Reinventing the Wheel : One good turn deserves another

         
Reinventing the Wheel: the Readymade Century finishes tomorrow at Monash University Art Museum.

It sent us back into the archives to look afresh at various old postcards and the like. Here's a postcard from 1935 that seems on beam, albeit resistant to a fix.

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Mark 8:36 _ King James Version

    

To see the wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting, a sort of opening of avenues on other things than material life of every day. I liked the idea of having a bicycle wheel in my studio. I enjoyed looking at it just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace. It was like having a fireplace in my studio, the movement of the wheel reminded me of the movement of the flames.

- Marcel Duchamp : Arturo Schwartz, The Complete works of Marcel Duchamp, London: Thames and Hudson, 1969, p.442

           
In another card, from 1918, a Man o' Wheels looks at Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel and thinks to himself : "You are all right but - it's my turn now!"  
 

    

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Act/ors of Regard at Melbourne Now

       

Chris McAuliffe begins his article about 'Melbourne Now' (National Gallery of Victoria, until 23 March) with:

Phillipe de Montebello, former director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, once remarked that museums are no longer about art, they're about visitors. Having popularised the blockbuster show, he realised that exhibitions were more about the looker than what is looked at.

'NGV exhibition shines light on the peculiar poetry of Melbourne's soul'
Chris McAuliffe /THE AGE (Melbourne)
11 December 2013 

Find the balance, then slowly slowly...

     

     

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ANTI-MUSIC

Soon to conclude at David Pestorius Projects :

ANTI–MUSIC: 1979–1983
30 October—13 December, 2013
Pestorius Sweeney House, Brisbane

"... the most comprehensive retrospective of this important Australian artist collective, which in the early 1980s gained international recognition for its conflation of experimental music, punk and post-conceptual strategies.

An umbrella term for a large number of recording groups comprised mainly of artists with little or no musical training, ANTI–MUSIC was founded in 1979 by John Nixon, who also co-ordinated its activities over the five year duration of the project. Experimenting with a wide-range of musical genres, including folk, rock, pop, electronica, improv, film music, noise, muzak, and even opera, ANTI–MUSIC eschewed live performance, instead preferring anonymity and concentrating on DIY cassette-tape recording processes..."
       
- full text here

      

ANTI-MUSIC : installation at Pestorius Sweeney House

And at 'Melbourne Now' (NGV until 23 March) John Nixon continues this with The Donkey's Tail and The Donkey’s Tail Jr.

Formed in 2007 by artist John Nixon, The Donkey’s Tail is an experimental artmusic ensemble featuring diverse artists, musicians and amateur collaborators who perform Nixon’s unconventional compositions on instruments made from found objects and orthodox instruments played in unorthodox ways. The group has been prolific in the experimental music scene, releasing more than sixty-five recordings on CD and playing regularly in Melbourne galleries and music venues. For Melbourne Now, The Donkey’s Tail has conceived an installation encompassing homemade instruments, CDs, photographs, paintings, graphic scores, sheet music cover designs, flyers and posters, and abstract kinetic videos. The project also incorporates The Donkey’s Tail Jnr, a special commission for kids encouraging experimentation with sound.

- Melbourne Now catalog

The Donkey’s Tail : installation at Melbourne Now
     

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Beyond Beholding

  

We were recently alerted to the online and free
Journal of Art Historiography.

In the December 2013 Issue Number 9, by the titles alone, two articles were of immediate interest; confirmed in the reading. Ian Burn’s Questions: Art & Language and the rewriting of Conceptual Art history by David Pestorius : click here

Abstract: In the 1970s, the Australian artist Ian Burn (1939–1993) was a key member of the pioneering Conceptual Art group Art & Language. However, since Burn’s untimely death in 1993 his name and important contribution to Conceptual Art have been slipping away in official accounts of Art & Language history published in the context of career-defining exhibitions in major museums. What might be at stake in minimizing the inputs of an artist who had been central to the Art & Language project? And what are the consequences of this short-circuiting of museum scholarship? This paper charts the writer’s investigation of this art historical manipulation. It also reflects on how Art & Language has reacted when called upon to account for their actions. It is a cautionary tale to be sure, but it is one that raises important ethical and legal questions about the role and responsibility of major art museums having effectively colluded with living artists to re-construct art history.

