Wherever We Lay Down Our Troubled Heads To Sleep

Fig. 1. William Kentridge - (drawing for the film) WEIGHING . . . and WANTING, 1997

'The place of art is for me a transport-station of trauma ... the transport-station does not promise that passage of the remnants of trauma will actually take place in it; it only supplies the space for this occasion The passage is expected but uncertain; the transport does not happen in each encounter and for every gazing subject.'

Bracha Ettinger

In Some Very Rare Hour The First Word Of A Poem*

Fig. 1. Mequitta Ahuja - Fount, 2009


'[Philosophical] ideas by themselves change nothing in the life of an individual. Without the practical knowledge of how to bring great ideas into the heart and even the tissues of the body, philosophy cannot take us very far. Systems, explanations, clarifications, proof - through these modern man squanders his attention on the intellectual function while remaining cut-of from the emotional and instinctual sides of his nature, wherein reside the most powerful energies of our being, and without the corresponding development of which no authentic moral power is possible.'

Jacob Needleman

* 'For the memories themselves are not important. Only when they have changed into our very blood, into glance and gesture, and are nameless, no longer to be distinguished from ourselves - only then can it happen that in come very rare hour the first word of a poem arises in their midst and goes forth from them.' (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Because In This Nakedness The Spirit Finds Its Rest*

Fig. 1. Anselm Kiefer - Erotik im Fernen Osten oder: Transition from cool to warm, 1977


'As the eye, so the object.'

William Blake

* St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

So, How Long Is A String Of Novelties? (Per Valeria)

Fig. 1. Cai Guo-Qiang - Fetus Movement II: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 9, 1991


'The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is Curiosity. By curiosity, I mean whatever desire we have for, or whatever pleasure we take in novelty. We see children perpetually running from place to place to hunt out something new; they catch with great eagerness, and with very little choice, at whatever comes before them; their attention is engaged by every thing, because every thing has, in that stage of life, the charm of novelty to recommend it. But as those things which engage us merely by their novelty, cannot attach us for any length of time, curiosity is the most superficial of all the affections; it changes its object perpetually; it has an appetite which is very sharp, but very easily satisfied; and it has always an appearance of giddiness, restlessness and anxiety. Curiosity from its nature is a very active principle; it quickly runs over the greatest part of its objects, and soon exhausts the variety which is commonly to be met with in nature; the same things make frequent returns, and they return with less and less of any agreeable affect. In short, the occurrences of life, by the time we come to know it a little, would be incapable of affecting the mind with any other sensations than those of loathing or weariness, if many things were not adapted to affect the mind by means of other powers besides novelty in them, and of other passions besides curiosity in ourselves.'

Edmund Burke

If You Find Yourself Going Through Hell, Keep Going*

Fig. 1. William Blake - Dante Running From The Three Beasts, 1824-27


'The only way round is through.'

Robert Frost

* 'If you are going through hell, keep going.' (Winston Churchill)

HOT AS HELL: Today's maximum temperature ... 46.4!


Your Ears Will Orgasm #41: Diamanda Galas - Litanies of Satan (MixPod Player)

Before It Can Be Tasted, The Body Must Be Spoken

Fig. 1. Egon Schiele - Nude, 1910


'The word 'fleisch', in German, provokes me to an involuntary shudder. In the English language, we make a fine distinction between flesh, which is usually alive and, typically, human; and meat, which is dead, inert, animal and intended for consumption. Substitute the word 'flesh' in the Anglican service of Holy Communion; 'Take, eat, this is my meat which was given for you...' and the sacred comestible becomes the offering of something less than, rather than more than, human. 'Flesh' in English carries with it a whole system of human connotations and the flesh of the Son of Man cannot be animalised into meat without an inharmonious confusion of meaning. But, because it is human, flesh is also ambiguous: we are adjured to shun the world, the flesh and the Devil. Fleshly delights are lewd distractions from the contemplation of higher, that is, of spiritual things; the pleasures of the flesh are vulgar, unrefined, even with an element of beastliness about them, although flesh tints have the succulence of peaches because flesh plus skin equals sensuality.'

Angela Carter

Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Art, Dear Viewer

Fig. 1. Damien Hirst - Doodle of a skull on a napkin from The Ivy, 2007


'Don't look for the meanings; look for the use.'

Ludwig Wittgenstein

The Sunday Six: Part Two (Relatively Eclectic)

Fig. 1. Ivan Moudov - Fragments, 2003 - 2004

Fig. 2. Raymond Pettibon - No title (I've often lamented), 2004

Fig. 3. Bill Viola - Without A Shore (still), 2007

Fig. 4. Johanna Calle - Tejido Foliar (detail), 2008

Fig. 5. Phillip Adams (choreographer) - Axeman's Lullaby, 2008 (photo by Jeff Busby)

Fig. 6. Peter Fischli & David Weiss - Parts of a Film with Rat and a Bear, 2008.

'Think like a man of action and act like a man of thought.'

Henri Bergson

Abu-Chanab (Father Of The Moustache)

Fig. 1. Henri-Julien-Félix Rousseau (le Douanier) - The Repast of the Lion, ca. 1907

'As for the idea of a native country, that is to say, of a certain bit of ground traced out on a map and separated from others by a red or blue line: no. My native country is for me the country that I love, that is, the one that makes me dream, that makes me feel well.'

Gustave Flaubert

Addendum: Mel Kadel (for JP)

Fig. 2. Bubble Gum Stick, 2006

Fig 3. A Little Time Alone, 2006

Fig. 4. He Loved To Weave, 2006

Fig. 5. Planting A Fudge Seed, 2006

Fig. 6. Scary Water, 2006

Fig. 7. What You See From A Tree, 2006

Fig. 8. Little Stumps, 2007

Fig. 9. Daily Exercise, 2008

Fig. 10. Escort, 2008

Fig. 11. Grounding, 2008

Fig. 12. Holding Down The Fort, 2008

Fig. 13. Secret Geyser, 2008

Fig. 14. The Wall, 2008

Fig. 15. Unearthing, 2008