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.


04 January 2014

Things have turned around a bit

     
Noted this morning in Andrew Stephens'
'Visual Arts: A feast for the eyes' (The Age) :
           
Monash University Museum of Art :
It doesn't sound exciting - concrete - but curators at MUMA are looking at this material through the prism of World War I in an international group exhibition examining ''our propensity to memorialise'' by exploring the monumentality of concrete and the politics of memory - how we erase and shift different parts of history. 
Monash is also mounting an ambitious project called Art as a Verb: How to Do Things with Art, whose starting point is the concept of art as action, drawing on the rich history of conceptualism and minimalism, as well as Fluxus and performance art.
Concrete, May 3-July 5
Art as a Verb, October 3-December 13
   
      
Noted this afternoon during the ABC Radio cricket commentary (Sydney Ashes Test_Australia vs England_Day 2), this sequence of observations from Jim Maxwell (ABC cricket commentator for 40 years) in conversation with Kerry "Skull" O'Keefe (with this match, concluding 13 fun-filled years as an astute ABC cricket commentator). 
     
JM : that 8 of the 11 in the present English side are left-handed batsmen
KO'K : that 5 of the 11 in the present English side have surnames starting with B
KO'K : that 3 of the 5 in the present English side with surnames starting with B are left-handers
JM : "Things have turned around a bit since there were 3 verbs at the top of the order."
JM and KO'K : "Cook... Root... "

We are following the cricket, listening to the radio with the TV sound turned down. Frequent images of the Theatre of the Actors of Regard at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Media self-love finds the 400 Richie Benaud meta-commentators irresistible. They verb!
      

From our broadcasting box you can't see any grass at all. It is simply a carpet of humanity.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/richiebena308152.html#6mIDT4apfk2PQGGV.9        

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