bLOGOS/HA HA

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.

04 May 2017

Hakuin & the Scroll within a Scroll

Chapter Four : Ingenious Teaching Devices; Unusual Figures

The Scroll within a Scroll

In a small number of Hakuin's works, he depicts scenes in which he has included hanging scrolls - paintings and calligraphy - so they can be seen by the viewer. To begin this chapter, I will explore several of these "scroll within a scroll" paintings in order to discover Hakuin's reasons for employing such a pictorial device... click here to continue

- p. 179 The Religious Art of Zen Master Hakuin by Katsuhiro Yoshizawa (translated and with contributions by Norman Waddell)

Three Gods of Good Fortune Conning Words by Ssu-ma Kuang
Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769)

Theatre of the Actors of Regard

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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something...

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02 May 2017

-white-on-white-with-red-thread-

White on White : Jesus the Logos blesses the host

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White on White : The Sacrament of the Eucharist
White on White : Holy Communion
White on White : The Transubstantion

White on White : Pope Francis

+ + + +

We are enjoying the HBO series The Young Pope.
Like The West Wing does The Vatican : What if...?
Mad Men, too. Lots more.

Episode 2 presented us this instructive exchange between Sophia, the Vatican Director of Marketing, and Lenny, the young Pope Pious XIII.

- (Sofia) : As you know, Your Holiness, the Vatican holds a monopoly on the production of any and all merchandise with an image of the Pope on it. Today's papal turnover requires us to come up with new designs, which we will then need to get into production as quickly as possible. All those items with the Holy Father's picture on them, which the faithful just love and which make up a sizable slice of the Vatican budget.
- (The Young Pope) : I see. Go on.
- What would be required then is a brief photo shoot, which will then enable us to get into production as soon as possible a series of items displaying Your Holiness's picture: key chains, postcards, ashtrays, lighters, picture cards, plates
- Plates?
- Yes, of course, Holy Father, plates too. In addition to the usual plastic plates, which sell for five euro, we were thinking of something more refined. It occurred to us that we might commission a special plate from Vietri, in Campania. The craftsmen there do the most marvelous decorations, so naturally we were thinking of creating a plate with your portrait right in the center, painted by the very best Vietri's craftsmen.
- Nice. And how much would it sell for?
- Forty-five euro, at least.
- Ah, a reasonable price.
- I would say so, considering that we're talking about a craftsmanship, Holy Father, handmade, not some cheap factory production.
- (Cardinal Voiello) : Perhaps we could send one to all the heads of State.
- (Sophia) : An excellent idea, Your Eminence.
- (The Young Pope) : Good, very good.
- Very good.
- Good.
- Very good.
- Yes, very, very good.
- Very, very good.
- Good.
- (The Young Pope) : Wait a minute. I'll be right back. (Leaves the room.)

- (Sofia) : Good. Where did he go?
- (Cardinal Voiello) : To get a gun, I imagine.
- (Sofia) : Come on! It went fine.

- (The Young Pope returns) : Do you see this plate, ma'am?
- Yes of course I see it.
- Good. This is the sort of merchandise I'm prepared to authorise.
- But it doesn't have your image on it!

- (The Young Pope) : I do not have an image, my good lady, because I am no one. Do you understand? No one. Only Christ exists. Only Christ. And I'm not worth forty-five, or even five euros. I am worth nothing.
- (Sophia) : I don't understand, Holy Father.
- Of course you don't, because, as you said earlier, you studied at Harvard. And Harvard is a place in decline, where you were taught to lower yourselves. Whereas here, in the Vatican, we try to elevate ourselves.

- (The Young Pope) : Who exactly is in charge of curating the image of the Pope?

- (Sophia) : The Secretary of State entrusted that delicate task to me, Holy Father, two years ago.

- (The Young Pope) : Very good. And now I'm going to tell you what you, as curator of the image of the Holy Father, are gonna do. You are gonna fire the Vatican's official photographer immediately. No photographs of the Pope are to be issued. Just as there were none when I was a cardinal or a bishop. Do you know why? I never allowed my picture to be taken. And when someone manage to sneak a photograph of me, I always bought them up before they could be published. Now that I think about it, I've been training my whole life to be an invisible pope.

And so, for my first address, you will see to it that the light is so dim, no photographer, no TV cameraman, and not even the faithful will see anything of me but a dark shadow, my silhouette.
They will not see me because I do not exist.
- (Sofia) : If I may, Holy Father, what you are proposing is nothing short of suicide, media suicide.

- (The Young Pope) : Media suicide, you say? Fine, now try to keep up with me, if you can.
- I'm right with you, Holy Father.
- Good. Ok, so, who is the most important author of the last twenty years? Careful now, not the best, virtuosity is for the arrogant, the most important, the author who has sparked so much morbid curiosity that he became the most important? I wouldn't know. I'd say Philip Roth.
- No. Salinger.
- The most important film director?
- Spielberg.
- No. Kubrick. Contemporary artist?
- Jeff Koons. Or Marina Abramovic.
- Banksy.
- Electronic music group?
- I don't know the first thing about electronic music.
- You say Harvard is a good university! Anyway, Daft Punk.
- (Cardinal Voiello) : The best Italian female vocalist?
- Mina?
- Very good!
- (The Young Pope) : Now do you know what it is, what the invisible red thread is that connects them all, all these most important figures in their respective fields? None of them let themselves be seen. None of them let themselves be photographed.
- (Cardinal Voiello) : But you're not an artist, Holy Father. You are a head of State.
- (The Young Pope) : Yes, of a city state so small that it has no outlet to the sea, and in order to survive, its leader has to make himself as unreachable as a rock star. The Vatican survives thanks to hyperbole. So we, we shall generate hyperbole, but this time in reverse.
- (Sophia) : I'm beginning to get your point, Holy Father. Yes, not only am I beginning to get it, I'm beginning to like it, too.
- Good, very good.

Theatre of the Actors of Regard
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

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30 April 2017

T|AR|P

1926 portrait (retouched) of Hans Arp with navel-monocle

Shadow hand points at navel of Hans Arp, Brittany, 1930s

Supreme Goddess as Void, with projection space for TARPoem

Theatre of the Actors of Regard
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27 April 2017

Ned Kelly monocled

Original sketch of Ned Kelly
with Chinese coin as monocle
located by researchers of TAR

Theatre of the Actors of Regard
AAA_Art Archive Australia
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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

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26 April 2017

AusTARal Asia In Focus

Theatre of the Actors of Regard

Fosterville Institute of Applied & Progressive Cultural Experience devised the apparatus below for Theatre of the Actors of Regard by a progressive application of the teachings of Hakuin to the monoptic frame (L'introuvable) of Marcel Mariën and a Qing Dynasty coin found in 2014 at Elcho Island.

FIAPCE

Recent speculative research suggests that Ned Kelly may have used a similar Chinese coin from the Victorian goldfields as a muck-around monocle prior to his realisation of the iron mask eyes frame.

Curator of Australian art, Denise Mimmocchi, says Nolan is one of the most significant Australian artists of the 20th century. "He changed the way we look at the landscape and think of the landscape," she says.

"He looked at the landscape in terms of the inner life of the place – he wasn't content with just the appearance of things. His Kelly series is a classic example of how he used myth and legend, and also history and place, to frame how we look at the landscape.

"It's hard to disassociate the way we think of Kelly country from that iconic black mask he painted."

Sidney Nolan: Australian Synchrotron helps reveal the man behind the Ned Kelly mask
The Age / Debbie Cuthbertson, Arts Editor, 22 April 2017

AAA_Art Archive Australia

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24 April 2017

Ideo Spex : 'Mon Oncle'

Marcel Mariën, L'introuvable, 1937

Theatre of the Actors of Regard

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A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something...

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22 April 2017

The Clive Palmer Poetry Party presents

Recent tweets from Clive Palmer :

and now his Frog Poem contribution :

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someone looks at something...

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21 April 2017

Vale Ti Parks (1939 - 2017)

Design and Art Australia Online

The experimental artist Ti Parks had a major influence on the development of conceptual art in Australia, especially in Melbourne.

Introduction to Biography (stub) at National Library of Australia

More info here.

Ti Parks, Black desks, 1967 collection NGV

Ti Parks, The Tent, 1968
1980 reconstruction at Art Projects, Melbourne (above)
see (below) the 2005 text for Pitch Your Own Tent :

Monash University Museum of Art presents Pitch Your Own Tent: Art Projects | Store 5 | 1st Floor, an exhibition and publication examining the recent history of contemporary Australian art from 1979-2002 through the activities and practices of three influential artist-run spaces: Art Projects, Melbourne 1979-1984, established by John Nixon; Store 5, Melbourne 1989-1993, established by Gary Wilson; 1st Floor, Melbourne 1994-2002, established by David Rosetzky.

The exhibition explores a strong lineage in the recent history of contemporary Australian art; of avant-garde, experimental and innovative practices and discourses developed by communities of artists through independent artist-run exhibition and publishing initiatives.

Each of the three respective artist-run spaces will be represented through one of MUMA’s three galleries, which will provide the opportunity to represent each organisation in context, whilst also allowing a comparison of the ideas, modes of display, and material culture of each respective enterprise. One contention of the exhibition is the degree to which it is artists themselves who are responsible for the interpretation and writing of art history.

One important parameter that has been established within the curatorial framework is to involve only those works of art which were actually presented in the programs of the respective artist-run spaces, thereby invoking the forms, production values and materiality of the respective periods.

The title, Pitch Your Own Tent, makes reference to Gustave Courbet who pitched his own tent in front of the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, to Ti Parks tents (one of which was exhibited at Art Projects and will be included in the exhibition), to Rikrit Taravanija’s tent installed in front of the AGNSW, and to the perpetually provisional and itinerant nature of artist-run spaces generally.

Given that the programs of Art Projects, Store 5 and 1 st Floor were each ambitious, diverse and encompassed exhibition and publishing programs conducted over periods of 5-9 years, the exhibition will inevitably focus upon the principal artists, and selected works which have made influential and/or lasting contributions, or are strongly representative of innovative visual arts culture of the time.

Artists include:
Art Projects – Anti-Music, Tony Clark, Peter Cripps, John Davis, John Dunkley-Smith, Richard Dunn, Robert Jacks, Robert MacPherson, John Nixon, Imants Tillers, Ti Parks, Mike Parr, Peter Tyndall, Ania Walwicz, Jenny Watson.

Store 5 – Stephen Bram, Sandra Bridie, Tony Clark, Bronwyn Clark-Coolee, Marco Fusinato, Diena Georgetti, Melinda Harper, Gail Hastings, Anne-Marie May, John Nixon, Rose Nolan, Kerrie Poliness, Kathy Temin, Gary Wilson, Constanze Zikos.

1st Floor Artists and Writers Space – Amanda Ahmed, Guy Benfield, Kate Beynon, Martine Corompt, Michael Delany, Kate Ellis, Mira Gojak, Eliza Hutchison, Raafat Ishak, Brendan Lee, Andrew McQualter, John Meade, Sean Meilak, Callum Morton, David Noonan, Alex Pittendrigh, David Rosetzky, Jacinta Schreuder, John Spiteri, Lyndal Walker.

Text: Carolyn Barnes, Max Delany, Tessa Dwyer, D.J Huppatz, Andrew Hurle, Robyn McKenzie, Sarah Tutton, edited by Max Delany.

Ti Parks lived in Melbourne from 1964 to 1973
and during that period was one of the number of significant artists associated with Bruce Pollard's Pinacotheca Gallery at St Kilda then Richmond.

The final exhibition at Pinacotheca was in August 2002, of recent artwork by Ti Parks. The images below come from a film of that event - Parks at Pinacotheca by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos - with commentary by Ti.

Parks at Pinacotheca by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos 2002 / revised 2011

Parks at Pinacotheca by Nicholas Nedelkopoulos 2002 / revised 2011

In 2007, Christian Capurro collaborated with Parks at the Venice Biennale, as recorded here :

Ti Parks

Pensa con i sensi - Senti con la mente. L'arte al presente /
Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense

'Off-Site' Performances, June: Venice

As an invited collaborator for the 'off-site' component of the Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette work at this year's Venice Biennale 52nd International Exhibition of Art, Ti Parks will be presenting a series of performances - 'performontages' as the artist calls them - twice a day in public spaces across Venice from June 11 to 13, 2007.