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 June 2020

amo amass amuse


COVID-19 as cause : 
as, one by one, Australia's museums re-open...


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
Re-open to Normal, or New Normal?
The English museum comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as "museums" (or rarely, "musea"). It is originally from the Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseion), which denotes a place or temple dedicated to the Muses (the patron divinities in Greek mythology of the arts), and hence a building set apart for study and the arts,[3] especially the Musaeum (institute) for philosophy and research at Alexandria by Ptolemy I Soter about 280 BC.[4] - Wikipedia
Seat of the Muses? (Museum)
Amuse-ment Arcade?
TAR set of Mu? (Mu-seum)
The Japanese and Korean term mu (Japanese: 無; Korean: 무) or Chinese wu (traditional Chinese: 無; simplified Chinese: 无), meaning "not have; without", is a key word in Buddhism, especially Zen traditions. - wikipedia



Penelope Mason writes of Hakuin's mu : 
When carefully executed, this kanji has three parallel horizontal lines, four verticals, and four marks below the grid. The configuration of strokes suggests a means of counting and after four items have been marked off, they are cancelled out by the three horizontal lines. In contrast, Hakuin's mu is a jumble of strokes expressing vitality rather than negation, energy rather than meticulous accounting...
- History of Japanese Art (p.284) 

 FIAPCE writes, after Soseki and Fugai :

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

P.S.  Article here                                                 click to enlarge
The posters can easily be mistaken for official New Museum (New York) marketing material (courtesy of Artists for Workers)