And ‘Hundreds of eyes’: Beyond Beholding in Riegl's ‘Jakob van Ruysdael’ (1902) by Christopher P. Heue. 

Today, we focus on the latter. To read the full article click here. Below is an extract.

‘Hundreds of eyes’: Beyond Beholding in Riegl's ‘Jakob van Ruysdael’ (1902)

Christopher P. Heuer

... Jacob van Ruisdael, meanwhile, emerges as exemplary of the third phase, in works like the Great Beech Forest, where human activity has been expunged. It is, as Riegl puts it, sheer looking that becomes the subject of the work:

one perceives almost nothing but trees, each of them comes forward as an individual…None of the trees has that insistent tactile dimension - as experienced on every walk in a forest - that transfixes the eye, taking up the entire visual field and thus never graspable at once. And yet, between the trees, the bright sky looks at the beholder with hundreds of eyes. 

Tree and sky, anthropomorphized, thus acknowledge the beholder, almost socially. And indeed, the mutual balance between Ruisdael’s subjectivity and that of the purported beholders’ - eye to eyes - is precisely what Riegl tracked in the giant Gruppenporträt article from the same year (1902), a balance based on jointly deferential Aufmerksamkeit, or attention, between observer and sitter. The trees work like Rembrandt’s glaring syndics. ‘…all of Dutch painting can be called, ‘ Riegl writes near the close of the Ruisdael essay, ‘a painting of attention.’

 For this attention, Riegl explains, is uniquely harmonious in Ruisdael’s own ‘mature’ phase, where certain paintings’ design functions almost as an allegory for Dutch egalitarianism: ‘individual things are always coordinated. No single one is emphasized at the expense of another…sky and earth are completely equivalent.’ Riegl writes. This pictorial relationship within the painting models a relationship ostensibly outside the painting between beholder and actual artwork. The painting, that is, anchors a visual transaction. And just as the staffage is depicted in the act of calmly staring at trees, dunes, and water, so is the human beholder - placed before the picture - made aware of their own silent observational performance:

…we see a wanderer sitting and resting contemplatively. [...] Any remnant of action as an expression of will has been done away with; what the artist represents and the beholder experiences in now pure sensation.8 

What the best Ruisdael pictures do, Riegl writes, is engage a ‘pure enjoyment of looking.’ Importantly, this is a looking cleaved from what Riegl calls the ‘expression’ of some extrinsic value - freed from duty to narrative or artistic will. The beholder’s looking remains engaged, however, even without Wille – it is an active attention, but one that never seeks to overpower its subject...

          

Although interestingly/curiously the article doesn't picture 'the Great Beech Forest', we reckon it is probably this, also known as The Great Forest. 

         

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Regarding : " - eye to eyes - "

        
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
          

presents
          

The Battle of the Blink (continued)
         

CYCLOPS versus ARGUS PANOPTES
                 

    

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From : a painting with two Titles...

  

Dr Who (Baker) : You were curious about this painting, I think. I acquired it in remarkable circumstances. What do you make of the Title?

Dr Who (Smith) : Which Title? There's two. 'No more' or 'Gallifrey Falls'.

Dr Who (Baker) : No, you see, that's where everybody's wrong. It's all one Title : Gallifrey Falls No More. Now, what would you think that means, eh?

    

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To : a painthing with four Labels

     

This installation for Theatre of the Actors of Regard at 'Melbourne Now', National Gallery of Victoria 
until 23 March 2014.

        

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click image to enlarge   

    

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Nelson Mandela

               
18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013
           

Free At Last!

What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.   

             
      

      

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Dr Who : LOL part 5 _ The Great Curator

Okay, let's round this up. 

Through the inspiration of Bad Wolf/the Interface/conscience of The Moment, the Doctors devise a plan for future-saving Gallifrey. Art meets cosmic cryogenics.

Clara : But where would Gallifrey be?

Dr Who (Tennant) : Frozen. Frozen in an instant of time. Safe and hidden away.

Dr Who (Smith) : Exactly.

Dr Who (Hurt) : Like a painting!
              

.  .  .  .

  

Did their intervention for Gallifrey work?

The fall of a white sugar cube is stilled above a clear dark liquid...

.  .  .  .

  

The three TARDIS and their travellers reconstitute in the Under Gallery of the National Gallery, London. 

Clara and the Doctors sip tea and regard anew the painting of Gallifrey .

 

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Dr Who (Tennant) : What is it actually called?

Dr Who (Smith) : Well, there's some debate. Either 'No More' or 'Gallifrey Falls'

Dr Who (Hurt) : Not very  encouraging. How did it get here?

Dr Who (Smith) : No idea.

  

More chat about this and that, then two of the Doctors whizz off in their Police boxes. Clara and her Doctor return to the painting.

 

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Clara : Need a moment with your painting?
Dr Who (Smith) : How did you know?
Clara : Those big sad eyes. Oh, by the way, there was an old man looking for you. I think it was the curator. (She steps into the waiting TARDIS)

Dr Who (Smith) : (Sits. Looks at the painting) I could be a curator. I'd be great at curating. I'd be The Great Curator. (chuckles) I could retire and do that. I could retire and be the curator of this place.

Voice of Tom Baker : You know, I really think you might.

Dr Who (Smith) : (Looks hard at the speaker) I never forget a face...

Dr Who (Baker) : I know you don't. And in years to come you might find yourself revisiting a few. But just the old favorites, eh.

(The two Drs Who turn to look together at the painting)

    

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Dr Who (Baker) : You were curious about this painting, I think. I acquired it in remarkable circumstances. What do you make of the Title?

Dr Who (Smith) : Which Title? There's two. 'No more' or 'Gallifrey Falls'.

Dr Who (Baker) : No, you see, that's where everybody's wrong. It's all one Title : Gallifrey Falls No More. Now, what would you think that means, eh?

Dr Who (Smith) :  That Gallifrey didn't fall. It worked. It's still out there.

Dr Who (Baker) :  I'm  only a humble curator; I'm sure I wouldn't know.

Dr Who (Smith) : Where is it? 

Dr Who (Baker) : Where is it, indeed? Lost : Shhh! Perhaps. Things do get lost, you know. Now you must excuse me. Ooh, you have a lot to do.

Dr Who (Smith) :  Do I? Is that what I'm supposed to do now; go looking for Gallifrey?

Dr Who (Baker) : That's entirely up to you. Your choice. I can only tell you what I would do; if I were you.... Oh, if I were you... (a chuckle shared) Oh, perhaps I was you, of course. Or, perhaps, you are me. Congratulations.

Dr Who (Smith) : Thank you very much.

Dr Who (Baker) : Or perhaps it doesn't matter either way. Who knows? WHO KNOWS. (Confirms this affirmation with a touch to his nose. Then exits)

W   H   O

K   N   O   W   S   E

Dr Who (Smith) : (Turns back to look again at the painting of Gallifrey. He smiles, knowing that Gallifrey is no longer lost to him.)

    

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Homer Dreams of Home : Journey of the Hero

Doctor Who steps from his TARDIS. Where is he this time? He's on a cosmic opera stage where waiting for him are the previous eleven. 

The theme of this overview has been LOL aka 

Lots Of Looking. And so, for the curtain call, one grand summary Act of Regard. From their stage of 50 TeleVision Earth Years the twelve look, as one, at Gallifrey.

 

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The voice of Dr Who (Smith) : Clara sometimes asks me if I dream. Of course I dream, I tell her; everybody dreams. But what do you dream about, she asks. The same thing everybody dreams about, I tell her. I dream about where I'm going. She always laughs at that: You're not going anywhere; you're just wandering about. That's not true; not any more. I have a new destination; my journey is the same as yours; the same as anyone's. It's taken me many life-times but at last I know where I'm going; where I've always been going: home, the long way round.

