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.


28 July 2010

here and now (The Scream)

MOVING FORWARD : 2010 ALP election slog-on
The Politicians of Oz Poor Try are on tour again!


2010.07.28_MOVING FORWARD_The Scream (yellow) #3_295

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22 July 2010

bird on a branch

.
The previous posts here featured man with right-angles and woman with sphere.
Today, between these two, triangle and bird on a branch.

Zen Guy

Gibon Zen Guy_Monument End Brush_sRGB

C'est Zen

Paul C'est Zen_sRGB 400

Bird on a branch looks at ...

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17 July 2010

Xpotential Increase

.

The founder of Sun Unlimited ™
regards the first SunCell unit
-1952-




Robert Smithson
Rocks and mirror square II
-1971-
National Gallery of Australia


And from today's The Australian newspaper ('Nuclear firm opts for solar exposure') this detail of a photograph by Chris Scott.


Michael Goldsworthy refuses to see the solar side as the poor cousin to Silex Systems' nuclear business

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16 July 2010

Put your apple in the air

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In the current edition of The Monthly there's another Woman with a Granny Smith story. But before that...

The Battle for Bennelong: Round Two
by NICK BRYANT
Begins thus :
The event is part of “Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea” and alongside the refreshment tables are stalls weighed down with embroidered cushions, fitted sheets, homemade cakes and back issues of Australian Country Craft magazine, as well as plenty of unwanted kitsch from the neighbouring cul-de-sacs and avenues, such as an empty picture frame, as yet unpurchased, emblazoned with the words “Gold Coast”.

Supreme Goddess as Void,
with projection-space for image


Opposite this opening sentence, this opening scene setter, The Monthly print version reproduces full page a familiar photo of 2007 Labor candidate Maxine McKew campaigning in enthusiastic dance extension. There's something I'd not noticed before...



♩♪♫
Put your apple in the air
like you just don't

care



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14 July 2010

A for AAAaaa

.

AAAaaauthor of
"Je m'appelle : I am an apple"

spells it out

A for apple : AAAaaa

A For appellation :
Granny Smith Granny Smith Granny Smith

A for The Age : newspaper
A for article : Research shows apple-a-day proverb has bite

A for anniversary : B for birthday : C for centenary


100-year-old Edna Spurway,
the great grand-daughter of Granny Smith,
looks at a Granny Smith


detail of picture by Kate Geraghty


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12 July 2010

Pierrot Paints It Black


One - brush - the picture is painted,
Another brush blacks it out again.
Who are those coming from one direction?
Who are those floating the other way?
terminus of Railway Station
by Rabindranath Tagore



Lune Noire
-------------
Another moonstruck Pierrot
another canvas black
another Columbine



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10 July 2010

AlphaBlack to OmegaBlack. Over.

.
And again ...
The world is merely the work of a painter,
This is the truth I have accepted -
Not made by a craftsman, beaten and moulded,
Not a thing the hand can grip hold of,
But an insubstantial visual sequence.
Age follows age, never losing momentum,
A stream of forming and passing pictures.
Alone in the midst of the to-ing and fro-ing
I watch the constant flux of the station.
One - brush - the picture is painted,
Another brush blacks it out again.
Who are those coming from one direction?
Who are those floating the other way?

from Railway Station
by Rabindranath Tagore

2010.07.10_man with black paint can_sRGB 400
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09 July 2010

Picture after picture (Tagore and Brack)

.
More Tagore. Another that C has recently read me is Railway Station.

Railway Station

I come to the station morning and evening,
I love to watch the coming and going -
Hubbub of passengers pressing for tickets,
Down-trains boarded, up-trains boarded,
Ebb and flow like an estuarine river.
Some people sitting there ever since morning,
Other people missing their train by a minute.
Day - Night - clanking and rumbling,
Trainloads of people thundering forth.
Changing direction at every moment,
Eastwards, westwards, rapid as storms.
The essence of all these moving pictures
Brings to my mind the image of language,
Forever forming, forever unforming,
Continuous coming, continuous going.
Crowds can fill the stage in an instant -
The guard's flag waves the train's departure
And suddenly everyone disappears somewhere.
The hurry disguises their joys and sorrows,
Masks the pressure of gains and losses
Bho - Bho- blows the whistle,
Ruled by the clock's division of time.
No one can bear to wait for a second,
some get aboard, some stay behind.
Succeeding, failing, boarding or remaining,
- Nothing but picture after picture.
Whatever catches the eye for a moment
- Is erased the next moment after.
A whimsical game, a self-forgetting
- Ever-dissolving sequence -
Each canvas ripped, its shreds discarded
- To pile up along the roadside,
Detritus lifted hither and thither
- By tired hot summer breezes.
'Hold back, hold back,' rings out the clamour
- Of passengers left stranded -
Next thing they have also vanished,
- Chasing, running, wailing.
Clang - Clang - sounds the tocsin,
Time for good-bye, off goes the train.
Passengers leaning out of the windows,
Waving until they are whisked away.
The world is merely the work of a painter,
This is the truth I have accepted -
Not made by a craftsman, beaten and moulded,
Not a thing the hand can grip hold of,
But an insubstantial visual sequence.
Age follows age, never losing momentum,
A stream of forming and passing pictures.
Alone in the midst of the to-ing and fro-ing
I watch the constant flux of the station.
One - brush - the picture is painted,
Another brush blacks it out again.
Who are those coming from one direction?
Who are those floating the other way?

