Thanks for showing me Bas Jander today

Gordon Matta Clark on Ubuweb

Dear Gordon Matta Clark.
Thanks for taking me to the trees today, a place where there are no backwards or forwards, unlike my thesis, which is made of walls and reversal motions.

Song Dong's Stamping the Water

I really wanted to take a cheeky flight to Brisbane and go to the China Project. Instead, I was responsible and didn't fly, but just thought about it a lot. Last night I picked up the exhibition's book and the first page I came to was a series of photographs by Song Dong. I first saw these pictures when I was 16 in Canberra at the National Gallery and despite also seeing a Pollock and Warhol that day, I was completely taken by the photos. I bought the postcard as a souvenir and it has since stayed with me. Now, it's stuck up on my wall in my office and whenever I need a trance, it acts as my portal. For some reason, I never researched about the artist, and intentionally didn't try to out of some superstition, or attempt to maintain the mystery of the piece. Last night, it popped up again to me and so, this week, up on the to do list is Song Dong, Stamping the Water.

from water to water

I come back to this day quite often. I came back to it the day after I landed back into perth and I generally go back to it whenever I am feeling stuck and stuffy with my rigid life. This here is Uruguay, and if I kept on walking and swimming in that direction, I'd cross Rio del Plata and get to Buenos Aires. But I didn't, instead I drank beer in the sun, rode a horse along the beach, drove a motorcycle around town, and then was on the back of one on the other way around. Uruguay, to me, is quite like paradise, although I'm sure, as a tourist, I didn't push through its facade and see the real Colonia del Sacramento. Everything was safe over there, there was no theft; people left their doors wide open, drank mate` in the streets, dance and practice their drumming (alway lame in your home town, always quaint when you are somewhere else). In fact, I walked into someone's house once because I thought it was a restaurant, only to find a kind playing computer games, perdon. Everything over there was light, but I say that probably because I was; no obligations, not working but spending my savings, there with my lover, sunshine, horses and beer. Nothing could go wrong and nothing did go wrong. It really was a relief coming from Buenos Aires which, generally in the streets has a dark paranoia about it. In Uruguay, there were no dark stares or hissing in the streets. In Uruguay, I was idle but breeeeezy.

The second time I was in Colonia del Sacramento was spent drinking warm beer by myself on the jetty, feeding the kittens that crept out between the rocks, and noticing a woman give a guy a blow job at the shore. But that's another story.

Here in Perth, things are good, very good and I love being here again and working on my PhD. I am however, far from idle. I clock in my hours, revise, plan and mark my work, plan my day down to the hour to make sure I get enough sleep, eat and exercise. I'm proud to be doing what I am doing, but more than that, I am grateful to be able to do it. But every now at then, I think about galloping on the beach, with my guide telling me in spanish that he never left Uruguay because he couldn't think of a reason to go, and how in that moment, I understood.

and so, instead of thinking of a time last year, I should be creating more here and now.

Len Lye (1901-1980)

Today was pretty mundane; I spent hours reading journal articles, and realising half way through that they weren't as relevant as I hoped. I started reading about Kinetic artists and Modern Light Art in one of Frank Popper's books and came across Len Lye.

The experimental film maker concentrated on translating corporeal experiences visually. He came up with the idea of using film when he was a student. He says," One of my art teachers put me onto trying to find my own art theory. After many morning walks...an idea hit me that seemed like a complete revelation. It was to compose motion, just as musicians compose sound. [ The idea ] was to lead me far, far away from wanting to excel in...traditional art." so he started painting, etching and stenciling directly onto the celluloid and created "direct forms of motion" (as demonstrated in Free Radicals)

I'd like to say, "I wish there were artists doing stuff like this now, or, I wish that this was taken in, developed and used as a major influence" but there probably are and it probably is and I just don't know about it. As I said to my friend today, 'whenever I see something like this I think to myself, 'why don't I already know about this? why have I been a closed ball and not known about this all along?' and he replied, 'well, if the world was like that, then living would be a bit rubbish wouldn't it'. Yes, he's right. So thank you Len Lye for opening my brain and making it think in new ways and encouraging me to embark on a pathway that will no doubt illuminate my days.

Swinging the Lambeth Walk (1939)






Free Radicals (1958)