **********
Oops! You've received our previous email titled "You've turned gold" by mistake, please disregard the free upgrade communication as unfortunately you do not qualify for that upgrade.
We also note that you have elected to opt out of Velocity Communications. Please accept our sincere apologies for sending these emails to you without your consent. Unfortunately the email was extended to our entire database by mistake.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Warm regards,
The Velocity Team
( )
--------
Once dust,
flesh and bone
was turned to gold.
Now flesh and bone again
thanks for nothing
no, really
--------
) (
--------
Once dust,
flesh and bone
was turned to gold.
Now flesh and bone again
thanks for nothing
no, really
--------
) (
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .
LOGOS/HA HA
13 November 2009
Symbolismsmus | Madnessmus
Sword and Shield : Seal of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR
After watching The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) on SBS.TV last night - it's a 2006 German film about the monitoring of the East Berlin cultural scene by agents of the Stasi - one more souvenir of that madness came to mind.
It is a pennant flag of the GDR, found in a rubbish bin at some newly (re)occupied offices in East Berlin when your correspondent was there in 1992 for an exhibition: DOUBLE CROSSED AGAIN | DEATH TO ALL MIRRORS! Overturned, the pennant is pinned as shown in the bLOGOS/HA HA Office Complex.
The GDR Coat of Arms was intended to represent the factory workers (the hammer), the intelligentia (tellingly, the compass) and the farmers (the wreath of grain). To this reader, it now appears more like divide (the Compass of Dualism) and conquer (smash!).
At a meta level, as a consequence of these two-or-more readings, it appears as flickering relative view. And therefore, as a further consequence, as mere projection upon mere projection-space. That is, also as absolute view, empty.
It is a pennant flag of the GDR, found in a rubbish bin at some newly (re)occupied offices in East Berlin when your correspondent was there in 1992 for an exhibition: DOUBLE CROSSED AGAIN | DEATH TO ALL MIRRORS! Overturned, the pennant is pinned as shown in the bLOGOS/HA HA Office Complex.
The GDR Coat of Arms was intended to represent the factory workers (the hammer), the intelligentia (tellingly, the compass) and the farmers (the wreath of grain). To this reader, it now appears more like divide (the Compass of Dualism) and conquer (smash!).
At a meta level, as a consequence of these two-or-more readings, it appears as flickering relative view. And therefore, as a further consequence, as mere projection upon mere projection-space. That is, also as absolute view, empty.
Same old
(something or other)
Same old
(empty of something or other)
(something or other)
Same old
(empty of something or other)
10 November 2009
The Immured
.
The heap bought seven glossy 8x10s from an ephemera street stall in Rome in 1988. A stamp on the back of one indicates they are by Berlin photojournalist Joachim G. Jung.
( click the image to enlarge it )
First, barbed wire. Men with guns, glasses and a camera. A dog.


Each photo has a typed text pasted on the back, presumably by the photographer, to further describe the scene. This is the one on the photo above, dated 28 September 1961.
An officer with a gun. Wreckage, workers, watchers.

( click the image to enlarge it )
A sign points to the unavailable.

Eye level. A boy on a bike gets a better view.

A soldier hides behind a sign of the cross. It is documented elsewhere that mirrors were used to deflect the sun in attempt to blind the cameras of the West.
Immured in Regard
-----------------------
we, through an aperture,
regard the back of a woman
who, through an aperture,
regards the back of a man
(with bayonet and gun)
who, through an aperture,
-----------------------
we, through an aperture,
regard the back of a woman
who, through an aperture,
regards the back of a man
(with bayonet and gun)
who, through an aperture,
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .
LOGOS/HA HA
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