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.


07 November 2015

Portraits of Ballarat


This is a screen-snapped portrait of Lachlan Bence, photographer at the Ballarat 'Courier'.

    
Lachlan Bence has been at The Courier since February 1985. Back then, we used to purchase various 8x10 glossy black & white portrait prints by The Courier's photographers. Later, these were exhibited at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, and at the Ballarat Art Gallery.
click image to enlarge  
As can be seen above, the CCP invitation featured a Courier 
meta-photo of local harness racing trainer-driver Les Hammond looking at a Courier front page which featured ... a photo of him. And so it goes...

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

   LOGOS/HA HA 
                 
Yesterday, the City of Ballarat gave a public reception to honour its winning team of Melbourne Cup heroes - and Lachlan Bence was there as usual to record the event.

 The People of Ballarat as Theatre of the Actors of Regard :

 The horse, Prince of Penzance ...
 ... and its many portraits :

click images to enlarge  
 The trainer, Darren Weir ...
 with the winning strapper, Steven Payne :
Steven and his sister, the winning jockey, Michelle Payne.

Amid the crowd, in the image above, are several contemporary totem poles. 

 Two fly lurid banners to inform the locals that some portraits of 'distinguished' Australians are currently being exhibited at the Ballarat Art Gallery
The Archibald Prize is awarded annually to the best portrait, 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.
   
The Archibald Prize was first awarded in 1921. In establishing the prize, JF Archibald’s aim was to foster portraiture as well as support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians. Over the years some of Australia’s most prominent artists have entered and the subjects have been equally celebrated in their fields.
The other pole suspends a surveillance camera to record less distinguished local portraits.

 In Ballarat at the moment there's a history photo recreation competition : Historic Urban Landscape (Ballarat) People & Places through Time: Recreate a Photo Competition. 

For their competition entry, volunteer staff of the Ballarat Art Gallery, wearing artist aprons emblazoned with 'Archibald Prize 2015', posed for a group portrait on the grand staircase of the gallery.


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
They are recreating one of the historical photo examples shown at the competition website : a 1976 portrait of seven artists of the Ballarat and Daylesford/Hepburn Springs regions. 

 the original photograph was by Merle Hathaway
(l - r) Edward Parfenovics, Michael Young, Peter Westwood,
Ray Woolard, Bob Jenyns, Lorraine Jenyns, Peter Tyndall
           
Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...
  
 LOGOS/HA HA