Where Gallifrey is, now we are. 

For Theatre of the Actors of Regard :

we look at the Doctors

and the Doctors look at us. 

            

    

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VALE Martin Sharp : 1942-2013

    

In the mid 60s your correspondent was a pimply boarding school prisoner. Escape was through music : Hendrix, Cream, Wild Cherries, Loved Ones. A classmate brought in NME and Melody Maker and every so often one of us bought a record.

What a thrill the day my import copy of Cream's double album arrived by post. Wheels Of Fire. 

And what a cover, WOW! By the Australian artist Martin Sharp. First contact.

The front cover was a black and white drawing on silver. (Like the silver coated walls of the new National Gallery of Victoria.) Cool.

Then you open it. POW! The eyes have it! Schoolboy heaven.

Around the late 70s, I visited an exhibition by Martin Sharp at Tolarno Galleries in St Kilda. Martin was there throughout the show, open-house, working on a painting of Tiny Tim. I watched him for ages, full of admiration, but schoolboy fandom got in the way of saying hello.

In 1999, Linda Michael and I included one of Martin's Eternity works (Eternity, 1990) in an exhibition of painted words - word - at the MCA Sydney.

We placed it near a photo of Arthur Stace, another Sydney special being, writing the original version of Eternity.

          

Richard Neville, friend of Martin and fellow conspirator from the Oz days, published the following appreciation in yesterday's SMH.

Martin Sharp: Art, music and a mind-blowing voyage of discovery

Sydney Morning Herald (click here)

2 December 2013  

Bravo and Vale, Martin Sharp.

       
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Melbourne Now : THE AGE editorial

   
All our own work, and how!
 
Sometimes, Melburnians can surprise even themselves. For example, last February, 300,000 of us jammed into the CBD for the first White Night arts and cultural festival. From 7pm to 7am, the city glowed and pulsated so resoundingly, successfully and happily, that summer without such an event is now unthinkable.
     
There is the same feeling of simultaneous discovery and celebration with the National Gallery of Victoria's Melbourne Nowexhibition of contemporary art. This description does not adequately summarise what is more exposition than exhibition: it involves more than 175 individual and group presentations across art, architecture, design and performance, and there's barely a millimetre of space to spare inside or outside either gallery.
       
Melbourne Now's first two days attracted more than 18,000 people, the NGV's biggest opening weekend in 10 years. There might have been substantial turnouts for the gallery's blockbuster shows, but this one seems set to notch up its own records, as well as attract an eager younger generation of art lovers.
      
The remarkable thing - an overwhelming endorsement of NGV director Tony Ellwood's determination to sharpen the institution's focus on contemporary art - is that Melbourne Now is entirely a local show, devoted to the here and now. It exists to display the immensity of cultural talents in this city at this particular time. That its popularity is assured from the outset, offers confirmation that contemporary art is not to be feared, but something to be embraced and celebrated in all its forms. The walls of the NGV's St Kilda Road building may appear tall, grey and unbreachable, but behind them lie new wonders to behold.

 

THE AGE : Editorial

2 December 2013

(click here)

    

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Dr Who : LOL part 4

         
And so we advance from one Act of Regard...
       


... to the next.
                 


From one something seen ...

       
... to the next.

           
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Dr Who
Lots Of Looking :
Theatre of the Actors of Regard

One by one ...



... and two by two.
         


Who is Who ...


      
... and who is who?

Self and other self ...
        

    

.... other and other other ...

"What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" 
(William Blake)
           
To the mutually assured endgame (above) cometh the Three Doctor Amigos.

Dr Who (Tennant) : Any second now, you're going to stop that countdown. Both of you, together.

Dr Who (Smith) : And you're going to negotiate the most perfect treaty of all time. Safeguards all round. Completely fair to both sides.

Dr Who (Smith) : And the key to perfect negotiation ...

Dr Who (Tennant) : Not knowing which side you're on.

  

           
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