The Popeye Effect

.

We've had a newspaper article lying around for some weeks, wondering if it was too late to post it here. It begins...

I KNOW nothing about art, but I know when a painting pulls the eyes out of my head and makes me stop and look at it. Same with footy. I know I'm seeing a great game when I forget everything else and start talking to the television set because no one else is in the room.

Losing your mind on a masterpiece
Martin Flanagan
The Age, 30 April 2011

read full article here

This morning we received from the Queensland Art Gallery|
Gallery of Modern Art an invitation to a Lecture and Morning Tea Viewing of the exhibition Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams. Would that be morning tea a la Meret Openheim?

Meret Oppenheim
Le Déjeuner en Fourrure
1936

And sugar with that? One lump? Or a hundred and fifty-two?

Marcel Duchamp.
Why Not Sneeze Rose Sélavy?
1921/64.

On the front of the invitation, an image previously unknown to your correspondent. Aha! That Martin Flanagan article!

Victor Brauner
Sur le motif (Painted from nature)
1937
Collection: Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris

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

LOGOS/HA HA

YOU [ FAKE ]

.

In this morning's AGE, art critic Robert Nelson has reviewed
Casts and copies: ancient and classical reproductions. (It's at Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, until 16 October.)

The headline is
Cast in a critical dilemma:
a trove of rarefied copies reveals we are the fakes

bLOGOS/HA HA appreciates the art of the headline, in all its forms. Including this one, albeit wrought and mangled to within an inch of itself itself itself

It presents to this reader like some archetypal Francis Bacon scene: spot-lit torture theatre, sketch-block(age) interior, figure in self-wrestling knot...

Francis Bacon
Study from the Human Body after Muybridge
1988

Or, for that matter, like some of the early 1940s squirm subjects portrayed by Albert Tucker.

Albert Tucker
At the Tiv
1944
collection: National Gallery of Australia

Bacon's breakthrough came in 1944 with Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion.

click to enlarge

At the same time Albert Tucker in Australia rendered some very similar primal scream scenes.

It's a curious coincidence that Bacon was influenced by a book depicting diseases of the mouth, and Tucker by his war service experience, depicting the injuries of repatriated soldiers. If I recall right, he drew a soldier whose nose had been sliced away by shrapnel - a feature that soon (dis)figured regularly in his characters of that period.

At Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital he also observed the interior shell-shocked returnees.

Albert Tucker
No way out
1942
collection: National Gallery of Australia

Tucker and Bacon, much in common.

Francis Bacon
Portrait of George Dyer talking
1966

Apart from this AGE headline, this momentary dis/attraction, bLOGOS/HA HA is always interested in regard and labels and sTRUTH/HA HA.

Thus, with a chuckle, we note this review. It can be read in full here. Failing that, here is an extract... especially for YOU

You, as spectator, are cast into a critical dilemma, because you don't know how to react to an ersatz which is identical to the original, so close that you'd have been deceived if the label hadn't declared the truth. I warrant that all of the objects at the Ian Potter, with the exception of a chalky Hermes, would make you believe you were looking at the original if you encountered them in the NGV or the Louvre.

You're overcome with unease. You become aware of the power of the label and are reminded that so much of our aesthetic appreciation is based on the received reputation that the label enshrines. Even judging that an example in a vitrine is plaster and not bronze is hard to do; because you're probably not an archaeologist and, if you were, the museum won't let you poke around without the alarms going off.

You trust that the institution has got it right; but beyond this faith, the aesthetic relish in the original is somewhat arbitrary, because if the labels were swapped or rewritten, you might find that the marble originals would be scorned and the plaster copies would acquire the hallowed aura of genuine antiquities.

Robert Nelson
THE AGE,
May 25, 2011

OBSERVE OUR LABEL

Tableau by Theatre of the Actors of Regard : click to enlarge

EXAMINE THE LABEL!

LOOK AT THIS !!

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

LOGOS/HA HA

The father of digital photography

.

Above, that's the headline in the obituaries page of today's AGE for the physicist Willard Boyle, 1924-2011.

The father?

