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.


16 January 2010

History of The Void ( continued )

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Robert Smithson's depiction of and thoughts about The Museum of the Void (see previous several posts) have disturbed some dust.

The notes below are from 1981. They are first draft jottings about my contribution to Tom McCullough's The First Australian Sculpture Triennial. Set in the rooms and grounds of the then Preston Institute of Technology and La Trobe University, both at Bundoora, this was Tom's attempt to revive and relocate the Mildura Sculpture Triennial model after that event's dramatic demise in 1978.



In the extract above, any nominated ( as "Sculpture") work is regarded, rather than as 'self-contained', as an interdependent detail; and The First Australian Sculpture Triennial is reconceived as The First Australian (dependendent-arising projection-space) Festival.

Below are the two lines that headed page one of that draft. Thus, being at the start, (continued) refers not to something continuing from a previous page but to some grand imaginary-true History of t/The Void project. Immediately upon that follows the rhetorical terminus: WHY MAKE ONE MORE SCULPTURE?



Some of these thoughts found form in a manifesto-like text. Here's a detail of it, about detail :



The full text accompanied 230 culled newspaper images - each of someone looking at something - that were exhibited at Art Projects (566 Lonsdale St, Melbourne) concurrent with the 230 Sculptures installed at Preston and La Trobe.

198 _fam & 230xideogram_400w

The text also accompanied a photo of a decisive moment (C-B) in Bourke Street, Melbourne, during Tyre Week (see : Object Names of Time). This was exhibited at Preston-La Trobe as my 1-in-230 parts contribution to the new Sculpture Triennial.

In the exhibition catalog all this was properly assigned to the NONCATEGORISED category.

1981-TyreWeek obs_400
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA