argus-tuffed

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Today on Google. True!

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What the wild waves

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Dream of some weeks ago

standing
on sand
at sea's edge

watching
waves of script

rolling in
from the horizon

wondering
what they say
who writes them
who might translate them to me

A week ago

8.9 earthquake under the sea off NE Japan
terrible tsunami smashes coast - tens of thousands dead
6 Fukushima uranium/plutonium plants in increasing crisis

Today

with snow falling and the overnight temp at -5 degrees
with relief teams from abroad joining those from Japan

this old trade card tableau of regard reads anew

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Jeu de Massacre

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In our heap here we have a number of French cards (c.1880-90) that depict the children's game Jeu de Massacre. (Literally The Game of Massacre ; also translated as The Killing Game.)

These come to mind as we the rest of the world regard the present struggle in Libya. As discussions continue in the United Nations and elsewhere about the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over this region, General Gaddafi 's army and air force are gradually putting down the people's rebellion of recent weeks. Everyone knows these liberty seekers will face a terrible retribution if the Gaddafi forces are successful.

In this tableau two officials of the Theatre of the Actors of Regard observe, with their hands in their pockets, the threat of an armed Government agent.

Come the counter-revolution...

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<<<<<<<<<<< pulse >>>>>>>>>>>

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REAL . U

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Today is International Women's Day.

Here, the car insurance is due. With the renewal notice comes promotional material for the insurer and Custom Number Plates.

VicRoads' website for Custom Number Plates has the headline

Custom Plates Show the real you!

. . . .

Supreme Goddess as Void,
with projection space for signage (of) the real you!

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TRULY AESTHETIC

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After yesterday's flower therapy art group tableau this seems like an appropriate enough follow-on.



Sold as a Vintage Trade Card, we have no other clues as to its origin or intended application. It is blank on the back where usually a trade card would have an advertiser's spiel. Perhaps the open area to the right of the regarder's feet was intended as a space for a business to announce itself.

Viva the mystery: let a thousand stories blossom

Which, at this moment, reminds us of the various projections visited upon Jeffrey Smart's Cahill Expressway (1962).



This image has served as the front cover image for Peter Carey's The Fat man in History and, at the invitation of Helen Daniel, as the impetus for stories by 29 Australian writers (Malouf, Corris, Disher, Foster, Goldsworthy, Grenville, Jolley, Nowra...) published as Expressway (Penguin, 1989).

- Today the weather is fine indeed, if a little wet

SUN FLOWER QUADRILLE
INTERDEPENDENCE MANDALA
TRULY AESTHETIC

click above to enlarge

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Let the Healing Begin

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Opening today at the IMA, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane:

Let the Healing Begin

The idea that art makes us better people, that it heals our souls, is an anathema. In the art world, 'art therapy' is the butt of endless jokes. Nevertheless, contemporary art is riddled with therapeutic subtexts and strategies. Let the Healing Begin features works that address therapy. Some of the works endorse therapeutic imperatives, some satirise them, others are undecided. The line-up is a mix of local and international artists:

Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Polly Borland, Julian Dashper, Robin Hungerford, Mike Kelley, Dani Marti, Pierre Molinier, Otto Muehl, Matt Mullican, Rose Nolan, Tony Oursler, Mike Parr, Grayson Perry, Stuart Ringholt, Grant Stevens, Peter Tyndall, and Gillian Wearing.

read full IMA introduction here

pictured: art therapy group at Bonzaview magnolia
image: courtesy Fosterville Institute of Applied & Progressive Cultural Experience

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Regardism (Red Group, 1960)

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How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
How many pinhead clowns can fit in their tiny shiny car?
How many...

Responding to the previous post

malE refers us to

Dressed For Success

by mudlevel

click to go to video

Thus inspired, and very smartly attired, we return with spray to Theatre of the Actors of Regard.

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Origin of Everything

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This post continues upon the previous tableaux and associated speculation about origins.

Again, a small French chromolithograph circa 1880s. This time without any advertising or explanatory text.

Again, the monogram AC or CA.

We regard the scene as depicting a young woman, with quill in hand, regarding a winged being, which we might guess to have fallen into her inkwell, now ----ing a tracery on her parchment.



Theatre of the Actors of Regard
(see also : Regardism)

1960

Yves Klein
Anthropométrie sans titre (ANT 173)
1961
187 x 125.5cm

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Origin of Present Lineage

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Another item of interest on ABC Radio National, repeated today:
Drawing a line in the sand, an interview with Deanna Petherbridge, on Artworks

Deanna Petherbridge's work has been entirely drawing focused since the early 1970s but it was in the 90s that she started to focus her thinking and research on the history of drawing as both preparation for other artistic forms, like painting, architecture and design, and a finished medium in its own right. The result is an impressive 500-page book The Primacy of Drawing: Histories and Theories of Practice.

click here for full introductory text or to hear program

Deanna Petherbridge begins with a reference to a Pliny the Elder and his account of the origins of linear depiction. The following extract is not from Deanna P - bLOGOS/HA HA does not yet have that book - but from the blog projection systems :

...I thought it useful to expand a bit on Pliny the Elder’s account of the origin of painting. In his Natural History (circa 77-79AD), Pliny attempts to make the compendium of information for his time. In Books XXXIV and XXXV, he discusses metallurgy, sculpture, and painting.

In Chapter 5 of Book XXXV, he writes, “We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece; a vain boast, it is very evident. As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth; but they all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human shadow [...omnes umbra hominis lineis circumducta].“

Later, in Chapter 15, he tells the now-famous story of Butades of Corinth. “It was through his daughter that he made the discovery; who, being deeply in love with a young man about to depart on a long journey, traced the profile of his face, as thrown upon the wall by the light of the lamp [umbram ex facie eius ad lucernam in pariete lineis circumscripsit].“

read it all here

bLOGOS/HA HA has in its collection a number of 1880s French cards based on this story. This first one is rather straight forward.



The article at projection systems shows more depictions like this one, through to the present day.

Our collection favourite is an advertising parody of LE PREMIER DESSIN (The First Drawing) on behalf of LA PREMIER MAISON D'HABILLEMENTS (The First House of Clothing). Whatsmore, it advances the basic tableau beyond the care of human-for-human to a more enlightened human-for-other/all sentient beings. Which suggests one might reconsider the nature of the light involved in this genre.

What is the Origin depicted in this scenario? The Origin of Painting? Drawing? Graffiti? Sculpture (note the pedestal block in both images)? Theatre? Performance? Shadowgraphy (including ombromanie)? Silhouette portraiture? Police profiling? Eugenics? Border Protection? Projection? Cinema? Philosophy? (...Plato) Originality? (.../HA HA) Art? Museums? Attachment? Loss? (...as DP suggests) Love? (...as suggested in the book A short history of the shadow). Regard? Awareness? Enlightenment?

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P.S.
Deanna Petherbridge is giving a series of talks around Australia. These include, on Saturday March 5, 2pm, in the exhibition Freehand: Recent Australian Drawing at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.