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.


25 November 2014

meta-Lie

     
After the announcement by Minister Turncoat of the 'efficiency dividends' for the ABC, Theatre of the Actors of Regard yesterday convened a special sitting to observe the ABC broadcast of Question Time in the House of Representatives. 
   
     The falcon cannot hear the falconer
  
As expected there were a series of questions directed to Prime Minister Abbott about this broken promise. As he struggled to answer the questions allowed less and less wriggle room until finally there was none : 

Opposition members interjecting—
The SPEAKER: There will be silence on my left.
Mr ABBOTT (Warringah—Prime Minister) (14:41): The point I have made earlier in question time today is that we never promised special treatment for the ABC of the SBS.
Opposition members interjecting—
The SPEAKER: The member for Newcastle can join the member for Wakefield under 94(a).
The member for Newcastle then left the chamber.
Mr ABBOTT: What is happening to the ABC and the SBS is, effectively, the application of an efficiency dividend...
         
The Broken Word and any meta- form of such are by definition grist for bLOGOS/HA HA.      
        
     
So, to today's editorial from The Monthly :
  
"Lying about lying"

Tony Abbott gave perhaps the most extraordinary parliamentary performance of his prime ministership yesterday. Bill Shorten quoted Abbott's election-eve promise back to him – "No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS" – before asking whether the reason Abbott is now "box office poison in Victoria" is because he's "breaking every single one of these promises". In response, Abbott said: "This is a government which has fundamentally kept faith with the Australian people."
       
By pretending that the more than $300 million in cuts to the broadcasters is not a broken promise, Abbott is lying. And as Paul Bongiorno pointed out this morning, he's also "lying about lying": the election-eve promise itself had to be a lie. For weeks, Abbott had also been promising that he would return the budget to surplus without imposing new taxes. Nothing added up. So when he began backtracking – changing pension indexation, talking about raising the GST and then flagging "efficiencies" at the public broadcasters – nobody was particularly surprised.

What is surprising is that Abbott can be so brazenly dishonest after nearly three years of describing the Gillard government with such terms as "truth deficit disorder". Not only that, as Mungo MacCallum points out he repeatedly established himself as honest, promised that there would never be any excuses – including the budget position – to justify him breaking any of his pre-election promises, and over and over again asked that Australians take him at his word. A week before the election he gave a lengthy interview to ABC Melbourne's Jon Faine that covered most of the conceivable excuses. No, no, no, Abbott said – "I don't want to be like that." Now he is, and it's difficult to see how he can ever recover.

Russell Marks
Editor
    
 click to enlarge   
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...

LOGOS/HA HA
     
       
   
        

23 November 2014

IN PRINCIPIO ERAT VERBUM

       
In the begynnynge was that worde
translation to English by William Tyndale
      

       
William Tyndale is a pin-up at bLOGOS/HA HA. Linguist, translator, neologist, poet and publisher. A hero who gave all for equal access to knowledge and education.

It was Tyndale who, against the wishes of the King and the pursuit of heretic-hunter Thomas Moore, first translated the Bible into English. He who then had it secretly published abroad and smuggled into England. 

William Tyndale was hated and hunted by the powers of his day just as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are in ours. 
    
With English connivance, he was tried as a heretic in Antwerp. Tyndale's last words on the pyre were : "Lord, open the King of England's eyes".
       
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   click image to see full image 


It has been a pleasure over recent weekends to watch Melvyn Bragg, another great appreciator of the word, present the life and achievements of Tyndale : The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England (BBC).

Here is Bragg in the presence of the only surviving intact edition of Tyndale's first printed Bible in English.
         


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

 LOGOS/HA HA
   

      

21 November 2014

Wayne Goss


Gough chose the Sydney Town Hall for his memorial send-off, with an on-stage symphony orchestra and a choir. And for his parting selection, Hubert Parry's setting of the words of William Blake - Jerusalem

     I will not cease from Mental Fight,  
     Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:  
     Till we have built Jerusalem,  
     In England's green & pleasant Land

Today for Wayne Goss it was the Gallery Of Modern Art, Brisbane. With contemporary Australian art on the walls, no raised stage, and at the end a track from the Rolling Stones - You can't always get what you want

     You can't always get what you want  
     You can't always get what you want  
     You can't always get what you want  
     But if you try sometimes you just might find  
     You just might find  
     You get what you need
     
     
Behind the speakers, 
Queensland artist William Robinson's 
Four Seasons (1987).

Behind the people, 
Queensland artist Robert MacPherson's 
Mayfair: (Swamp rats) Ninety-seven signs for C.P., J.P., B.W., G.W. & R.W. (1994-95).
       
 click to enlarge   
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ...

 LOGOS/HA HA
     
 
   

20 November 2014

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING...

   
Yesterday, our technical staff were at the media conference of the Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, at which he announced his government cuts (see : "weasel words" : "cuts" described as "efficiency dividends") to ABC funding.
        
click on image for full display
        
Because the techies were away, yesterday's blog was posted by the illustrators (see photo below) who reckoned they knew what to do. Apparently, they didn't... ?!

As a consequence, you will observe we are having some technical problems. Instead of the home page showing the last 8 or so posts, it's now just showing yesterday's and, with a bit of luck, this one. Also, the November archive is not showing all that it should. (The October archive and beyond are still OK.)

To see the previous recent posts, scroll to the base of the HOME page and click on Older Posts :

We will fix the problem if we can. Meanwhile, thanks for sticking with us. And here's that photo of the offenders in their studio mess - "Back to the drawing boards, you blokes!"
   
Postscript 21 November : It's fixed!
    
 click image to enlarge - notice all the corner pinholes

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

 LOGOS/HA HA
   

           

19 November 2014

Utopian Slumps


FINAL EXHIBITION
OPENING WEDNESDAY 19 NOVEMBER 6 - 8PM
EXHIBITION 20 NOVEMBER - 13 DECEMBER 2014

Utopian Slumps
Ground floor, 33 Guildford Lane, Melbourne, Victoria 3000
     
RAMONA LOLA ANGELICO  |  STEVEN ASQUITH  |  LAUREN 
BERKOWITZ  |  FERGUS BINNS  |  RY DAVID BRADLEY  |
TREVELYAN CLAY  |  YVETTE COPPERSMITH  |  SARAH 
CROWEST  |  GEORGINA CUE  |  DAMP  |  CHRISTOPHER 
DAY  |  REBECCA DELANGE  |  JAMES EISEN  |  DANNY 
FROMMER  |  TONY GARIFALAKIS  |  STARLIE GEIKIE  |
NATHAN GRAY |  RY HASKINGS  |  KATHERINE HATTAM  |
CHRISTOPHER L.G. HILL  |  JUSTIN HINDER  |  MISHA 
HOLLENBACH  |  MATTHEW HOPKINS  |  BRENDAN 
HUNTLEY  |  SUSAN JACOBS  |  THOMAS JEPPE  |
MADELINE KIDD  |  ASH KILMARTIN  |  CLAIRE LAMBE  |
RHYS LEE  |  RICHARD LEWER  |  BENJAMIN LICHTENSTEIN
|  ANDREW LIVERSIDGE  |  ANDREW LONG   |  HELEN 
JOHNSON  |  JESS JOHNSON  |  KATIE LEE  |  MERRYN 
LLOYD  |  JAMES LYNCH  |  WILLIAM MACKINNON  |
GIAN MANIK  |  ALEX MARTINIS ROE  |  DYLAN MARTORELL
|  ROB MCHAFFIE  |  ROB MCLEISH  |  KATE MEAKIN  |  
SANNE MESTROM  |  DAN MOYNIHAN  |  KATE NEWBY  |  
ELIZABETH NEWMAN   |   CONOR O'BRIEN  |  JOSHUA 
PETHERICK  |  TOBY POLA  |  TOM POLO  |  DANIEL PRICE
|  TIM PRICE  |  ELVIS RICHARDSON  |  MARK RODDA   |
KIEREN SEYMOUR  |  CALEB SHEA  |  KATE SMITH  |  
SRIWHANA SPONG  |  ESTHER STEWART  |  MASATO 
TAKASAKA  |  THE DONKEY'S TAIL   |  OLIVER VAN DER 
LUGT  |  JAKE WALKER  |  AMBER WALLIS  |  PAUL 
WILLIAMS  |  PAUL WOTHERSPOON  |  

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

LOGOS/HA HA

       
       

16 November 2014

Bodhisattva Observes Melbourne Triple Gem


Following on from yesterday's
Bodhisattvas Observe NY Street Enso    
       

photo 1981 PT / FIAPCE  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ... 

 LOGOS/HA HA
          
        
       

14 November 2014

Bodhisattvas Observe NY Street Enso

         

 STAR*                                                         click image to enlarge
             

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

 LOGOS/HA HA
   

      

13 November 2014

… and that’s it."



STAR* _ Street Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ... 

 LOGOS/HA HA


"There is also little mystery in her photographs which is probably why they don’t rise to that next level: look at the photograph of the two men staring at a length of hose on the ground on a rainy street in NY. The hose just sits there, the men are caught mid-gesture… and that’s it."

- full review here
    
      

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

 LOGOS/HA HA
   

      

12 November 2014

40 years


We showed this image in the previous post
an undated New York photo by Vivian Maier



and captioned that post Skeletons Fighting Over a Pickled Herring - James Ensor, 1891



The two scenes usher-in yet another such
] someone-something-someone ( 
: this meta-arrangement
from November 1974
40 years ago

click image to enlarge                    AAA_ArtArchive Australia

whereof 
one un|masked actor 
] you here now (  
regardeth the scene
Two Actors of Regard 
(painted in the manner of Fred Williams)
Regard
staged as if all three do here behold
This Dependent-Arising Projection-Space


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

LOGOS/HA HA
(Untitled Painting No. 1)
        
     
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/ 
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA