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.
"Everything has got to change: the authority, the federation, the economy... and the position of the individual."
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
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Santilla Chingaipe : Are ‘race’ and ‘caste’ synonymous, or are they mutually exclusive?
Isabel Wilkerson : In the ways that I am hoping and urging us to see past what we are accustomed to seeing and to recognise that we can learn so much when we look from the perspective of the infrastructure of the society, to recognise that a society, or a hierarchy, a caste system, can use any number of metrics in determining the arbitrary nature of division. These things are arbitrary; this is not real. I mean, this is like, you choose a particular characteristic and you need to get the work done and you use this characteristic as a thing that will assign an entire group to the bottom and lift up another group to the very top. And so, the idea of race, one way of looking at it, is that caste is the bones of the infrastructure of a society, it is more of a universal impulse to rank and divide and to keep people in a fixed place to have a hierarchy to have a ladder of value assigned to people in a particular society, and you can use any number of metrics in doing that. It just so happened that this was the metric that was convenient for European colonists, and I’m speaking about the United States and the English colonists in particular. Of course, this also created, between colonisation and enslavement, created essentially a global caste system that was based upon the standards that were set by those who had the power to colonise and to enslave. And that’s what we all have inherited as a species.
'Caste' (extract)
Recorded 1 May 2021 Sydney Writers Festival
Skylight guillotine at Sinclair Gallery, Castlemaine Art Museum
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Vesta II (1968) by Paul Partos : exhibited in/on The Field (NGV, 1968) Lot 1065
Leonard Joel : Daytime auction, Thursday 25 March 2021
*Please note that The Auction Salon will take place online only with no physical auction attendance on Thursday 25 March
ROBERT (BOB) JENYNS, CRICKET PITCH AND OVAL, PAINTED METAL SCULPTURE (17H x 296W x 161D CM) (PLEASE NOTE THIS HEAVY ITEM MUST BE REMOVED BY CARRIERS AT THE CUSTOMER'S EXPENSE. LEONARD JOEL STAFF CANNOT ASSIST CARRYING THIS ITEM) (X-LARGE ITEM) Estimate $600-850
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We recently quoted Scott Stephens (ABC.RN) bewailing "...the hyperbolisation of language." He mentioned some examples that annoy him.
Our pet hyperbolisation hate is the widespread use of 'Absolutely!' and 'Absolutely not!' when 'Yes' and 'No' would suffice.
Are you concerned about polarisation? Absolutely!
Are you concerned about extremism? Absolutely!
Are you concerned about the loss of the middle way?
Michael McCormack & Janine Hendry. ABC News: Luke Stephenson
So, yesterday, when we heard Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack's response to March4Justice co-organiser Janine Hendry's demand for him to act on the recommendations of the Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report ... Grrrrr!!
"I'm certain that we'll absolutely look at it."
"I'm certain that we'll absolutely look at it."
"I'm certain that we will absolutely look at it."
"I'm certain that we'll absolutely look at it."
"I'm certain that we'll absolutely look at it."
Regulars to this blog will know that we 'look at' look at ... a lot.
That's about appreciating the visual arts. Our visual arts. The act of looking. The art of looking. It's about seeing, perceiving, conceiving the world into being. About vision and having a vision; our world view and our consequent views. Image, appearance, illusion, all examined. Being conscious, self-aware and empathetic. Having insight and regard for others.
It's not to provide some sincerity-gutted "we'll absolutely look at it" excuse for ignorance and inaction.
That bloke needs to take a good hard look at himself.
- Ed.
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"Un pour tous, tous pour un."
- Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers (1844)
"One and Three Chairs"
- Joseph Kosuth (1965), collection MoMA
Praxis : "I was just sitting there trying to keep warm, trying to pay attention to what was going on."
- Bernie Sanders, Inauguration Day (21 January 2021)
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FIAPCE foto
At the beginning of To Be Alone with You (Nashville Skyline, 1969), Bob Dylan asks producer Bob Johnston "Is it rolling, Bob?"
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NEW YORK, NY. - In 2020, French-American photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont received The Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism and The Visa D’Or Award of the Figaro Magazine for Lifetime Achievement.
To celebrate those achievements, Sous Les Etoiles Gallery is presenting a collection of photographs that represent the twenty five icons of his long carrier as a photo journalist in United States from November 3rd to December 12th, 2020.
For more than three decades, starting in 1964, Jean-Pierre Laffont travelled all fifty states seeking to document as wide of a range of compelling American stories, and he also photographed celebrities both French and American along with all the politicians of the times. He spent eight years at the White House as a foreign correspondent and photographed several presidents. He produced in-depth photo essays of the rise of the World Trade Center, the gangs in the Bronx, and the violence on 42nd Street.
"When I look back at the individual photographs I took during this quarter-century period, comments Jean-Pierre Laffont, the images at first seem to depict a ball of confusion… riots, demonstrations, disintegration, collapse and conflict. Taken together, the images show the chaotic, often painful, birth of the country where we live in today: 21st-century America. They do what photographs do best: freeze decisive moments in time for future examination. These photographs form a personal and historical portrait of a country I have always viewed critically but affectionately, and to which I bear immense gratitude."
Jean-Pierre Laffont attended the School of Graphic Art in Vevey, Switzerland, where he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Photography. He is a founding member of the Gamma USA and Sygma Photo News agencies. His photos were published in the world's leading news magazines, including Le Figaro, London Sunday Times, Newsweek, Paris Match, Stern, and Time Magazine.
- ArtDaily Newsletter: Wednesday, Nov 04 2020
Andy Warhol in his office on Union Square, 1 March 1974,
New York City. Photo by Jean-Pierre Laffont
Warhol impersonaTAR in the studio of Reg V. Brock, View Point,
Bendigo, 1952. Photo by Reg V. Brock
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) 'This is my dissenting collar. It looks fitting for dissents.'
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A special Artforum dedicated to John Nixon’s work and contribution to artist run initiatives, curating and collaborative practices. Speakers include Kathy Temin, artist and Head of Monash Fine Art, Anna Schwartz, Director of Anna Schwartz Gallery, Amalia Lindo and Jacqueline Stojanovic, artists who assisted John Nixon in his studio, Max Delany, Director of ACCA, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and artist Rose Nolan.
REGISTER HERE
John Nixon at Teksas, Denmark
photo courtesy Karin Lind and Peter Holm
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During COVID lockdown, we've been re-reading some Australian art criticism. (Part 4)
Gary Catalano, review extract re. exhibitions by
Murray Walker (Powell Street Gallery, South Yarra)
Peter Tyndall : Dagger Definitions (ACCA, Melbourne)
John Walker (NGV, Melbourne)
Elizabeth Sullivan (George Paton Gallery, Melbournne Uni
The Age, 19 August 1987 : read full article here
AAA_Art Archive Australia
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During COVID lockdown, we've been re-reading some Australian art criticism. (Part 3)
This is from an article in the Saturday Age, about the Australian Parliament House Art Collection.
Tom Duggan, 'House of art and enlightenment'
p 4-5, The Age, Saturday Extra : 19 December 1987
*no such letter or request was ever received by the artist
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During COVID lockdown, we've been re-reading some Australian art criticism. (Part 2)
Memory Holloway, 'The School of Cool'
The Age : 3 August 1983
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Déplacement de
"Un enterrement à Ornans"
de Courbet
- 11 juin 2018 -
- 26 août 2020 -
Musée d'Orsay / photo Sophie Boegly-Crépy
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With Victoria in COVID-19 Second Wave lockdown, today, an inmate of Collingwood sent us this link to some D T Suzuki thoughts regarding "waveringly".
A huge firefly,
Waveringly,
Passes by.
- Issa (Blyth)
I did but see
Her
Passing by,
- Menzies
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Artist, colleague, friend.
Jenny Watson, John, 1975 collection : Monash University
Robert Rooney, JOHN NIXON 1, JANUARY 19791979 photo (printed 2012)
collection National Portrait Gallery
John Nixon, White cross, 1986 collection NGV
Here’s another of John Nixon’s Polaroid self-portraits from the early 1980s. This time, however, there’s another subject – the Melbourne artist Peter Tyndall, who worked closely with John on diverse projects at this time, not the least being John’s Melbourne gallery, Art Projects, which Peter managed while John was living in Brisbane and running the Institute of Modern Art in 1980 and 1981. The Polaroid is dated verso 14 January 1981, which indicates it was probably taken in Melbourne (and possibly at Art Projects), as the IMA would have been closed in January for summer holidays. The image seems to say as much, with John up front but slightly out of focus and Peter sharp behind him. It’s another great shot from the 100 Polaroid piece titled ‘Lot 3’ (1980-81) by The Society For Other Photography, which is the name John gave this strand of his production.
#johnnixon #petertyndall #artprojects #selfportrait #thesocietyforotherphotography #societyforotherphotography
#polaroid #sx70
australianfinearts Here’s another of John Nixon’s Polaroid self-portraits from the early 1980s. This time, however, there’s another subject – the Melbourne artist Peter Tyndall, who worked closely with John on diverse projects at this time, not the least being John’s Melbourne gallery, Art Projects, which Peter managed while John was living in Brisbane and running the Institute of Modern Art in 1980 and 1981. The Polaroid is dated verso 14 January 1981, which indicates it was probably taken in Melbourne (and possibly at Art Projects), as the IMA would have been closed in January for summer holidays. The image seems to say as much, with John up front but slightly out of focus and Peter sharp behind him. It’s another great shot from the 100 Polaroid piece titled ‘Lot 3’ (1980-81) by The Society For Other Photography, which is the name John gave this strand of his production.
John Nixon, Studio (Melbourne), 1984
The rest, as they say ...
Rex Butler at Gertrude Contemporary, 2013
... is history.
Late last year, John was diagnosed with leukemia and underwent chemotherapy. Despite that, he made it to the launch of Doug Hall's Present Tense : Anna Schwartz Gallery And Thirty-Five Years Of Contemporary Australian Art upstairs at ASG.
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In March, as the exhibition was due to close, a COVID-19 lockdown was declared, and so it has stayed.
Today, In Memoriam, the gallery announced that the exhibition will remain until the end of the year.
ASG : "Our communal loss cannot be overstated."
