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.
At the time, we let it pass without taking notes, but it has stuck: seen on YouTube, said as an aside, someone at a seminar proffered (alluding to Klein's Leap into the void) ... a leap into the world.
Below, Yves Klein breaks through (1960) and sees ahead ... Houdini (1907).
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Today, on a bridge over the Yarra.
By the Yarra River at Queen's Bridge, Melbourne, surrounded by a large crowd, the artist prepares to liberate himself.
Meanwhile, how the hell...?!
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Through skillful means,
they do not abide in nirvana,
and through wisdom, not in samsara.
Having abandoned the two extremes,
Buddhas engage in universal welfare,
free from conceptual thought.
- Asanga, Mahayanasamgraha
Joseph Kosuth, and Lawrence Weiner. Photo by Seth SiegelaubTheatre of the Actors of Regard
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1. Defining the Definition
definition/dɛfɪˈnɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
1. a statement of the exact meaning of a word,
especially in a dictionary.
"a dictionary definition of the verb"
2. the degree of distinctness in outline of an object,
image, or sound.
"the clarity and definition of pictures can be aided by
... throwing knives [see: TARget)
Similar : clarity clearness visibility precision sharpness crispness acuteness distinctness resolution focus contrast
Opposite : blurriness fuzziness
2. The Initiate
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3. The Practice of Law 
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4. The Record
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Lucio Fontana with knife and canvas (Milan 1964) photo Ugo Mulas
Lucio Fontana and four of the 'Fine di Dio' series, photo Orazio Bacci
5. Defining the TARget
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Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
— Zen proverb
Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-1799) collection FIAPCE
One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, shut the door
Five, six, pick up sticks
Seven, eight, lay them straight
Nine, ten, begin again
— Children's verse (Traditional)
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Origin
late Middle English (in the sense ‘womb’):
from Latin, ‘breeding female’,
later ‘womb’, from mater, matr- ‘mother’.
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FIAPCE -1998-
Yesterday, researching Gordon Parks' 1956 photographs of the Chico Hamilton Quintet for LIFE magazine, this popped up...
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Following on from yesterday's album cover photography by Gordon Parks : today, two other promotional images from that 1956 visit of the Chico Hamilton Quintet and Slave Guitars to the studio of artist Vito Paulekas and his 'Counterpoints' sculpture.
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Heide Museum of Modern Art, (Heidelberg outside Melbourne, John and Sunday Reed)
Justin Art House Museum (Melbourne, Charles and Leah Justin)
Pestorius Sweeney House (Brisbane, David Pestorius)
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Spare Room 33 (Canberra, Peter Jones and Susan Taylor)
Smaller in scale ("Cut your coat...) but not in serious intent. With Canberra in lockdown, Peter has taken to Instagram. Today, for example:
It being Sunday, we're enjoying pancakes and listening to 'difficult' music. It has always been grimly amusing to us that the barely three minutes of Webern's Opus 11 for cello and piano is now rising 107 years of age and can still drive people up the wall. Whereas we love the atonal, the serial, the minimalist.
Morton Feldman is one of our favourite composers. He was in love with sound, and his systems were dedicated to freeing it. His beef with his European contemporaries in the 1950's was that system and process had become for them the actual subject of musical composition (though we love their music too).
The added bonus with Feldman is that he was a brilliant writer and raconteur, was a close friend of many major New York artists, and thought deeply about the differences between their art and his. His friend Franz Kline's work is on the cover of the pictured LP from 1962.
Here's a typical Feldman musing: "Franz Kline once told me that it was only rarely that colour did not act as an intrusion into his painting ... In music it is the instruments that produce the colour. And for me, that instrumental colour robs the sound of its immediacy. The instrument has become for me a stencil, the deceptive likeness of a sound." And further: "I began to feel that the sounds were not concerned with my idea of symmetry and design, that they wanted to sing of other things. They wanted to live, and I was stifling them ... To make something is to constrain it. I have found no answer to this dilemma. My whole creative life is simply an attempt to adjust to it." Morton Feldman, 1972.
Last week (28 August) :
Six classic records (well, five classics, one not so much) featuring black and white cover photography.
1. Holger Czukay, 12" EP. Cover photo by Angus MacKinnon.
2. Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic. Cover photo by Raenne Rubinstein.
3. Jay White, Street Scene. Cover photo by Burt Goldblatt.
4. Chico Hamilton, Quintet in Hi Fi. Cover photo by William Claxton.
5. Ruby Braff, Braff!! Cover photo by Jay Maisel.
6. Bob Mould, Workbook. Rear cover photo by Marc Norberg.
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