The Age article (click here) is reproduced from The Los Angeles Times, which has it under a different headline :

Nobelist was a father of the digital camera

The obituary credits Willard Boyle and his colleague George E. Smith as co-fathers of digital photography.

Sounds so odd though, this father attribution. Is it because the progenitors are male that they are the fathers of digital photography? If they'd been female would they have been the mothers of digital photography? Like Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention? If Willard Boyles' research colleague had been Georgia Smith rather than George Smith would they have been the father and mother of digital photography? The parents of digital photography?

Digital reproduction, including digital photography, is based on a binary number system, most commonly one and zero : 1 0

The XY sex-determination system is the sex-determination system found in humans and most other mammals. In this system, females have two of the same kind of sex chromosome (XX), and are called the homogametic sex. Males have two distinct sex chromosomes (XY), and are called the heterogametic sex. (Wikipedia)

So, the parents of digital photography. The 1(XY) 0(XX) of digital reproduction.

On their digital site, The Age reproduces the L A Times obituary along with with a (cropped) photo that shows Willard Boyle looking at a monitor projecting his own same-time self regard. At a glance, this tends to confirm the sole originator proposition implied by the headline The father of digital photography.

O, to be created in one's own flickering image

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

LOGOS/HA HA

However, the fuller, more complex image, makes clear the contribution of both parents. It's a classic family photo: proud parents with offspring, but all with a considerable twist.

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

LOGOS/HA HA

Vale Bob Davis

.

Yonks ago, when Saturday midday meant The Goons on the radio, Thursday nights were for the happy strangeness of League Teams. Three former greats of Aussie Rules football announcing the weekly line-ups of the (then) VFL teams. Doesn't sound like much. Black and white, one or two cameras, no razzamatazz. They sat there, side by side, and talked. Not even that. Mostly it was only two of them talking, Bob Davis (Geelong) and Lou 'The Lip' Richards (Collingwood), while Jack 'Captain Blood' Dyer (Richmond) looked ahead blankly, possibly bemused. What was going on in that old ruckman's head, we wondered?

click to enlarge

Jack, Bob and Lou on the set of League Teams

If you got it, if you liked it, you loved them.

Jack died in 2003, aged 89. Now Bob's gone, last night, aged 82.

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

LOGOS/HA HA

We were there!

.

Q : How do you take someone out?

A1 : Dinner and a concert. Drinks then Theatre of the Actors of Regard. Something like that.

A2 : Send in a Hit Squad.

The photo below, released by the White House, shows key US personnel in the Situation Room watching the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

click image to enlarge

A3 : Consult the EraserMen

Editorial staff at a United States ultra-orthodox Jewish newspaper used photoshop to remove the two women, including Hilary Clinton, from the White House scene above.

Read about this and other such instances of Hasidic 'modesty' at iknowanextremist's posterous. The following two images are from that blog.



A4 : pain + paint = painthing

click to enlarge

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

LOGOS/HA HA

How do you reinstate someone?

A 1 : Do like Jesus did. "Lazarus, come forth."

A 2: Do like Heartfield did. The following two reinstatements are by Cowards Anonymous as seen at Lunatic Outpost.



John Heartfield Lives. OK!



A 3 : We were all there!

JULIA GILLARD: I trust that today's news comes as some small measure of justice for those who still grieve the loss of their loved ones. Just as people in Australia and around the world will always remember where they were when they first heard the news of 9/11, and just as we Australians will always remember where we were when we first heard the news of the Bali bombing, I believe each of us will always remember where we were when we heard of the death of Osama bin Laden.

Gillard and Howard applaud bin Laden killing
PM : ABC Radio National, May 2, 2011

background photo : cover of exhibition book, Berkeley Art Center

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

LOGOS/HA HA

The Fall

.

Following on from the previous post, regarding the chaos at the Warrnambool Grand Annual Steeplechase, this 1910 postcard.

The Fall, as enacted by horse and rider.



The Fall, performed with empty pockets.
(Theatre of the Actors of Regard)

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

LOGOS/HA HA

O the Circle ( will be broken )

.

VICTORIA'S jumps industry is facing more controversy after a riderless horse leapt into the crowd at yesterday's Grand Annual Steeplechase in Warrnambool, leaving seven people in hospital.

Jumps racing under fire again after horse leaps into crowd
Andrew Eddy, Warrnambool
THE AGE / page 1. / 06/05/2011

click here for ARTICLE
click here for PHOTOS

"They wouldn't have seen it coming because of the height of the fence. It would have come straight through the fence at them," Mr Wild said. "There were people running everywhere and I could hear the screaming and a horse among all the people over there."



Seven people were injured by the runaway horse and taken to Warrnambool Hospital. They included a two-year-old girl with a fractured collarbone, a 12-year-old girl with an injured foot and an 80-year-old woman with shoulder and hip injuries.



Victorian Racing Minister Denis Napthine said he had asked Racing Victoria to a conduct broad review of spectator safety, as well as to investigate yesterday's incident. "The safety of spectators at horse racing events is of paramount importance. I have asked Racing Victoria to report back to me on existing safety measures and any recommendations to improve spectator safety," Mr Napthine said.



Racing Victoria chief executive Rob Hines said an investigation would be launched into all incidents during yesterday's race, but denied the race reflected poorly on jumps racing and thoroughbred racing in general. "What we saw today was a freakish accident where a horse left the course and went onto a public road where people were watching the race, and unfortunately they had no idea the horse was coming," he said. "But only two of the horses actually fell and while we are very concerned about the injured spectators, I doubt it will impact on horse racing's image as the incident was simply freakish."



Australian Jumps Racing Association president Rodney Rae said the incident was totally unexpected. "No one could have foreseen something like this happen. It is similar I suppose to a car leaving the track in a grand prix race and going into the crowd," he said.

click to enlarge

images of the spectators courtesy Theatre of the Actors of Regard

For the first time in the race's 134-year history, just two of the eight starters in what is the country's most gruelling steeple event finished the race. No horses or riders were seriously hurt.

The 5500-metre, 33-fence race was eventually taken out by last year's winner, the 11-year-old Al Garhood, ahead of the other remaining contender, Awakening Dream



Activist group the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses will protest in Melbourne today to call for an immediate end to jumps racing.

with apologies to Daniel Buren, 1968

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

LOGOS/HA HA

Hit Show : Theatre of the Actors of Regard

.

BIG NEWS : Osama Bin Laden killed by US hit squad

The front page of today's AGE depicts NOT the raid on Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan but rather those who authorised the raid, transfixed in group regard.

click image to enlarge

TENSION is etched on the faces of those huddled in the White House Situation Room, including that of the United States' 44th Commander-in-Chief.

Barack Obama, crouching forward in his seat, tense and uneasy, is joined by members of his security team as they monitor events unfolding half a globe away in Pakistan on Sunday afternoon.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates, square-jawed, braces with arms folded; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clasps her hand to her mouth as if to almost gasp; at top left Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stands resolutely alongside National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Mr Obama's suited ''Mr Fix-it'', chief of staff Bill Daley. According to The New York Times, Vice-President Joe Biden even fingered his rosary beads.

How the President tracked the end of bin Laden
4 May 2011 | THE AGE | Simon Mann, Washington

click to read full article

click image to enlarge

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

LOGOS/HA HA

WORLDVIEW

.

Welt·an·schau·ung
n. pl. Welt·an·schau·ungs or Welt·an·schau·ung·en

See worldview
[German : Welt, world (from Middle High German wërlt, from Old High German werlt; see wi-ro- in Indo-European roots) + Anschauung, view (from Middle High German anschouwunge, observation, mystical contemplation : an-, on, at from Old High German ana-; see anlage + schouwunge, look from schouwen, to look at, from Old High German scouwon).]

On April 29, Prince William, second-in-line to the British Throne, married commoner Kate Middleton.

The event was observed around the world by hundreds of millions of the Theatre of the Actors of Regard.

But wait, there's more...

World to get a closer look at Kate's dress

LONDON
May 3, 2011
TELEGRAPH / THE AGE

"The wedding dress worn by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is to go on public display, allowing visitors to examine its every intricate detail."

read full article here

See also :
Supreme Goddess as Void, with projection-space for image
click here for an example

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

LOGOS/HA HA