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.
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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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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
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who would have thought so few
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
A whole new way
of looking at art :
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
monoLOGOS/HA HA
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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."
Still Life (2009) by Ron Mueck
@ National Gallery of Victoria (International) until 18 April 2010
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
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Melbourne's favorite unfixed Public Projection-Space summons forth another page
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
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MELBOURNE⪥BRISBANE: 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".
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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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
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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 :
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someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
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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)
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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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
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This French fold-out is circa 1880s.
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
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Giovanni Francesco Caroto
Portrait of a Young Boy holding a Child's Drawing
circa 1515
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
