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.


31 January 2014

head long

      
from :
Homage to the Square
Joseph Albers
1949
            
to :
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat  
Oliver Sacks
1985

to 
and fro
with the torero 
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Red Square : Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions!
Kasimir Malevich
1915
And the current head-long-rush
Toro!
              
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 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ...
 
 LOGOS/HA HA


"Well, I would say the aim of art is a constant, and a continuous job to reveal visually the attitude of our mentality. And the less we disturb the influence of our mentality the more I believe we come close to the truth. And therefore the last 15-20 years in which everyone tried to be different from everyone else with the result that in their work, they all look alike, there is an artificial and not true relationship because honesty and modesty are forgotten. The more eccentric one behaved the more he was considered a personality. On the other hand, the, more you obey your constitutional inclinations, your constitutional preferences and prejudices, the more you are yourself. You have not to force so-called individuality. You have to avoid everything that makes you a Wagnerian blowing up your gestures, blowing up your verbal formulations. Therefore I recommend simplicity because it is honest against all over-dramatization."

-  Josef Albers



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


      

30 January 2014

Everyone, In The Ring


Another in our series The Fabric of Regard

This fearless torero of Theatre of the Actors of Regard shows to those assembled a sequence of muleta capes.



As she calls the Name of each...
     Carmine Monochrome!
         
...the assembly responds.
     Toro! 

She holds the cape to the wall. 
       
No one knows for how long. 
       
It is understood : this is

The Fabric of Regard

Then, when she will, she flings that cape aside.
     Ole!

Now, as pictured above, another :
     Yellow Monochrome!

The response is fierce.
     Toro!
      
It is understood : this is
      
The Fabric of Regard
    
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
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LOGOS/HA HA
      

This same TAR torero troupe recently presented an Australia Day action in Vienna : 
'Blood on the Wattle', after the poem by Henry Lawson, 'Freedom on the Wallaby'. It ends...

So we must fly a rebel flag,
As others did before us,
And we must sing a rebel song
And join in rebel chorus.

We'll make the tyrants feel the sting
O' those that they would throttle;
They needn't say the fault is ours
If blood should stain the wattle!

      
Not surprisingly, in that old nest of Actionists, they were very well received. They got as good as they gave.

For this event, there was just one cape :
    Wattle Yellow Monochrome!

It didn't take long for the fyrest 'bull' to charge head-first out of the pack.  Ooooooooooh! 
      
     Toro!

A very long night. Blood on the wattle, blood on the wall.
    
The Fabric of Regard
  

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

         

Before returning to Oz, the troupe accepted an invitation to share their muleta pass and non-pass practice with some young French toreador apprentices in the ring at Garons, near Nimes.

     Toro!

Happy days, happy days.


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


       

26 January 2014

Australia Day


Today We Celebrate Name Day
bLOGOS/HA HA       
    
http://www.thecommercialgallery.com/exhibition/477/oui-we/artwork/18233/today-we-celebrate-boat-people-2014-2014

Archie Moore
Today We Celebrate Boat People
2014
atelier acrylic on sewn cloth flag
86.00 x 182.00 cm
TCG18233
(photo credit: Jessica Maurer)

from the exhibition
OUI we, 2014
The Commercial Gallery, Sydney

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


       

24 January 2014

See-through Matrix

       
Seamless, fabric of regard :
     
point of view
line of view
plane of view
angle of view 

Wolfgang Seivers
Advertisment for Elbeo Stockings  

Contempora School of Applied Arts, Berlin
1938
with FIAPCE collage
-2014-
    
angle of view
volume of view
matrix of view
view of view


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


      

22 January 2014

TCB

    
TCB art Inc. re-opens tonight.
        
             
TCB art Inc.
level 1/12 Waratah Place
Melbourne Vic 3000 Australia
gallery hours : Wed - Sat 12 - 6pm
    
Mitch Cairns
launches the renovated front space with his exhibition Cigarette cm
          
        

What a list ! Artists who've exhibited at TCB :

ルーク・コーネリス・サンズ | 石垣徹 | A Constructed World | Aaron Wasil | Ace Wagstaff | Adam John Cullen | Adelle Mills | Agnes So (NZ) | Ahilapalapa Rands (NZ) | Alanna Lorenzon | Alex Vivian | Alexander Ouchtomsky | Alexandra Sanderson | Alexandra Savtchenko-Belskaia (NZ) | Amanda Marburg | Amy May Stuart | Andie Tham | Andre Piguet | Andrew Atchison | Andrew Liversidge | Andrew McQualter | Angela Brennan | Anna Finlayson | Anna Hess | Anna Higgins |Anna John | Anna Miller-Yeaman | Arthur Flechard | Ash Kilmartin | Bababa International | Ben Raynor | Ben Tankard | Ben Terakes | Bianca Hester | Blair Trethowan | Bradd Westmoreland | Brooke Babington | Caleb Shea | Candice Cranmer | Catherine Connolly | Charles Dennington | Charles O'Loughlin | Charlie Sofo | Charlotte Hallows | Chris Corrente | Christian Cappurro | Christo Crocker |Christopher Hanrahan | Christopher LG Hill | Christopher Sciuto | Clara Chon | Colleen Ahern | Corey Coda | Craig Dermody | DAMP | Dan Bell | Dane Lovett | Daniel Noonan | Daniel Petersen | Daniel Price | Daniel Yovino | Danny Frommer | Darren Munce | David Capra | David Egan | Dionisia Salas | Dionisia Salas Hammer | Dora Garcia | Dylan Statham | Ed McAliece | Eilis McDonald | Eliza Dyball | Elizabeth Dunn | Elizabeth Gower | Elizabeth Pedler | Elke Varga | Elsa Phillipe | Esther Stewart | Evelyn Morris | Fabien Vallos | Fabrice Reymond | Fernando do Campo | Fiona Amundsen | Fiona Little | Fiona Morgan | Garry Trinh | Gavin Bell | Geoff Newton | George Egerton Warburton | Georgina Criddle | Gian Manik | Glenn Walls | Grant Nimmo | Greatest Hits | Greg Hodge | Hamish M Macdonald | Harriet Morgan | Heidi Kozar | Henry Jock Walker | Holly Willson (NZ) | Ilia Rosli | Imogen Taylor (NZ) | Isadora Vaughan | Jack Hooper-Bell | Jackson Slattery | Jacob Walker | James Barnett | James Deutsher | James Eisen | Jarrah de Kuijer | Jensen Tjhung | Jeremy Eaton | Jessica McElhinney | Jessie Bullivant | Jessie Hall | Jimmy (Florida) | John Abbate |John Gunshenan | Jordan Maisie | Jordan Spedding | Josephine Fagan | Josey Kidd-Crowe | Joshua Pethrick | Juan Ford | Justin Andrews | Kareena Keys | Karri Cameron | Karyn Lindner | Kate Meakin | Kate MItchell | Kate Moss | Kate Newby | Kate Smith | Kenny Pittock | Kenzee Patterson | Kerri Klumpp | Kirsty Hulm | Kylie Wilkinson | Kym-Maxwell | Laith McGregor | Lane Cormick | Lara Thoms | Leah Jackson | Let's Re-Make (Bonnie Fortune & Brett Bloom) | Liang Luscombe | Liang Xia Luscombe | Lisa Crowley | Lisa Radford | Louise Menzies | Lousia Bufardeci | Lucina Lane | Lucy Berglund | Luigi Fusinato | Lydia Wegner | Maara Serwylo | Marc Fernandez | Margaret Goninon | Mark Hilton | Martin Burns | Mary Macdougall | Masato Takasaka | Matthew Benjamin | Matthew Greaves | Matthew Griffin | Matthew Hopkins | Matthew Rana & Eric Garduno | Matthew Shannon | Melanie Irwin | Merryn Lloyd |Mia Kenway | Milli Jannides | Minna Gilligan | Mitch Cairns | Molly Cook | Natalie Papak | Natalie Thomas | Nathaniel Robinson | Nellie Reinhard | Nic Tammens | Nicole Breedon | Niki Korth | Noriko Nakamura | Olle Holmberg | Oscar Ferreiro | Oscar Perry | Owen Lewis | Patrick Lundberg (NZ) | Patrick Miller | Paul Wotherspoon | Quentin Sprague | Quenton Miller | Rachel Ang | Raul Paulino Baltazar | Rebecca B Adams | Rebecca Delange | Rebecca Joseph | Reece York | Renne Jaeger | Renne Miller_Yeaman | Richard Bryant (NZ) | Richard Frater (NZ) | Riley Payne | Rob McLeish | Robert Creedon | Rohan Schwartz | Ron Adams | Ronnie van Hout | Rowan McNaught | Ry Haskings | Ryan Moore (NZ) | S.T. Lore | Sam Barbour | Sam George | Samuel Villalobos | Sangeeta Sandrasegar | Saskia Pandji Sakti | Sean Bailey | Sean Peoples | Selina Ou | Shags Chamberlain | Sharon Goodwin | Simon McGlinn | Simon Zoric | Speech and What Archive | Stephen Palmer | Stuart Ringholt | Suzie Idiens | Tahi Moore | Taree Mackenzie | Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont (Perth) | The Group (New Zealand) | The Wrath of Zod | Thomas Charlton | Thomas Jeppe | Tim Hillier | Tim McMonagle | Tim Price | Toby Pola | Tom Polo | Trev Clay | Tully Arnot | Tully Moore | Veronica Kent | Virginia Overell | Will French | Yann Serandour | Zoe Croggon |

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


   

19 January 2014

Identityfication Crisis Unmasked (ICU)


We, the Liberation Chapter of the slave-elves of bLOGOS/HA HA, are interested in the usage of personal pronouns.

We, the Liberation Chapter of the slave-elves of bLOGOS/HA HA, being non-singular and inter-dependent (singular : s-elf), are also interested in other things. For instance, Theatre of the Actors of Regard. And more besides.

And so we read with interest Christopher Allen's 'CROWDED HOUSE' in yesterday's national newspaper The Australian. Online the crowded headline is 'National Gallery of Victoria becomes a crowded house with Melbourne Now'.  To read the article, if you consider it is worth subscribing and paying for, click here.

It begins with a scapesubject scene setter : 
someone|s approach|s something...  

"As you approach the National Gallery of Victoria building on St Kilda Road from the Princes Bridge, ...

It would seem, the author has conscripted "you" (singular/ plural) to be the first character.  
According to the writ, "you" approach something via somewhere and ...

"... , you are greeted by an enormous colourful panel attached to its northern wall.

someone|s are greeted by something...  
"What is this, doth greet me here?", you(se) ask.* 
*Intervention here by a secondary author - ed.

"It is a content-free decorative abstraction, ... 

Content-free? AND a decorative abstraction?? Is that possible???

"... , and we ...

This provides us (we, the Liberation Chapter of the slave-elves of bLOGOS/HA HA) with a bit more information about the "you" character. Apparently this is not a singular "you"; unless this "we" is an entirely new character? 
I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly
I'm crying
I am the walrus - The Beatles
    
", and we were informed by press releases that it was executed with paint sprayed on to the wall with fire extinguishers.

That is : something has been made with something

Next, someone|s face something...  

"So, depending on your point of view, we are facing an object that is either experimental, gimmicky, playful, derisive or merely bland, but in any case wilfully spectacular.

Are these y|our only options for true re|cognition? One choice from this given five?
"an object that is either experimental, gimmicky, playful, derisive or merely bland,
Plus one obligatory other?
but in any case wilfully spectacular.
Then we choose : merely bland AND wilfully spectacular.

Here it is again, the opening paragraph :

"As you approach the National Gallery of Victoria building on St Kilda Road from the Princes Bridge, you are greeted by an enormous colourful panel attached to its northern wall. It is a content-free decorative abstraction, and we were informed by press releases that it was executed with paint sprayed on to the wall with fire extinguishers. So, depending on your point of view, we are facing an object that is either experimental, gimmicky, playful, derisive or merely bland, but in any case wilfully spectacular."
 
We, the Liberation Chapter of the slave-elves of bLOGOS/HA HA, being non-singular (singular : s-elf), are specially interested in the usage of personal pronouns when they are linked with Theatre of the Actors of Regard.

What then of those singularly upright actors "1" and "I"?

Only now, after "you" and "we", arriveth the "One"...

"... One can only applaud these admirable sentiments; but unfortunately the pictures bear little relation to the genres mentioned, and say nothing about the issues with which they are supposed to be concerned.
       
Later, it is the "one", rather than the "you" or the "we", who will transcend this realm of 'Melbourne Now' disappointments :

"To pass from this cacophony to Edward Steichen's photographs - one can leave the frocks to the ladies who lunch - is like a sudden cold shower of aesthetic clarity and integrity.

... who precedeth the "I" :

"The presentation of contemporary art is also compromised by the uncritical groupthink that reigns today. The dramatic contests and oppositions that characterised the era of modernism from perhaps the 1870s and impressionism to the dissolution of high modernism into fractious splinter groups in the 1970s, have been replaced by a flaccid anything-goes attitude - laziness rather than genuine openness, since much remains excluded from the self-defining domain of the fashionable. 

In this regard, anyone who missed it should look up the important piece written by my colleague Nicholas Rothwell (The Australian, December 6), discussing the critical response to the unhappy blockbuster Australia at the Royal Academy in London. I read this ... "

and shortly after...

"Significantly, Rothwell points out some of the most serious criticism was levelled at the Aboriginal art in the show. One objection was something I have raised on several occasions here : ..."

So, at last, the appearance of the character known as "I". But why did this player not present earlier? After all, the digitial version of The Australian refers to this article as ARTS OPINION.  

Why were "you" cast in the role of the complicit dummies? Why not the character "I" ? 

Author! Author!

As I approach the National Gallery of Victoria building on St Kilda Road from the Princes Bridge, I am greeted by an enormous colourful panel attached to its northern wall. It is a content-free decorative abstraction ...
    
     
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
 
LOGOS/HA HA


   

19 JANUARY 2014
So we sought a second opinion



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

     
         
19 JANUARY 2014
And a third...

John Brack
We, us, them 
1983
collection : National Gallery of Victoria



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