Truly, madly...

     

SEASONS GREETINGS

to our readers, regarders and supporters

from everyone at

bLOGOS/HA HA

   detail

   A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

   someone looks at something ...
 

   LOGOS/HA HA

      

A Christmas Tradition: Carols by Strobe Light

        
This article is about the 2013 Christmas tableau vivant 'The Little Drummer Boy' (Theatre of the Actors of Regard / mini cine).

For the movie about a little drummer boy who does not want to grow up, see 'The Tin Drum' (film). For the 1968 stop motion animated film, see 'The Little Drummer Boy' (TV special). 
               
For this article of Christmas Greetings from 
bLOGOS/HA HA please continue reading...

The Little Drummer Boy (originally known as Carol of the Drum) is a popular Christmas song written by the American classical music composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. It was recorded in 1955 by the Trapp Family Singers and further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale. That version was re-released successfully for several years and the song has been recorded many times since. 

Jimi Hendrix recorded a cover of the song in 1969. This was later included on his 1999 holiday EP, 'Merry Christmas & Happy New Year'. It was this that inspired T.A.R. and mini cine to create their version for bLOGOS/HA HA

 
In the lyrics, The Little Drummer Boy tells how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the nativity where, without a gift for the infant Jesus, he played his drum (and Jimi played his guitar) with the Virgin Mary's approval. He recalls, "I played my best for Him" and "He smiled at me".    (With thanks to Wikipedia)

HO HO !

HO H... um?

Oh yes, it's your bLOGOS/HA HA

Christmas CON UM DRUM
        

    

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

      

UniVerse LABEL Project

Over the Christmas, Solstice and Hanukkah period, many folk decorate their homes inside and out with displays of light. 

Christmas lights around Melbourne, 2013  

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

While this is happening, the crack team of artists at BABELab continue their year round efforts to simplify museoLOGOS/HA HA text production. 

Their LABELator often runs late into the night. 

Click tracking to the sounds of Andy Hart (try it yourself: click here) and Melbourne Deepcast, this nightshift artist doubles his beat with eyes well attuned to the phases of LOGOSequencia :

      

    courtesy : mini cine (FIAPCE)  

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

             
        

Pitcha Makin Fellaz : Our first time - go easy

     

Two groups of artists, unconnected, with so much in common.

Der Blaue Reiter and Pitcha Makin Fellaz.

Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was a group of artists from the Neue Künstlervereinigung München in Munich, Germany. The group was founded by a number of Russian emigrants, including Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, and native German artists, such as Franz Marc, August Macke and Gabriele Münter. Der Blaue Reiter was a movement lasting from 1911 to 1914, fundamental to Expressionism, along with Die Brücke which was founded in 1905.

Cover of Der Blaue Reiter almanac, c.1912

Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Gabriele Münter, Lyonel Feininger, Albert Bloch and others formed the group in response to the rejection of Kandinsky's painting Last Judgement from an exhibition. Der Blaue Reiter lacked an artistic manifesto, but it was centered around Kandinsky and Marc. Paul Klee was also involved.

- Wikipedia 


Members of „Der Blaue Reiter” : left to right : Maria and Franz Marc, Bernhard Koehler, Vasily Kandinsky (seated), Heinrich Campendonk, and Thomas von Hartmann. Munich, ca. 1911–12

In 1913, Franz Marc painted Tower of Blue Horses (Turm der blauen Pferde). The study, below. 


       
In 2013, one hundred years later, the Ballarat artist collective Pitcha Makin Fellaz, similarly stung by rejection from an exhibition, painted this in response : 'We know where you live'.
       


PW tells the story : "The horse painting came about as a reaction to being knocked back from entering an Indigenous artshow because they work as a group. They were a bit pissed off, and among a variety of responses the one that fired them up was the suggestion that they “send ‘em a horses head…”. So the next show that came up was the Daylesford Art Prize and the Horse was painted specially. It won. No longer so pissed off."

PW : "The group shares credits for all pics…we have a journal that records the individual contributors and their specific contribution but all proceeds from sales(if) etc are shared equally." 

More PMF here :

The Pitcha Makin Fellaz: making friends while making art

Lily Partland / ABC Ballarat

20 September, 2013

click image to enlarge  

Members of „Pitcha Makin Fellaz” : left to right : William Blackall, Ted Laxton, Peter Shane-Royumah, Myles Walsh, Adrian Rigney, Thomas Marks, and Joe Lee. Ballarat, 2013

Pitcha Makin Fellaz first exhibition opens today at B1 Gallery - 14 Camp Street, Ballarat, 11-4 daily until 22 December.

    

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

merely, Change of Time

       

1900 : La Grande Roue built for the Exposition Universelle at Paris
        

       
1913 :  'Roue de bicyclette' by Marcel Duchamp, Paris 

              

undated : Carte Postale of La Grande Roue  
with lines drawn and words written 
      

2012, Marco Fusinato : Mass Black Implosion 
(Mikrokosmos: Change of Time, Bela Bartok)
Ink on archival facsimile of score.
                   

    

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

Reinventing the Wheel : TEST PATTERN

         
Reinventing the Wheel: the Readymade Century finishes today at Monash University Art Museum.

    

To see the wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting, a sort of opening of avenues on other things than material life of every day. I liked the idea of having a bicycle wheel in my studio. I enjoyed looking at it just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace. It was like having a fireplace in my studio, the movement of the wheel reminded me of the movement of the flames.

- Marcel Duchamp : Arturo Schwartz, The Complete works of Marcel Duchamp, London: Thames and Hudson, 1969, p.442

           
Doin' wheelies : mini cine (FIAPCE) takes us for a celebratory end-of-season Saturday morning spin round the block :
        
         

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

Reinventing the Wheel : One good turn deserves another

         
Reinventing the Wheel: the Readymade Century finishes tomorrow at Monash University Art Museum.

It sent us back into the archives to look afresh at various old postcards and the like. Here's a postcard from 1935 that seems on beam, albeit resistant to a fix.

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Mark 8:36 _ King James Version

    

To see the wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting, a sort of opening of avenues on other things than material life of every day. I liked the idea of having a bicycle wheel in my studio. I enjoyed looking at it just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace. It was like having a fireplace in my studio, the movement of the wheel reminded me of the movement of the flames.

- Marcel Duchamp : Arturo Schwartz, The Complete works of Marcel Duchamp, London: Thames and Hudson, 1969, p.442

           
In another card, from 1918, a Man o' Wheels looks at Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel and thinks to himself : "You are all right but - it's my turn now!"  
 

    

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

Act/ors of Regard at Melbourne Now

       

Chris McAuliffe begins his article about 'Melbourne Now' (National Gallery of Victoria, until 23 March) with:

Phillipe de Montebello, former director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, once remarked that museums are no longer about art, they're about visitors. Having popularised the blockbuster show, he realised that exhibitions were more about the looker than what is looked at.

'NGV exhibition shines light on the peculiar poetry of Melbourne's soul'
Chris McAuliffe /THE AGE (Melbourne)
11 December 2013 

Find the balance, then slowly slowly...

     

     

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

ANTI-MUSIC

Soon to conclude at David Pestorius Projects :

ANTI–MUSIC: 1979–1983
30 October—13 December, 2013
Pestorius Sweeney House, Brisbane

"... the most comprehensive retrospective of this important Australian artist collective, which in the early 1980s gained international recognition for its conflation of experimental music, punk and post-conceptual strategies.

An umbrella term for a large number of recording groups comprised mainly of artists with little or no musical training, ANTI–MUSIC was founded in 1979 by John Nixon, who also co-ordinated its activities over the five year duration of the project. Experimenting with a wide-range of musical genres, including folk, rock, pop, electronica, improv, film music, noise, muzak, and even opera, ANTI–MUSIC eschewed live performance, instead preferring anonymity and concentrating on DIY cassette-tape recording processes..."
       
- full text here

      

ANTI-MUSIC : installation at Pestorius Sweeney House

And at 'Melbourne Now' (NGV until 23 March) John Nixon continues this with The Donkey's Tail and The Donkey’s Tail Jr.

Formed in 2007 by artist John Nixon, The Donkey’s Tail is an experimental artmusic ensemble featuring diverse artists, musicians and amateur collaborators who perform Nixon’s unconventional compositions on instruments made from found objects and orthodox instruments played in unorthodox ways. The group has been prolific in the experimental music scene, releasing more than sixty-five recordings on CD and playing regularly in Melbourne galleries and music venues. For Melbourne Now, The Donkey’s Tail has conceived an installation encompassing homemade instruments, CDs, photographs, paintings, graphic scores, sheet music cover designs, flyers and posters, and abstract kinetic videos. The project also incorporates The Donkey’s Tail Jnr, a special commission for kids encouraging experimentation with sound.

- Melbourne Now catalog

The Donkey’s Tail : installation at Melbourne Now
     

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

      

Beyond Beholding

  

We were recently alerted to the online and free
Journal of Art Historiography.

