Identityfication Crisis Unmasked (ICU)

We, the Liberation Chapter of the slave-elves of bLOGOS/HA HA, are interested in the usage of personal pronouns.

We, the Liberation Chapter of the slave-elves of bLOGOS/HA HA, being non-singular and inter-dependent (singular : s-elf), are also interested in other things. For instance, Theatre of the Actors of Regard. And more besides.

And so we read with interest Christopher Allen's 'CROWDED HOUSE' in yesterday's national newspaper The Australian. Online the crowded headline is 'National Gallery of Victoria becomes a crowded house with Melbourne Now'.  To read the article, if you consider it is worth subscribing and paying for, click here.

It begins with a scapesubject scene setter : 

someone|s approach|s something...  

"As you approach the National Gallery of Victoria building on St Kilda Road from the Princes Bridge, ...

It would seem, the author has conscripted "you" (singular/ plural) to be the first character.  
According to the writ, "you" approach something via somewhere and ...

"... , you are greeted by an enormous colourful panel attached to its northern wall.

someone|s are greeted by something...  
"What is this, doth greet me here?", you(se) ask.* 
*Intervention here by a secondary author - ed.

"It is a content-free decorative abstraction, ... 

Content-free? AND a decorative abstraction?? Is that possible???

"... , and we ...

This provides us (we, the Liberation Chapter of the slave-elves of bLOGOS/HA HA) with a bit more information about the "you" character. Apparently this is not a singular "you"; unless this "we" is an entirely new character? 

I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly
I'm crying

I am the walrus - The Beatles

    

", and we were informed by press releases that it was executed with paint sprayed on to the wall with fire extinguishers.

That is : something has been made with something

Next, someone|s face something...  

"So, depending on your point of view, we are facing an object that is either experimental, gimmicky, playful, derisive or merely bland, but in any case wilfully spectacular.

Are these y|our only options for true re|cognition? One choice from this given five?

"an object that is either experimental, gimmicky, playful, derisive or merely bland,

Plus one obligatory other?

but in any case wilfully spectacular.

Then we choose : merely bland AND wilfully spectacular.

Here it is again, the opening paragraph :

"As you approach the National Gallery of Victoria building on St Kilda Road from the Princes Bridge, you are greeted by an enormous colourful panel attached to its northern wall. It is a content-free decorative abstraction, and we were informed by press releases that it was executed with paint sprayed on to the wall with fire extinguishers. So, depending on your point of view, we are facing an object that is either experimental, gimmicky, playful, derisive or merely bland, but in any case wilfully spectacular."

 

We, the Liberation Chapter of the slave-elves of bLOGOS/HA HA, being non-singular (singular : s-elf), are specially interested in the usage of personal pronouns when they are linked with Theatre of the Actors of Regard.

What then of those singularly upright actors "1" and "I"?

Only now, after "you" and "we", arriveth the "One"...

"... One can only applaud these admirable sentiments; but unfortunately the pictures bear little relation to the genres mentioned, and say nothing about the issues with which they are supposed to be concerned.

       
Later, it is the "one", rather than the "you" or the "we", who will transcend this realm of 'Melbourne Now' disappointments :

"To pass from this cacophony to Edward Steichen's photographs - one can leave the frocks to the ladies who lunch - is like a sudden cold shower of aesthetic clarity and integrity.

... who precedeth the "I" :

"The presentation of contemporary art is also compromised by the uncritical groupthink that reigns today. The dramatic contests and oppositions that characterised the era of modernism from perhaps the 1870s and impressionism to the dissolution of high modernism into fractious splinter groups in the 1970s, have been replaced by a flaccid anything-goes attitude - laziness rather than genuine openness, since much remains excluded from the self-defining domain of the fashionable. 

In this regard, anyone who missed it should look up the important piece written by my colleague Nicholas Rothwell (The Australian, December 6), discussing the critical response to the unhappy blockbuster Australia at the Royal Academy in London. I read this ... "

and shortly after...

"Significantly, Rothwell points out some of the most serious criticism was levelled at the Aboriginal art in the show. One objection was something I have raised on several occasions here : ..."

So, at last, the appearance of the character known as "I". But why did this player not present earlier? After all, the digitial version of The Australian refers to this article as ARTS OPINION.  

Why were "you" cast in the role of the complicit dummies? Why not the character "I" ? 

Author! Author!

As I approach the National Gallery of Victoria building on St Kilda Road from the Princes Bridge, I am greeted by an enormous colourful panel attached to its northern wall. It is a content-free decorative abstraction ...

    

     
detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

   

19 JANUARY 2014
So we sought a second opinion

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

     
         
19 JANUARY 2014
And a third...

John Brack

We, us, them 

1983

collection : National Gallery of Victoria

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...
 

LOGOS/HA HA

     
          

What Regard Is This? (after Neville Cayley)

Bogart and Bird (1941)

      

The Maltese Falcon Sells for $3.5 Million

 by willmckinley

Today at Bonhams in New York City, the statuette of the iconic “black bird” from John Huston’s noir classic brought in a whopping $3.5 million at auction after a protracted bidding war between a bidder in the room and an unidentified party on the phone. The remote buyer, whose bids were delivered by Bonhams’ Director of Entertainment Memorabilia Catherine Williamson, emerged victorious, and a cheer arose from the assembled – and somewhat stunned – crowd. (The final sale price, including Bonhams’ service fees, will be $4,085,000.)

- posted at cinematically insane on November 26, 2013
          

Baby and Block (1952)

 You and Blog (-now-)

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

The PolyMonoChrome Inspectorate

           

A brief sub-set of 20th century Painthing Regard

a mnemonic link to a lot

Ripolin Brothers

Paul Klee

Bauhaus

Mondrian and van Doesburg

Instruments (Makers) of the Passion 

Malevich

Gilbert & George

Theatre of the Actors of Regard

Richter

you know ...


 The Diagonalysist                     Theatre of the Actors of Regard

 The Cruciformalist                    Theatre of the Actors of Regard

    

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

Regarding No Thing At All

       

"I begin to hear the old sounds - the ones I had thought worn out, worn out by intellectualization - I begin to hear the old sounds as though they are not worn out. Obviously they are not worn out. They are just as audible as the new sounds. Thinking had worn them out. And if one stops thinking about them, suddenly they are fresh and new."
John Cage, 'Lecture on Nothing'
     
"l'idéal serait de ne rien montrer du tout"
Robert Bresson

  

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

Edith Through the Looking Lace

     

Art historian Edith Hoffmann :

I Am Curious (yellow matrix )

  

'The Burlington' article here of 8 January concludes with this clarification :

Nota bene : There was another art historian named Edith Hoffmann (1888-1945) who worked at the Printroom of the Budapest Szépművészeti Múzeum and published on Dürer and Hungarian art literature.

BP, Jan. 2014 (with thanks to Yonna Yapou)

 

    

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      

Love's Brother, Love's Sister

        

This is Sam and Connie, brother and sister, thirty years ago.

Thanks for the beautiful birthday message bro. You have been by my side for as long as I can remember.
The 7 year old in me enjoyed playing cars and dress-ups with the boys today.
The 30 year old in me is long forward to dinner and drinks with my gorgeous hubby tonight.
And all 37 years of me loves the birthday messages I have received today. I feel humbled and privileged to be a part of Love Your Sister which brings love and laughter to my life every day, but especially today as I celebrate another important milestone.
xx Connie

facebook -  4 January 2014

Now, Connie is terminally ill with breast cancer and Sam has committed to an epic challenge. He’s riding around Australia on a unicycle, to keep this promise to Connie :

1. To raise a million dollars for breast cancer research

2. To raise awareness of the disease that’s killing her 

3. To break the Guinness World Record for the longest journey on a unicycle

Samuel and Connie were born a year apart, so they’ve always been close. Growing up they played together, explored the neighbourhood together… and fought cancer together.

Connie has fought cancer three times in her life and Samuel has been with her every step of the way. This time things are different. Connie is dying and she doesn’t have much time left.

Faced with the fight of her life, she set Samuel the toughest challenge she could think of. It started as a joke in the kitchen. It turned into a promise.

The goal?

• Set a new Guinness World Record for the most distance travelled on a unicycle
• Raise $1 million
• Spread Connie’s message of breast cancer awareness.

Samuel has consulted all the experts, taken none of their advice and he’s setting off on the challenge of a lifetime. He made a promise and is determined to keep it!

- See more at: http://loveyoursisterorg.tumblr.com/thestory#sthash.uFGiRhVg.dpuf

So far, he has ridden 13.660 km and raised $1.2million.

Read more at loveyoursister.org and follow Sam and Connie's progress on facebook at loveyoursister

There's still has a month of cycling across the Nullarbor before Sam completes the journey at Federation Square, Melbourne on 13 February.

Samuel Johnson was born at Daylesford in 1978. Over recent weeks, his and Connie's friends have been readying the community for his return home, yesterday evening.


5pm: the town begins to gather. Another local, the author and journalist Andrew Masterson, arrives at The Savioa.

5.30pm: a pink mural billows on the main road.


6pm: Sam is sighted up the road, on his way from Daylesford with an escort of pinked-up bikies and the local Police.
       

Lisa Gervasoni (of many generations hereabouts) prepares to document as Andrea Lindsay signals Sam and the escort to stop for a moment so that members of the Daylesford Community Brass Band can lead them the last few streets.

     

Imagine arriving home like this.

        

Under the banner you can just see Sam's pink unicycle wheel, up there in the thick of things.

And from the other side of the banner, how the official photographer saw the rosy-hued scene.
       

click image to enlarge  

My hometown of Daylesford-Hepburn Springs turned on one heck of a LYS party! So proud to be born into such a diverse and giving community. My heart is so full. Thank you. xsj

- Samuel Johnson, facebook 9 Jan 2014

The building you see here, across the road from The Savoia, is known as The Macaroni Factory. It goes back to the gold days of the 1850s.

How very curious that twelve years ago we were all gathering around that building to witness the filming of Jan Sardi's 'Love's Brother' (2004).

 

click image to enlarge  

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA

      
       


Finally, here's the scene in Love's Brother in which, much like yesterday, residents of Hepburn Springs line the street to await THE RETURN of the legendary Love Your Sister unicyclist.
      
     

 detail

 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

 someone looks at something ...
 

 LOGOS/HA HA