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.


13 December 2013

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!"  
 
    
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