In the December 2013 Issue Number 9, by the titles alone, two articles were of immediate interest; confirmed in the reading. Ian Burn’s Questions: Art & Language and the rewriting of Conceptual Art history by David Pestorius : click here

Abstract: In the 1970s, the Australian artist Ian Burn (1939–1993) was a key member of the pioneering Conceptual Art group Art & Language. However, since Burn’s untimely death in 1993 his name and important contribution to Conceptual Art have been slipping away in official accounts of Art & Language history published in the context of career-defining exhibitions in major museums. What might be at stake in minimizing the inputs of an artist who had been central to the Art & Language project? And what are the consequences of this short-circuiting of museum scholarship? This paper charts the writer’s investigation of this art historical manipulation. It also reflects on how Art & Language has reacted when called upon to account for their actions. It is a cautionary tale to be sure, but it is one that raises important ethical and legal questions about the role and responsibility of major art museums having effectively colluded with living artists to re-construct art history.

And ‘Hundreds of eyes’: Beyond Beholding in Riegl's ‘Jakob van Ruysdael’ (1902) by Christopher P. Heue. 

Today, we focus on the latter. To read the full article click here. Below is an extract.

‘Hundreds of eyes’: Beyond Beholding in Riegl's ‘Jakob van Ruysdael’ (1902)

Christopher P. Heuer

... Jacob van Ruisdael, meanwhile, emerges as exemplary of the third phase, in works like the Great Beech Forest, where human activity has been expunged. It is, as Riegl puts it, sheer looking that becomes the subject of the work:

one perceives almost nothing but trees, each of them comes forward as an individual…None of the trees has that insistent tactile dimension - as experienced on every walk in a forest - that transfixes the eye, taking up the entire visual field and thus never graspable at once. And yet, between the trees, the bright sky looks at the beholder with hundreds of eyes. 

Tree and sky, anthropomorphized, thus acknowledge the beholder, almost socially. And indeed, the mutual balance between Ruisdael’s subjectivity and that of the purported beholders’ - eye to eyes - is precisely what Riegl tracked in the giant Gruppenporträt article from the same year (1902), a balance based on jointly deferential Aufmerksamkeit, or attention, between observer and sitter. The trees work like Rembrandt’s glaring syndics. ‘…all of Dutch painting can be called, ‘ Riegl writes near the close of the Ruisdael essay, ‘a painting of attention.’

 For this attention, Riegl explains, is uniquely harmonious in Ruisdael’s own ‘mature’ phase, where certain paintings’ design functions almost as an allegory for Dutch egalitarianism: ‘individual things are always coordinated. No single one is emphasized at the expense of another…sky and earth are completely equivalent.’ Riegl writes. This pictorial relationship within the painting models a relationship ostensibly outside the painting between beholder and actual artwork. The painting, that is, anchors a visual transaction. And just as the staffage is depicted in the act of calmly staring at trees, dunes, and water, so is the human beholder - placed before the picture - made aware of their own silent observational performance:

…we see a wanderer sitting and resting contemplatively. [...] Any remnant of action as an expression of will has been done away with; what the artist represents and the beholder experiences in now pure sensation.8 

What the best Ruisdael pictures do, Riegl writes, is engage a ‘pure enjoyment of looking.’ Importantly, this is a looking cleaved from what Riegl calls the ‘expression’ of some extrinsic value - freed from duty to narrative or artistic will. The beholder’s looking remains engaged, however, even without Wille – it is an active attention, but one that never seeks to overpower its subject...

          

Although interestingly/curiously the article doesn't picture 'the Great Beech Forest', we reckon it is probably this, also known as The Great Forest. 

         

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

  

          

Regarding : " - eye to eyes - "

        
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
          

presents
          

The Battle of the Blink (continued)
         

CYCLOPS versus ARGUS PANOPTES
                 

    

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

      

From : a painting with two Titles...

  

Dr Who (Baker) : You were curious about this painting, I think. I acquired it in remarkable circumstances. What do you make of the Title?

Dr Who (Smith) : Which Title? There's two. 'No more' or 'Gallifrey Falls'.

Dr Who (Baker) : No, you see, that's where everybody's wrong. It's all one Title : Gallifrey Falls No More. Now, what would you think that means, eh?

    

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

           
             

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

      
          

To : a painthing with four Labels

     

This installation for Theatre of the Actors of Regard at 'Melbourne Now', National Gallery of Victoria 
until 23 March 2014.

        

click image to enlarge   

click image to enlarge   

    

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

           
          

        

Nelson Mandela

               
18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013
           

Free At Last!

