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.
.One of bL's favourite Melbourne buildings is the Capitol Theatre, designed by Walter Burley-Griffin.
In fact, your correspondent once went for a job interview there.
Yes, to be a projectionist.
This curtain open/curtain closed photo by Justin McManus is scanned from today's The Age.
(click to enlarge)
.
Et spécialement pour nous ...
François Mauriac Le sens des mots des maux :
.
self-reflexive, a term applied to literary works that openly reflect upon their own processes of artful composition. Such self-referentiality is frequently found in modern works of fiction that repeatedly refer to their own fictional status (see
metafiction). The
narrator in such works, and in their earlier equivalents such as Sterne's
Tristram Shandy (1759–67), is sometimes called a ‘self-conscious narrator’. Self-reflexivity may also be found often in poetry. See also
mise-en-abyme,
romantic irony.
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In recent months there have been revival celebrations for two Australian films: Bert Deling's
Pure Shit (1975) and Ted Kotcheff's
Wake in Fright (1971).
Adrian Martin lists Philip Tyndall's
Words and Silk : The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane (1988) in his top 10 Australian films. Despite this, and despite this film receiving awards at several festivals overseas, it has never been screened at any major Australian film festival.
In the recently published Oxford Companion to Australian Film (Oxford University Press, 1999), Philip Tyndall's Words and Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane (1990) - one of my all-time favourite Australian films - does not rate a mention. This is sadly symptomatic of how strange, unique, unclassifiable works tend to go underground rather speedily in Australia.
Adrian Martin, March 2000 : full article here
Gerald Murnane has been nominated for the Nobel Prize; has received the Patrick White Award (1999); a Special Award at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards (2007) and an Australia Council Emeritus Award (2008).
Murnane has been the subject of a film and various critical studies but his work is better known in Sweden than it is here. He is an advocate for both the prominence of Australian Literature and the Australian landscape within it and his work can be read as one large story that folds upon itself, seeking always greater and greater detail. His fictive terrain is called ‘the plains’ – an imaginary place that exists simultaneously at the edges of his sight and deeply inside his mind.Extract from the Judges' Comments at the 2007 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.
It seems worth noting therefore that Words and Silk has just received it's first ever Sydney screening, at the unreviewed avoiding myth & message: Australian artists and the Literary world (below) at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Also in the exhibition, for Murnane fans, are the script and poster ticket for the 1990 performance The Literature Club.
Gerald Murnane in a scene from Words and Silk.
(photo by David Petersen)
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By an odd coincidence, given that the previous post regarded official and unofficial signage on a Melbourne electricity box, Shepard Fairey yesterday pleaded guilty to three charges of graffiti in Boston, including one of putting a poster on an electrical box.
Tina Kells' article
'Shepard Fairey, Obama 'Hope' Portrait Artist, Guilty of Graffiti' is at
Now Public :
click here
Shepard Fairey's
OBEY website :
click hereThe photo and attributions below are by
afagen
Barack Obama "Hope" poster
by Shepard Fairey (born 1970)
hand-finished collage, stencil, and acrylic on paper, 2008
Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture
Smithsonian American Art Museum & National Portrait Gallery
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
.Despite Melbourne's reputation as a place enlivened by its street culture, including its graffiti, Melbourne City Council continues to promote an anti-graffiti policy.
bLOGOS/HA HA was therefore recently amused to note this succinct Melbourne survey of sign and style.
OURS IS A FINE MONOGRAM
yours is an ugly tag
bLOGOS/HA HA notes also the additional means by which these two self-promoters focus our attention. The MCC adds a Right-angular battlement frame to their insignia and thereby double-centers it. KIA, free to move, plays the Outside(r) territory and releases just below our sightline to the Monogram a wobbly upward arrow that elevates our focus past the centre-locked Imperative, to
their target. KIA claims the crest of the other and there self-crowns.
LOOK AT ME
look at me KIA 'takes a speccy', in other words. Like Paddy Ryder (below) in Round 7. We observed the
KIA v MCC match-up on the way to last Sunday's
Saints v Cats game.
OAt the peek
bABY bL takes a speccy
in the manner of Patrick Ryder
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Your correspondent was one of the fortunate 54,444 to have a ticket for yesterday's game at the Docklands Stadium between this AFL season's two undefeated teams: SAINTS v CATS.
Greg Baum on page one of today's Melbourne 'Age' wrote (
here )
"So the match grew by degrees into an epic, worthy of its billing: a tug this way, a wrench that, never quite won by St Kilda, never quite conceded by Geelong".
photo: Sebastian Costanzo, THE AGE
Two minutes before the final siren both sides were on 85 points. A draw seemed possible and with it the consequence that
both sides might complete the season undefeated. A mighty mark and a straight kick by Michael Gardiner (above) achieved victory for The Saints.
For those of us above Gate 39 on Level Three it was more besides. By the start of the second quarter a ripple of dire awareness gathered-in our focus upon a real life and death struggle in our midst. Someone had had a heart attack. Already a St. John Ambulance volunteer was providing CPR. This was maintained through the entire second quarter. Five rows of fans were required to leave the area as the various emergency staff came and went. Turn by turn, the CPR relay pushed on beyond the half-time break. Injections of adrenalin and whatever else were given. Very much a split focus as the football continued on the field below while, so close, an impromptu third team fought to save a life. Toward the end of the third quarter a slow slow public procession began. This man, an hour earlier another excited pulse in a cheering crowd, now strapped to a stretcher, much of his clothing stripped away and medical inserts clearly visible, was borne ever so carefully out of that place. (see image below)
The game went on.
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bLOGOS/HA HA recently acquired one of Shepard Fairey's
Aung San Suu Kyi offset prints. (The initial screen print edition sold out in a flash.)
These are still available for purchase. (
click here )
"The proceeds from this print will go to benefit the Human Rights Action Center and The U.S. Campaign for Burma".Further, this image can now also be downloaded free for non-commercial use.
"Please take advantage of this free download and create your own posters and place them where anyone can see them. Help bring some change in Burma!" (
click here )
Aung San Suu Kyi
Shepard Fairey
Open Edition, 24" x 36", Signed
Here's another Shepard Fairey screenprint image, available as part of
Arkitip Issue No. 0051 (
click here )
