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.


11 May 2010

PAINThING (AS ONE)

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Australian Experimental Art Foundation (Adelaide)
16 April - 15 May 2010


akira akira · micky allan · clarice beckett · eugene carchesio · maria cruz · joseph de lutiis · ludwik dutkiewicz · wladyslaw dutkiewicz · diena georgetti · matthys gerber · romi graham · anton hart · sam howie · aldo iacobelli · lindy lee · nick mourtzakis · elizabeth newman · brigid noone · ian north · rosslynd piggott · gregory pryor · yhonnie scarce · sam schoenbaum · vivienne shark le witt · helen smith · john spiteri · adriane strampp · peter tyndall · paul uhlmann · anne scott wilson · judith wright

D0menico de Clario's invitation to participate in this exhibition was as poetic and stimulating as any every received by bL.

Here is the exhibition poster with Dom's depiction of the "painthing constellation".

Paint (from Online Etymology Dictionary)
The noun is from c.1600. The verb meaning "to color with paint" (mid-13c.) is earlier than the artistic sense of "to make a picture of" (late 13c.) and older than painting in the sense of "an artist's picture in paint" (late 14c.); but painter is older in the sense of "artist who paints pictures" (mid-14c.) than in the sense of "workman who colors surfaces with paint" (c.1400). To paint the town (red) "go on a spree" first recorded 1884; to paint (someone or something) black "represent it as wicked or evil" is from 1590s. Adj. paint-by-numbers "simple" is attested by 1970.
The commonly used term a painting has long seemed to bL strange and anachronistic. It privileges the mere material paint (colour pigment/s in a binder medium: either liquid or dried) over any other descriptive option. As if paint is the alpha and, despite any pictorial use it might be put to, the omega. A painting conventionally indicates a noun-thing. Yet it has this curious present participle -ing suffix. Not a verb, not a gerund (eg sleeping) but still a verb-noun thing. Why not just say paint or a paint? "Hey, that's great paint" or "Hey, that's a great paint".

Where others refer to a painting, bL refers to a painted. Ditto paintings and painteds. Which is just as weird, of course, but it draws attention to the oddness of the accepted, almost transparent, terminoLOGOS/HA HA : a painting, paintings


-1984-

Rather than use either term ( a painting or a painted ) bL prefers the open designation projection-space. It conjures a fuller scene, one that necessarily includes a projector and a light.

Like a painted, the new term painthing acknowledges its lineage with a nod and a wink. Additionally, to this beholder, it has a ring of indeterminacy to it. That's the effect of the reverberating possible-thing suffix. Paint-ing/ paint-thing/ pain-thing/ painthing. Some somethings. And in there, in that phonic mix, where once there was only one dumb material, paint, now there's possibly pain too

like in... (cue here Steve Reich's opening testament of the beaten, black youth: "I had to, like, open the bruise up and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them") come out to show them come out toshow them come out toshowthem come out...


detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...

LOGOS/HA HA