What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.   

             
      

      

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

Dr Who : LOL part 5 _ The Great Curator

Okay, let's round this up. 

Through the inspiration of Bad Wolf/the Interface/conscience of The Moment, the Doctors devise a plan for future-saving Gallifrey. Art meets cosmic cryogenics.

Clara : But where would Gallifrey be?

Dr Who (Tennant) : Frozen. Frozen in an instant of time. Safe and hidden away.

Dr Who (Smith) : Exactly.

Dr Who (Hurt) : Like a painting!
              

.  .  .  .

  

Did their intervention for Gallifrey work?

The fall of a white sugar cube is stilled above a clear dark liquid...

.  .  .  .

  

The three TARDIS and their travellers reconstitute in the Under Gallery of the National Gallery, London. 

Clara and the Doctors sip tea and regard anew the painting of Gallifrey .

 

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

Dr Who (Tennant) : What is it actually called?

Dr Who (Smith) : Well, there's some debate. Either 'No More' or 'Gallifrey Falls'

Dr Who (Hurt) : Not very  encouraging. How did it get here?

Dr Who (Smith) : No idea.

  

More chat about this and that, then two of the Doctors whizz off in their Police boxes. Clara and her Doctor return to the painting.

 

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

  

Clara : Need a moment with your painting?
Dr Who (Smith) : How did you know?
Clara : Those big sad eyes. Oh, by the way, there was an old man looking for you. I think it was the curator. (She steps into the waiting TARDIS)

Dr Who (Smith) : (Sits. Looks at the painting) I could be a curator. I'd be great at curating. I'd be The Great Curator. (chuckles) I could retire and do that. I could retire and be the curator of this place.

Voice of Tom Baker : You know, I really think you might.

Dr Who (Smith) : (Looks hard at the speaker) I never forget a face...

Dr Who (Baker) : I know you don't. And in years to come you might find yourself revisiting a few. But just the old favorites, eh.

(The two Drs Who turn to look together at the painting)

    

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

     

Dr Who (Baker) : You were curious about this painting, I think. I acquired it in remarkable circumstances. What do you make of the Title?

Dr Who (Smith) : Which Title? There's two. 'No more' or 'Gallifrey Falls'.

Dr Who (Baker) : No, you see, that's where everybody's wrong. It's all one Title : Gallifrey Falls No More. Now, what would you think that means, eh?

Dr Who (Smith) :  That Gallifrey didn't fall. It worked. It's still out there.

Dr Who (Baker) :  I'm  only a humble curator; I'm sure I wouldn't know.

Dr Who (Smith) : Where is it? 

Dr Who (Baker) : Where is it, indeed? Lost : Shhh! Perhaps. Things do get lost, you know. Now you must excuse me. Ooh, you have a lot to do.

Dr Who (Smith) :  Do I? Is that what I'm supposed to do now; go looking for Gallifrey?

Dr Who (Baker) : That's entirely up to you. Your choice. I can only tell you what I would do; if I were you.... Oh, if I were you... (a chuckle shared) Oh, perhaps I was you, of course. Or, perhaps, you are me. Congratulations.

Dr Who (Smith) : Thank you very much.

Dr Who (Baker) : Or perhaps it doesn't matter either way. Who knows? WHO KNOWS. (Confirms this affirmation with a touch to his nose. Then exits)

W   H   O

K   N   O   W   S   E

Dr Who (Smith) : (Turns back to look again at the painting of Gallifrey. He smiles, knowing that Gallifrey is no longer lost to him.)

    

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

epiLOGOS/HA HA 

Homer Dreams of Home : Journey of the Hero

Doctor Who steps from his TARDIS. Where is he this time? He's on a cosmic opera stage where waiting for him are the previous eleven. 

The theme of this overview has been LOL aka 

Lots Of Looking. And so, for the curtain call, one grand summary Act of Regard. From their stage of 50 TeleVision Earth Years the twelve look, as one, at Gallifrey.

 

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

The voice of Dr Who (Smith) : Clara sometimes asks me if I dream. Of course I dream, I tell her; everybody dreams. But what do you dream about, she asks. The same thing everybody dreams about, I tell her. I dream about where I'm going. She always laughs at that: You're not going anywhere; you're just wandering about. That's not true; not any more. I have a new destination; my journey is the same as yours; the same as anyone's. It's taken me many life-times but at last I know where I'm going; where I've always been going: home, the long way round.

Where Gallifrey is, now we are. 

For Theatre of the Actors of Regard :

we look at the Doctors

and the Doctors look at us. 

            

    

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA