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.
The figure of the jester or fool is found in 16th century Flemish painting, such as in works by Quentin Massys (1466–1530) and engravings by Lucas van Leyden (1494–1533). It is therefore not surprising that while in the Hintze Collection, our painting was considered to be by Massys. The work offered here, however, is a rarity in that the figure of the jester is depicted as a portrait against a black background, and the entire composition concentrates on his facial expression. The painting becomes particularly interesting when one knows that it depicts the Dutch proverb "door de vingers zien" (literally "to look at the world through one’s fingers" – to turn a blind eye), still in current use. In order to illustrate this proverb, both the hand gestures and the motif of the glasses play a central role: the jester, who has put his glasses in his coat, looks at the world through his fingers. This proverb reveals an attitude that consists of distancing oneself from everything that goes wrong in the world. By closing his eyes and remaining silent, the individual succeeds in protecting himself. The jester also calls on the viewer to behave just as favourably towards him. The conventional symbols of the jester can also be found in this representation: the yellow-red costume, the cap with the dog's ears, the cockscomb, the fool's staff on the right and the glasses in the foreground. The latter, usually a sign of scholarship, are here associated with glare and deception, because making glasses at the time was a technical challenge, causing their quality to vary greatly – for this reason, their makers were sometimes considered charlatans.
The painting has been dendrochronologically examined by Dr Peter Klein and may have been made as early as 1548. Last week, it sold for CHF 695 300 (incl premium).
Lyric Eye: The Poetics of 20th-Century Surveillance University of Melbourne
William Macmahon Ball Theatre Old Arts Parkville campus
Over the course of the 20th century, the Federal Bureau of Investigation developed an obsession with the content, form and authors of modern American poetry. At the same time, poetry underwent a series of radical changes in the ways that it communicated ideas of privacy, observation and the self.
The inextricability of poetry and surveillance during this period offers a new and productive framework for theorising our current techno-political crisis. In this lecture, Dr Tyne Daile Sumner will discuss how the deceptively simple arena of poetry became a source of intense focus for the FBI and, subsequently, a crucial site for seeing, watching, evaluating and surveilling.
Theatre of the Agents of Regard
detail A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/ someone looks at something...
Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) is best-known as the first Japanese novelist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1968). He was also a philosopher and avid art collector who amassed an impressive range of important works.
Kawabata’s acquisitions ranged from Japanese masterpieces by Urakami Gyokudo (1745-1820), Ike no Taiga (1723-1776) and Yosa Buson (1716-1784), some of which are now designated national treasures, to modern works by Kaii Higashiyama (1908-1999), Harue Koga (1895-1933) and Yayoi Kusama. He also admired Western artists, including Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).
To celebrate 120 years since the birth of Kawabata, the Himeji Museum of Art is showcasing the writer’s collection alongside letters, personal objects, related documents and writing samples by his fellow literary masters.
TAR & Hand Space present
Yasunari Kawabata looking at Rodin's 'Hand of a Woman'
“Each day I send my kids to school and I know other members’ kids should also go to school but we do not support our schools being turned into parliaments. What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools.”
- Scott Morrison PM speaking in Parliament recently
Global Climate Strike, Melbourne
Today, Greta Thunberg addressed the UN Climate Action Summit :
click image to watch video
"My message is that we’ll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, yet I’m one of the lucky ones.
This is coal. Do not be afraid. Do not be scared.
It will not hurt you. (Scott Morrison in Parliament)
People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is the money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you are doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight?
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. 50% may be acceptable to you, but those numbers do not include tipping points.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So, a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us, we who have to live with the consequences.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard (Parliament of Australia)
How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just business as usual and some technical solutions? With today’s emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than eight and a half years. There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.
Herald Sun (News Corp/Murdoch) Melbourne
You are failing us, but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up and change is coming, whether you like it or not. Thank you."
A good friend of mine recently returned from 'Down Under' and brought back a wonderful book, 'The Zen Master, the Potter and the Poet' by Milton Moon.
It is a special book full of Moon-sensei's anecdotes of many journeys to Japan, his insights into good pots and the wisdom that can be found when one listens to them in silence. Mr. Moon, if you ever visit Japan again please allow me to take you to Ryutakuji, if you haven't already been, and we can retrace the steps of Hakuin, and also Tsuji Seimei, the photo of him in the previous posting was taken at Ryutakuji. Blessings abound....
Milton Moon leaves us his own excellent archive website :
A free-form platter 33 by 34 cms.
This is the last entry on my website, which, I hope will be still here after I am gone, at least for a few years. The last pots of my life I make will be for me. I do have a last comment: it is an archival website and shows just some of my journey with clay, and I hope it brings inspiration to some younger potters, but as a wise friend countenanced, 'to copy is not creative, it is merely contrivance.' Finally, I am grateful for those agents, who over the long period of my creative life, have believed in my work and have supported me. To them I say 'thank-you.'
Bumble : "Nathan Lyon is coming back for another spell." Paine : "Come on, Gary." The fourth test, Old Trafford: Day five, the last hour... Australia retains the Ashes!
