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.


29 February 2020

Leap Dream



 HAND SPACE exhibition


 Peter Higgs (1929-


 Yosa Buson (1716–1784) 

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA


     

24 February 2020

SIGN FIELD : Uptight, out of sight!


     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”.


Theatre of the Actors of Regard 
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
  
LOGOS/HA HA


  

22 February 2020

a SIGN FIELD Symphony



Jen Bray (at lectern) presents the list of amendments sought : 
see previous post


Hepburn Shire Mayor, Councillor Licia Kokocinski counts the votes.

LOCAL LAW 2 enacted

Those in favour (Local Law 2 )
   Cr Licia Kokocinski (Mayor) – Coliban Ward
   Cr Kate Redwood AM – Birch Ward
   Cr Don Henderson – Creswick Ward
   Cr John Cottrell (Deputy Mayor) – Holcombe Ward
   Cr Greg May – Creswick Ward

Those against (Local Law 2)
   Cr Fiona Robson – Birch Ward
   Cr Neil Newitt – Cameron Ward

SIGN FIELD  enacts





SIGN
SIGN
SIGN

RESIGN
RESIGN
RESIGN

Theatre of the Actors of Regard 
'A Symphony 'O' Signs'
after Charles Ives
'Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1)'
orchesTAR 1 : Theatre of the enActors of Regulation
+
orchesTAR 2 : Theatre of the Actors of disRespect


Theatre of the Actors of Regard 
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA


  

21 February 2020

SIGN FIELD ( The Episode with Jen & Dru )


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

 Tomorrow, how will the councillors respond?

20 February 2020

SIGN FIELD : Singing & Signing


 6pm
 Tuesday 18 Feb 2020
 Daylesford Town Hall



 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?

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Sign
Sign, sign
  
 

18 February 2020

SIGN FIELD


 INAUGURAL HEPBURN SHIRE FESTIVAL 'O' SIGNS

 6pm
 Tuesday 18 Feb 2020
 Daylesford Town Hall

 Bring a sign
 bring a friend with a sign


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

 . . . . . . . . . .
 SIGN HERE


   

16 February 2020

Colin McCahon centenary | NGV & MADA


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.

Colin McCahon: Letters and Numbers
click for essay by Jane Devery


Colin McCahon: Letters and Numbers
click for Memo Review by Luke Smythe
  
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.

 Colin McCahon Centenary Symposium
  • Rex Butler, Professor of Art History & Theory, Monash University, Melbourne
  • Martin Edmond, Sydney-based writer and author of Dark Night: Walking with McCahon (2011)
  • Brent Harris, Melbourne-based artist
  • 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.



Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA

  

14 February 2020

Paint Saves


This a few days ago.



But, better news today via Dora Maar and ArtBlart
and HAND SPACE.

Theatre of the Actors of REPAINT  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA

  

12 February 2020

Desperately Seeking Self


first catch your hare

Etymology

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.

Proverb

Make sure you have a thing before you decide what to do with it.
 
Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA

  
  

10 February 2020

Towards Another Repaint, but first...


Towards Another Restoration, Hosier Lane, Melborne  

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA

  

09 February 2020

mu wall


 no lane
 no gain
 no mu wall

- Theatre of the Actors of Regard


 Theatre of the Activists of Regard in Hosier Lane, yesterday.


 Theatre of the Actors of Regard in the Town Hall, yesterday.

Our mu wall drawing was at point of publication
when the Hosier Lane recovery project|ion news
arrived. Mu done it!


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA

  
 

08 February 2020

Why Me?

  
 Isamu Noguchi, My Mu, 1950  
 no me
 no my
 no mu

- TAR after Noguchi/Cage

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA


  

05 February 2020

Mouth of the See



Rosalind Park Cascade, Bendigo : Joel Bramley Photography

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA