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.


16 July 2014

Every gallery in Melbourne, twice

   
This notice was posted on facebook a few days ago at GERTRUDE CONTEMPORARY :

Gertrude studio artist Ross Coulter will be shooting his photographic series "Audience" tomorrow (Tuesday July 15) at Gertrude Contemporary. Based on 70s art documentation photographs, Ross intends on photographing every gallery in Melbourne and would like to extend an invitation to all to participate in the shoot at Gertrude.

What's required? You will form part of an audience by standing around the empty gallery, in which there is no art, imagining watching a performance that doesn't exist while he takes photographs of the group.

How long does it take? 1/2 hour.

Where? 200 Gertrude st, Fitzroy.

When? 1:30pm, tomorrow, Tuesday, July 15

If you have any other questions, feel free to call the gallery.


   photo by Ross Coulter  
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Yes Sasha, it was the last act at Conical. 

Post Script : We roughly recall that in the mid-1970s the artist John Davis (1936-1999) placed an artwork of his at the door of 'every' gallery in Melbourne and made a photo of each such placement. As usual there's nothing about any of this documented online. (Whither History of Art in Australia? Archive, archive archive!)

We'd like to see those photos. Perhaps as a double exhibition with Ross Coulter's "Audition" series?
       
John Davis c.1992 Photo by Penelope Davis

A further post script : 
Seeking more information about that action and those photos, we contacted Ken Scarlett, author of ‘The Sculpture of John Davis: Places and Locations’, published by Hyland House in 1988.

Ken writes : 
"On page 85 there are four BW photos of John’s cylinder placed outside the entrances to the four galleries. The caption reads as follows:

John Davis: The Artist’s Dream (1974) Fourteen ceramic cylinders placed outside fourteen galleries and one bronze cylinder outside National Gallery of Victoria. Fifteen Black and white photographs taken by John Davis.

The four illustrations were of NGV, Realities Gallery (when in Ross Street) Pinacotheca and Sweeney Reed Galleries.

I don’t know if John ever exhibited the photographs and I don’t know of any online images."

 Seriously interesting! Lest we forget.

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

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