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.
Baby, everything is all right Uptight, out of sight Stevie Wonder, Uptight (1966) Today, some earlier pre-SIGN FIELD material. This is from the Hepburn Shire Council Meeting of 16 December 2019 in which your correspondent pushes on regarding the unsightly.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
The interupTAR : "Excuse me, I asked to speak." The Mayor : You are not permitted to speak."
click image to watch video
Beaten above by the hubbub and the bell, the full text is below :
Regarding : Draft Local Law No. 2
Dangerous and Unsightly Land
I observe that we're gathered here tonight in the presence of a portrait of Our Queen.
Recently, I’ve been watching ‘The Crown’, the Netflix series.
In Series 1 Episode 9, we are party to an exchange of views between the proud old landscape painter Winston Churchill and the young so-called Modernist Graeme Sutherland, commissioned by members of the Houses of Parliament to paint a portrait of their senior statesman.
Churchill mocks the portrait when it is officially presented to him at his 80th birthday celebration in Westminster Hall. It is not how he sees himself, and not how he wishes to be seen. Writing to Lord Moran, he describes the work as “filthy” and “malignant”.
One of Churchill's Labour critics, calls it, "A beautiful work". A Conservative colleague and friend calls it "disgusting".
The painting was intended to hang in the Houses of Parliament after Churchill's death, but it had been given to Churchill as a personal gift, and he took it away to Chartwell, where it was never displayed.
Within a year, Lady Spencer-Churchill oversaw the destruction of the portrait. She had already destroyed earlier portraits of her husband that she disliked, including those by Walter Sickert and Paul Maze.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Last night, I watched Series 2 Episode 5.
The young Lord Altrincham so loves the British Monarchy that he is prepared to speak out and risk vilification when he observes that the public, after the humiliations of the Suez debacle, are losing respect for the crown because of its tradition-bound out-of-touch relationship with those it oversees.
In his own small publication, Altrincham makes his dutiful criticism and for a while is indeed pilloried. The establishment press refer to him as the SNEER PEER.
The Palace, warned of the seeds of revolution, takes note and is concerned.
In a secret meeting to discuss reform, Lord Altrincham presents the queen with a list of three things to STOP and three things to START.
Lord Altrincham | Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Tonight, I will suggest just one STOP and one START. From my earlier submission to you : I move that the term “unsightly” be removed from all Local Laws, to be substituted with the term “sight-seeing”. And that “sight-seeing” be represented NOT as the touristic seeing of this or that “sightly” place or “unsightly” object; rather that the term “sight-seeing” be offered to all, residents and visitors alike, as an invitation to look within and without. To visit the safe and unsafe make-do construction sites of our own individual acts of seeing the world into being : to witness in wonder and with wisdom the well-spring of our streaming projections of “sightliness” and “unsightliness”.
SIGN FIELD Festival 'O' Signs Daylesford Town Hall Hepburn Shire Council Meeting Jen and Dru present the amendments sought and return to their seats TAR responds with BODY SIGNS
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Freeman Tribilcock filming at right, filming this too.
Sign Riders arriving at the Town Hall David Holmgren and Su Dennett, permaculture pioneers
Andrea Lindsay and an earlier campaign's re-purposing of a
Hepburn Shire councillor's address to "You people...
Meg Ulman referencing the disputed LL2 (Local Laws version2) to be voted on at this evening's Shire Council Meeting
Patrick Jones
Peter O'Mara
Petrus Spronk
Mark Dickenson and Jen Bray photo Natasha Morgan
SINGing and SIGNing against LL2 busking laws
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
...and many more. Tomorrow, what happens when the Festival moves inside for the Shire Council Meeting and vote on LL2.
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
STOP THE PRESS just in from Mr D
Signs The 5 Man Electrical Band lyrics as recorded by The Five Man Electrical Band in 1971 and included on the 1990 compilation album "Made In Canada - Volume Three 1965-1974" And the sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply" So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why He said "You look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you'll do" So I took off my hat, I said "Imagine that. Huh! Me workin' for you!" Whoa-oh-oh
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight So I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house, "Hey! What gives you the right?" "To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep mother nature in" "If God was here he'd tell you to your face, Man, you're some kinda sinner"
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
Now, hey you, mister, can't you read? You've got to have a shirt and tie to get a seat You can't even watch, no you can't eat You ain't supposed to be here The sign said you got to have a membership card to get inside Ugh!
------ lead guitar ------
And the sign said, "Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray" But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all, I didn't have a penny to pay So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign I said, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me. I'm alive and doin' fine." Wooo!
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
To mark the centenary of the birth of the great New Zealand artist Colin McCahon (1919-1987), the National Gallery of Victoria has a small exhibition of McCahon works at the third floor of NGV International.
To further this observance, Luke Smythe at Monash Art Design & Architecture organised a free symposium, which was given yesterday. For those of us who were there, it was a rich occasion.
Jane McCabe, Lecturer in History, Otago University, Dunedin
Peter Simpson, former Associate Professor, University of Auckland and author of a new two-volume survey of McCahon's work
Laurence Simmons, Professor of Film, Television and Media Studies, University of Auckland
Luke Smythe, Lecturer in Art History & Theory, Monash University
For your correspondent, McCahon has been a key artist since the early-mid 1970s.
Less so for some. From a 1978 notebook, this is how miserably and ignorantly his great Victory over death 2 (1970) was given and received by the then political leadership of New Zealand and Australia.
At yesterday's symposium, Rex Butler spoke about Colin McCahon's last four paintings, one of which is included (as below) in the NGV exhibition.
Supposedly from an error in The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, where "catch" should have read "case" (i.e. remove the skin); however, this is apocryphal.
