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 March 2017

Regard of Photograph of Upholder of Falling Wall of Photographs Reportedly Unstable


1970 - now 
NGV Festival of Photography continues...

Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Collapsing Wall Of Photographs Held Back
Eric Westbrook, Director of the National Gallery of Victoria,
at “The Perceptive Eye Exhibition”, 1970 
photo : Australian Women’s Weekly, 7 January, 1970
AAA_Art Archive Australia

With weeping and with laughter 
Still is the story told, 
How well Eric held the wall 
In the brave days of old.

- after Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay


They never re-staged that fallen haul
They just placed a marble in front of it all.
These few words are written by that stand
At the bottom of this heap lies a big, big man.

- after Jimmy Dean

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