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.


13 March 2019

Crime Scene


The current exhibition at ACCA (until 24 March) is The Theatre is Lying. We are reminded of this 
in relation to matters below.
The Theatre is Lying is the first in this series of exhibitions, encompassing major works by Anna Breckon and Nat Randall, Sol Calero, Consuelo Cavaniglia, Matthew Griffin and Daniel Jenatsch. 
Constructed as an exhibition in five acts, The Theatre is Lying brings together artists who create alternative narratives and worlds through illusionary, cinematic and theatrical devices, including installation, misé en scene, historical re-enactment, digital montage and compositions with video, light and sound. In a series of new commissions, participating artists explore the manipulation of information and images, notions of artifice and illusion, ideas of transparency, reflection and phantasmagoria, and an engagement with the representations and misrepresentations of cinema and media. 
Through the white cube of the gallery and the black box of cinema, The Theatre is Lying proposes the gallery as a transformative threshold addressing ideas of truth and fiction, perception and abstraction, and the warping of time and space. The exhibition also considers the role of the spectator as an active agent in a world in which we are all actors, and the increasing interplay between subjective and objective, or psychic and social structures. Set against theatres of media and politics that are increasingly informed by trickery and sleight of hand, The Theatre is Lying offers a means to reflect upon, critique and even escape – if only momentarily – the everyday reality of our fictive life and times.
Today, Cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years imprisonment for child sexual assaults at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, in 1966.


 Cardinal George Pell
 by David Roberts
 2007 (printed 2012)
 National Portrait Gallery, Canberra


 HIS EMINENCE, CARDINAL GEORGE PELL
 by Andrew Gow 
 2015

This portrait was commissioned through the Knights of Malta to commemorate Cardinal Pell's inauguration as Prefect of Secretariat for the Economy. The Cardinal is a "a Bailiff Grand Cross of the Knights of Malta, that’s the decoration around his neck," Gow said. 

In 2016, the portrait was unveiled in the Vatican to commemorate Pell's inauguration as one of the Vatican’s most senior figures, Prefect of Secretariat for the Economy.


 cover portrait used for :
 Quarterly Essay #51 - September 2013
 by David Marr
 The Prince : Faith, abuse and George Pell
Last night, as a prolog to today's sentencing, this was the crime scene on the set of Saint Patrick's Theatre of the Actors of Regard, Melbourne.

 
Tonight in so called Melb on Wurundjeri land, we honour child sexual abuse survivors, and those who didnt survive. Gather together to tie ribbons to the fence and projections from 8pm to let the catholic church know, we are watching them. 

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