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.


06 September 2015

Borders | borders | borders!


Not since WW2 and the 1947 partition of India has there been such a mass movement of human refugees.

Often in such extremis, the overwhelming complexity is reduced to a single compelling image; often of a suffering child, as it was in the Viet Nam war, at the Oklahoma City Bombing and during the Gaza Strip invasion  in 2000. This time, it's the image of a refugee child at the borders of sea and land, war and peace, life and death.
         

 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA 
         

a drowned refugee child
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an Official with a notebook
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a photographer
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an image
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Reuters
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editors
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publishers
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as described by news and opinion writers 
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as received by us and remade
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as acted upon in thought word and deed
       
Theatre of the Actors of Regard : photo LM 
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA