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.


02 January 2014

Paul Taylor, time-space-experience and the mere absence of presence

      
During this holiday period, the worker ants at bLOGOS/HA HA have been touring the remnant trails of Impresario: Paul Taylor, The Melbourne Years, 1981–1984.
       

              
Impresario: Paul Taylor, The Melbourne Years, 1981–1984 brings together a diverse body of texts focused on Paul Taylor, the Australian editor, writer, curator and impresario, and in particular his important and influential early years in Melbourne between 1981 and 1984. The dates of the texts included span some thirty years and take a variety of different forms — critical essays, reviews, short reflective texts, interviews, transcriptions of lectures — the combination of which seeks to analyse Taylor’s impact on Australian art history in the early 1980s, when he founded Art & Text and curated the landmark exhibition ‘POPISM’ at the National Gallery of Victoria, and the subsequent ripples that continue to encircle us in his wake, thirty years on.
        
Edited and introduced by Helen Hughes and Nicholas Croggon, and featuring contributions by Ashley Crawford, Adrian Martin, Charles Green & Heather Barker, Chris McAuliffe, David Chesworth & Jon Dale, David Pestorius, Graham Willett, Ian McLean, Judy Annear, Janine Burke, Juan Davila, Jonathan Holmes, John Nixon & David Homewood, Jenny Watson & Kelly Fliedner, Lyndal Jones, Merryn Gates, Maria Kozic, Philip Brophy, Paul Foss, Patrick McCaughey, Peter Tyndall, Rex Butler & Susan Rothnie, Ralph Traviato, Imants Tillers, Edward Colless, Russell Walsh, Sue Cramer, Denise Robinson and Vivienne Shark LeWitt.
      
Published jointly by Surplus and Monash University Museum of Art
ISBN: 978-1-922099-08-2
RRP: AUD30.00 inc. GST

Over amber libations at the Ant & Anti, this volume has been the cause of much discussion among the savvy regulars.
         


But something we got stuck on :
When Butler & Rothnie write (p.196), 
"When we look at Taylor's 'POPISM' exhibition, three things are particularly notable...", the publican wants to know how Butler & Rothnie do this? how they actually look at Taylor's 'POPISM' exhibition? so that he might also look at Taylor's 'POPISM' exhibition. This had us stumped.

 Everyone started Googling. All the key words and combinations : POPISM_exhibition_NGV_
National Gallery of Victoria_Paul Taylor_1982... Nothing! Not even one online exhibition photo. 

 So what-how (voice a little slurred) did they mean
when Butler & Rothnie wrote (p.196), 
"When we look at Taylor's 'POPISM' exhibition...
    
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
 
LOGOS/HA HA


This famous exhibition that Paul Taylor (supposedly) staged at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1982, and which most articles in Impresario: Paul Taylor, The Melbourne Years, 1981–1984 refer to : where can the installation photos be viewed?

It seems so appropriate (appropriate or appropriate?! -ed.) that this thing-event of so much exegetic regard (the physical exhibition POPISM) should 'be' sans image. It's almost too good and too funny to be true, somewhere among the echoes of second degree and simulacra and supplementarity and locality fails et al.
   
What's a keen young art history student to do? 

What's a keen young art history teacher to do?  

Which is why bLOGOS/HA HA advocates the establishment of AAA_Art Archive Australia 
as a key component of the proposed NGV3.
       
  
     
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ...
 
 LOGOS/HA HA