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.


22 February 2015

LOGOS/HA HA or Who Speaks There?


The editorial WE thought we had more or less finished this run of Malevich-referencing posts, after yesterday's report that the great artist will run onto The Field for the Essendon Bombers in the 2015 pre-Season.

 Then, today, we encounter this splendid photo...
Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA
 ]The Red Cardigan(
  
... and its problematic headline ...
   
Kasimir Malevich's 'Black Square': 

What does it say to you? 
   
... accompanying a July 2014 article by Michael Glover in The (UK) Independent. It begins :


 The painting itself sits in a relatively darkened room at Tate Modern, where a major retrospective of the career of its creator, Kasimir Malevich from Kiev, opens today. Given that the painting is black from top to toe and hip to hip, and that it is often said to represent a pivotal moment in the history of abstraction and the art of the 20th century, this strikes the onlooker as an odd decision. Why not be given the opportunity to see it as clearly as possible? 
                    - read full article here
     
Given that (one meaning of) Logos is 
The Speaking into Being of the World,
and given therefore that this Logos includes
The Speaking into Being of... say, 
Kasimir Malevich's 'Black Square'

 ... we at bLOGOS/HA HA 
would, with instinctive reflex, recast that headline, 
and its conceptual confusion, as :

Kasimir Malevich's 'Black Square' : 

What do you say to it?


Not that you must say anything to it. As with any other projection-space, to be silent is an option.

Salvatore Rosa's 'Self-portrait' : 

What do you say to it?

Consider another artwork, a severe favourite of ours at the National Gallery, London : Salvatore Rosa's c.1645 self-portrait :

        

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
Rosa plays hard eyeball with his Actors of Regard while his hands hold firm to the dictum board :
AUT TACE, AUT LOQUERE MELIORA SILENTIO (Do not speak unless your words are better than silence).



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

 LOGOS/HA HA