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.


29 August 2013

1969: The Black Box of Conceptual Art


For many years, Ann Stephen has been the foremost advocate for the art work of Ian Burn.

Now she is re-staging an exhibition by Burn, Mel Ramsden and Roger Cutforth first shown in 1969 at Pinacotheca Gallery, St. Kilda, Melbourne.

1969: The Black Box of Conceptual Art  
at the University Art Gallery, University of Sydney, until October 25.
     
The full catalog is available online : click here
      

 l - r : Ian Burn, Roger Cutforth, Mel Ramsden in New York, 1969

In the online version of an article about this 
re-exhibition - Shock of the new still reverberating by Nick Galvin - we observed above the reference to Ian Burn's Xerox Book ...
The third work, from Ian Burn, is a series of books made up of 100 sheets of paper copied and re-copied on a commercial Xerox machine.
''The books accumulate a kind of electrostatic layering,'' Stephen says. ''As you go through, the layering thickens. It begins, in a sense, with nothing and is a work made out of time."
... an advertisement for Yellow Pages (the telephone directory) with a yellow Post-It note attached. Of course, in the great enfolding, yesterday's concept is today's promo for anything.
 


We might further image Xerox Book as the model for 100 iterations of the 1969 exhibition. Over the years, degrading upgrading grading un-becoming re-becoming being, even

#1_1969_Pinacotheca Gallery, St.Kilda, Melbourne

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

#2_2013_University Art Gallery, University of Sydney, Sydney

detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
 
LOGOS/HA HA
 
#3_2015_Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
        
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
 
LOGOS/HA HA
          
#4_date yet to be set_Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne 

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