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.


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...
  
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