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.


31 March 2021

Vivienne Shark leWitt : The wind blows where it will : Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne


Born at the Mercy Hospital and educated by the Sisters of Mercy, your correspondent yesterday walked the Works of Mercy path at Anna Schwartz Gallery. A pilgrim path.
                                                           click image to enlarge
Works of Mercy, 2020
14 paint­ings, water based paint on linen
61 x 31 cm each
Instal­la­tion view, Anna Schwartz Gallery
Pho­to: Zan Wimberley

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost. 
 
- Inferno, Canto I - Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) 
 
Midway along the Works of Mercy
I found myself regarding a man pictured deep in thought.
Aside : Methinks the Divine poet travels with us.

- TARist 

Works of Mercy, detail (counsel the doubtful), 2020
water based paint on linen
 

The Thinker was initially named The Poet (Fr: Le Poète), and was part of a large commission begun in 1880 for a doorway surround called The Gates of Hell. Rodin based this on The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, and most of the figures in the work represented the main characters in the poem with The Thinker at the center of the composition over the doorway and somewhat larger than most of the other figures. Some critics believe that it was originally intended to depict Dante at the gates of Hell, pondering his great poem. Other critics reject that theory, pointing out that the figure is naked while Dante is fully clothed throughout his poem, and that the sculpture's physique does not correspond to Dante's effete figure.[1] The sculpture is nude, as Rodin wanted a heroic figure in the tradition of Michelangelo, to represent intellect as well as poetry.[citation needed]

This detail from the Gates of Hell was first named The Thinker by foundry workers, who noted its similarity to Michelangelo's statue of Lorenzo de Medici called Il Pensieroso (The Thinker),[2] and Rodin decided to treat the figure as an independent work at a larger size. The figure was designed to be seen from below and is normally displayed on a fairly high plinth, although the heights vary considerably chosen by the various owners. 

Regarding these works by Shark leWitt and Rodin got us to thinking about the representation of thinking. Most often that's of men thinking. 


As a 1960s teen philosopher, we attended The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Each episode began with teenage Dobie, self-styled protégé of The Thinker, telling us what he was currently thinking about, which was usually girls. 

Years later, possibly misled by Rodin and Gillis, this fool of a man :

1974, in response to a Ewing and George Paon Galleries theme show question: When you think about art, what do you think?

Whaddya reckon so far, Andy? 
 
Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1966 MoMA

Now, this emailed image has just arrived from the Castlemaine Art Museum, the latest of their weekly series about works in the collection. Snap!


Hugh Ramsay, Nude Study, Old Man, c.1900, oil on canvas. Castlemaine Art Museum, Presented by Mrs J. O. Wickin, 1947. Image Ian Hill

We do not know, we cannot know the thinking process or the thoughts, if any, of the Shark leWitt 'Dante' figure; nor of the other posers above.

Thought (or thinking) encompasses an "aim-oriented flow of ideas and associations that can lead to a reality-oriented conclusion".[1] Although thinking is an activity of an existential value for humans, there is still no consensus as to how it is adequately defined or understood.

 - Wikipedia

We can speculate ...
(late 16th century: from Latin speculat- ‘observed from a vantage point’, from the verb speculari, from specula ‘watchtower’, from specere ‘to look’.) 
but that would only return our own projections. 

Besides, not everyone thinks (conceptual) thinking is all it's cracked-up to be :

Unsheathe your dagger definitions. Horseness is the whatness of allhorse. Streams of tendency and eons they worship. God: noise in the street: very peripatetic. Space: what you damn well have to see. Through spaces smaller than red globules of man’s blood they creepycrawl after Blake’s buttocks into eternity of which this vegetable world is but a shadow. Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.

- James Joyce, Ulysses

Across the room from the Works of Mercy and the comfy-slippered thinking man is The Unity of Opposites group of works. Below is a detail (sky blue). Hessian on hessian. Pigment on hessian. Receiver of eyes : image on hessian, inward gazing. Merciful, she who clears away all self-obstruction. The ground is revealed. Nature of mind, naked, vast, sky-like, clear, wholly present.

Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.

The Unity of Opposites, detail (blue sky), 2020
water based paint on hessian
96 x 30cm

Lucid, the sky

A ḍākinī is a type of sacred female spirit in Hinduism, while in Vajrayana Buddhism the term is often wisdom dakini. The term can also be applied to human women with a certain amount of spiritual development. 
The Sanskrit term is related to ḍīyate - to fly, as in uḍḍayanam (meaning flight). The Tibetan term means "skygoer" and may have originated in the Sanskrit khecara, a term from the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra.[1]

Dakinis are energetic beings in female form, evocative of the movement of energy in space. In this context, the sky or space indicates śūnyatā, the insubstantiality of all phenomena, which is, at the same time, the pure potentiality for all possible manifestations.[citation req.]   
 
 - Wikipedia

Lucid, the sky is diamond (sutra)

The Diamond Sūtra (Sanskrit: Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) is a Mahāyāna (Buddhist) sūtra  
from the Prajñāpāramitā sutras or 'Perfection of Wisdom' genre. Translated into a variety of languages over a broad geographic range, the Diamond Sūtra is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras in East Asia, and it is particularly prominent within the Chan (or Zen) tradition,[1] along with the Heart Sutra.

The Sanskrit title for the sūtra is the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, which may be translated roughly as the "Vajra Cutter Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra" or "The Perfection of Wisdom Text that Cuts Like a Thunderbolt".[1] In English, shortened forms such as Diamond Sūtra and Vajra Sūtra are common. The title relies on the power of the vajra (diamond or thunderbolt, but also an abstract term for a powerful weapon) to cut things as a metaphor for the type of wisdom that cuts and shatters illusions to get to ultimate reality.[1] 
  
- Wikipedia

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