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.
As mass protests continue after the world stage killing of handcuffed Afro-American George Floyd by a white US policeman, persons and symbols of black oppression (#blacklivesmatter) are named and shamed. Publicly brought-down.
In the US, statues of Robert E Lee and Confederate generals are being removed, and today Columbus. Yesterday (above) in the UK, down came the so-called philanthropist (lover of human beings) slave-trader Edward Colston. White supremacist Cecil Rhodes appears to be next. In Belgium, it's the monstrous King Leopold II. In Australia, Cook is under review, again.
SMH photo (2018)
This theme of over-throw (impermanence sub-set) struck home when your correspondent first visited The Vatican, in 1984, and encountered the Sala di Costantino, the War Room ('In this sign, conquer') painted by assistants of Raphael. On that ceiling is Tommaso Laureti Siciliano's mundane and naked 'The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism' of 1585. It remains ] as ( a core reference.
We were delighted to receive this communique of meta-regard from the Ian Potter Museum of Art :
Dr Kyla McFarlane contemplates the act of staring at the work The Coat, taking time with it rather than just glancing at it; allowing oneself to get lost in the detail, experiencing each element of the composition as well as the impact of the work in its entirety.
Lecture Topic: POPISM, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1982
Speaker: Judy Annear
The exhibition POPISM was held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1982. At 24 years old, recent honours graduate and founder and editor of Art & Text magazine, Paul Taylor was invited to curate an exhibition of contemporary Australian art. The NGV was usually described as ‘the bunker’ with apparently little connection to the local art scene or experimental practice. POPISM came like a bolt from the blue, hard on the heels of the first five issues of Art &Text.
This lecture will discuss the exhibition and the artists (Howard Arkley, David Chesworth, Ian Cox, Juan Davila, Richard Dunn, Paul Fletcher, Maria Kozic, Robert Rooney, Jane Stevenson, The Society for Other Photography, Imants Tillers, Peter Tyndall, Jenny Watson, and Tsk Tsk Tsk), provide some background and context to the ideas and practices, and the evolution of Taylor’s thinking and working. I will trace this through Taylor’s published writings, the various reactions to his activities, and the recollections and interpretations of his peers – then and now.
Judy Annear is an independent researcher and writer based in Victoria on Dja Dja Wurrung land, never ceded, and Honorary (Principal Fellow) School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. Her fields of research include literary feminisms, and modern and contemporary art practice underpinned by a focus on periods of major technological change. Amongst other projects, she is currently researching Allan Sekula’s first visit to Australia in 1980, as a guest of Working Papers On Photography, Melbourne. Her recent publications include a small book of experimental texts The Ls 2019, as well as contributions to Photomedia Now/Everything is Interesting’ in Art Monthly Australasia October 2018, and an encyclopaedic history, The Photograph and Australia 2015.
ABOUT THE SERIES:
ACCA’s Lecture Series, Defining Moments: Australian Exhibition Histories 1968–1999, will take a deeper look at the moments that have shaped Australian art since 1968. In the second year of this two-year series, seven more guest lecturers will analyse the game changers in Australian art, addressing key contemporary art exhibitions staged over the last three decades of the twentieth century and reflecting on the ways these exhibitions shaped art history and contemporary Australian culture more broadly.
Ambitious, contested, polemical, genre-defining and genre-defying, contemporary art exhibitions have shaped and transformed the cultural landscape, along with our understanding of what constitutes art itself. This program traces the legacies of artists and curators, addresses the critical reception of selected significant projects, and reflects on a wide range of exhibitions and formats; from artist run initiatives to institutions, as well as interventions in public space and remote communities. clickHEREfor 2020 season listings
Jane Sutherland (1853-1928), Obstruction, 1887 Turns out, it was neither a cow (La vache qui rit) nor a bull (Logos). It was, in fact, another young girl, MISS-spelled by a malevolent ha-ha turned split-logos (post and rail), immured in deceptive appearance. A ha-ha (French: hâ-hâ or saut de loup) is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier while preserving an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond.
The design includes a turfed incline that slopes downward to a sharply vertical face (typically a masonry retaining wall). Ha-has are used in landscape design to prevent access to a garden by, for example, grazing livestock without obstructing views. In security design, the element is used to deter vehicular access to a site while minimizing visual obstruction.
The name "ha-ha" is thought to have stemmed from the exclamations of surprise by those coming across them, as the walls were intentionally designed so as not to be visible on the plane of the landscape.[1] Alternatively, it may have been referred to as "ha-hah" as an abreviation of "half and half" with half a wall and half a ditch. Daniel Dering in 1724, John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont (father to the prime minister, Spencer Perceval), observed of Stowe: "What adds to the beauty of this garden is, that it is not bounded by walls, but by a ha-hah [sic], which leaves you the sight of the beautiful woody country, and makes you ignorant how far the high planted walks extend."
Elioth Gruner (1882-1939) Landscape : Two Figures at Post and Rail Fence Lot 16 : Shapiro : SH179- Australian and International Art for auction 10 June 2020
Upon the scene arriving, seeking judgement, liberation, Prince Elioth didst deconstructed that spelling rail and so released the trapped girl|s, the one and thus the other, to be and to talk, together, free. Unbounded.
The human brain is divided into two hemispheres – left and right. Scientists continue to explore how some cognitive functions tend to be dominated by one side or the other; that is, how they are lateralised. - Wikipedia
TARists of binary matters and matrix studies continue to observe Re. subject matter regarding object matter