Tagore's Railway Station brings to mind John Brack's Departure and Arrival, and so many other Brack pictures of our coming and going.


Departure and Arrival
John Brack
1980

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07 July 2010

Dharma came too.

.
C has been reading Tagore. Yesterday morning she read me this.

RECOVERY - 14

Every day in the early morning this faithful dog
Sits quietly beside my chair
For as long as I do not acknowledge his presence
By the touch of my hand.
The moment he receives this small recognition,
Waves of happiness leap through his body.
In the inarticulate animal world
Only this creature
Has pierced through good & bad and seen
Complete man.
Has seen him for whom
Life may be joyfully given,
That object of a free outpouring love
Whose consciousness points the way
To the realm of infinite consciousness.
When I see the dumb heart
Revealing its own humility
Through total self-surrender,
I feel unequal to the worth
His simple perception has found through the nature of man.
The wistful anxiety in his mute gaze
Understands something he cannot explain:
It directs me to the true meaning of man in the universe.
We have a dear such dog, so we get that. She also read me the commentary note (from here) :
Dharma and canine fidelity are linked in a famous passage near the end of the Mahabharata, when Yudisthira, eldest of the five Pandava brothers, refuses to enter heaven without his dog Dhruba. Eventually the dog is allowed in, and turns out to be the god Dharma.
I'll return to this soon.
. . . .

During the afternoon, in the office here, we watched a live internet broadcast of celebrations at Dharamsala for the 75th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Here are some screen snaps from that.

An artist presents a portrait.




Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, speaks at length.



To which His Holiness responds.



The Dalai Lama acknowledges the presence of "our Chinese friends". They are seated to his immediate right.



The speeches are mostly in Tibetan.




Various national/cultural groups offer gifts of song and dance.





After several hours His Holiness takes his leave ...



... and the celebrations continue.





Towards the end of the concert a dog appears and wanders freely among the performers. No one makes any move to remove it.
Dharma.



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06 July 2010

Dalai Lama is 75 today

.
Today is the 75th birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.


For a brief biography
click here

The favorite prayer of the Dalai Lama is by Shantideva
For as long as space endures
And for as long as living beings remain
Until then may I too abide
To dispel the misery of the world.

Long Life Prayer for His Holiness the Dalai Lama
In the land encircled by snow mountains
You are the source of all happiness and good
All powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso
Please remain until samsara ends.


click image to enlarge
His Holiness the Dalai Lama receives a special scroll from a senior Korean monk in Yokohama, Japan on June 27, 2010.
Photo: Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL

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04 July 2010

NEW HOME EARTH

.
July 4 : Uncle Sam and the NEW HOME super market project. Shoppers keep arriving and the store detectives keep watch as passengers from the Mayflower form citizen patrols along the Mexico border.

2010.07.04_new home - uncle sam July 4_400

Window dressing
window shopping

glass ceiling
glass floor (saw a cartoon with this caption only days ago)
glass walls

Label the Product
NEW HტჶѺӪɸⓞⓄↀↁↂ∅⨂⨁⨀⨸ME
(writ in red with a foreign O)

Label the parts
SEWING MACHINE
(a means for binding together)

Ooooops!
(slip o' the brush - Sorry mate - Modern Toss)
NEW HOME USA

Same here, girt by a sea of glass
NEW HOME AUSTRALIA

OტჶѺӪɸⓞⓄↀↁↂ∅⨂⨁⨀⨸ur first female prime minister (glass ceiling/glass floor) is about to call an election in which a supposed public anxiety about refugees and asylum seekers arriving in boats is said to be a hot button issue.

Today's Melbourne AGE newspaper has the front page headline
Meanwhile...
Some oil spill events from Sunday, July 4, 2010
Associated Press (AP)

"A summary of events Sunday, July 4, Day 75 of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with the April 20 explosion and fire on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC, which is in charge of cleanup and containment. The blast killed 11 workers. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well... "


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01 July 2010

Close Image Viewer

1.
News of the death of Sigmar Polke on 10 June 2010.

Vale +
Thanks for the
deeeeeeelight Sigmar!


Sigmar Polke (mitten in der Luft)
photo: Angelika Platen
1971

Pick a card. Any card...

SIGMAR POLKE: LENS PAINTINGS
1 April 2009

Michael Werner Gallery is pleased to present Sigmar Polke: Lens Paintings, a major exhibition of new works by one of the most important artists of the post-war generation.

The Lens Paintings are a new development for an artist whose career is characterized by over 40 years of radical invention in painting. The conceptual framework of the Lens Paintings is grounded in theories set forth by Johann Zahn in his 1685 book, Oculus artificialis teledioptricus, sive telescopium (The Teledioptric Artificial Eye, or Telescope). Zahn, a monk in the Premonstrate Order, was an important figure in the development of the camera obscura, and his “teledioptric artificial eye”, a forerunner of the telephoto lens. According to Zahn, every luminous object in the universe varies in appearance depending on the viewer’s position.

read full Press Release text here

S P_The Illusionist (detail)_Close Image Viewer
screen snap digital detail from :
"The Illusionist (Lens Painting)", 2007

mixed media on fabric
86 1/2 x 118 inches

220 x 300 cm


POL 317



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