Why I Still Forage For You - Even When You Are Here

Fig. 1. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - L'abandon (Les deux amies), n.d.

'And I realised the impossibility which love comes up against. We imagine that it has as its object a being that can be laid down in front of us, enclosed in a body. Alas, it is the extension of that being to all the points in space and time that it has occupied and will occupy. If we do not possess its contact with this or that place, this or that hour, we do not possess that being. But we cannot touch all those points. If only they were indicated to us, we might contrive perhaps to reach out to them. But we grope for them without finding them. Hence mistrust, jealousy, persecutions. We waste precious time on absurd clues and pass by the truth without suspecting it.'

Marcel Proust (from A la recherche du temps perdu: La prisonnière)

Addendum:

Katie and ESVM (aka PFAO) have come to visit us again, and this - with heartfelt thanks - is their contribution:

Poor old Proust - such amazing insight, but he was sick in bed most of the time. I do think I've found him an ESVM companion though.

Departure

It's little I care what path I take,
And where it leads it's little I care;
But out of this house, lest my heart break,
I must go, and off somewhere.

It's little I know what's in my heart,
What's in my mind it's little I know,
But there's that in me must up and start,
And it's little I care where my feet go.

I wish I could walk for a day and a night,
And find me at dawn in a desolate place
With never the rut of a road in sight,
Nor the roof of a house, nor the eyes of a face.

I wish I could walk till my blood should spout,
And drop me, never to stir again,
On a shore that is wide, for the tide is out,
And the weedy rocks are bare to the rain.

But dump or dock, where the path I take
Brings up, it's little enough I care;
And it's little I'd mind the fuss they'll make,
Huddled dead in a ditch somewhere.

"Is something the matter, dear," she said,
"That you sit at your work so silently?"
"No, mother no, 'twas a knot in my thread.
There goes the kettle, I'll make the tea."

The Shimmering Enchantment Of Impossible Dreams

Fig. 1. Peter Keetman - Spiegelnde Tropfen, 1950


'I have sought, I am searching, and I will search for what I call the Total Phenomenon, that is, the Totality of conscience, relations, conditions, possibilities, and impossibilities.'

Paul Valéry

The Games We Shouldn't Forget To Play: Part Five

Japanese Toy Illustrations (25 to 30 of 30)

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'Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It's crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it?'

Frank Gehry

Addendum: Two Of The Best From One Of The Best

The skating scene from Modern Times (1936) - d. Charlie Chaplin

The globe scene from The Great Dictator (1940) - d. Charlie Chaplin

The Poets Of Today Are The Pillars Of The Future

The Sunday Six #8: Relatively Twenty-First Century

Fig. 1. Tina Barney - The Dining Hall, 2001

Fig. 2. Douglas Gordon - Proposition for a Posthumous Portrait, 2004

Fig. 3. Leandro Erlich - Swimming Pool, 2004

Fig. 4. Flavia Da Rin - Untitled, (Oh!), 2005

Fig. 5. Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller - The Killing Machine, 2007

Fig. 6. Chris Burden - Urban Light, 2008

'The image, in its simplicity, has no need of scholarship. It is the property of a naive consciousness, in its expression, it is youthful language. The poet, in the novelty of his images, is always the origin of language. To specify exactly what a phenomenology of the image can be, to specify that image comes before thought, we should have to say that poetry, rather than being a phenomenology of the mind, is a phenomenology of the soul, we should then have to collect documentation on the subject of the dreaming consciousness.'

Gaston Bachelard

There But For The Twists And Turns Of Fortuity...

Fig. 1. Patricia Piccinini - The Young Family, 2002


'You marvel that this matter, shuffled pell-mell at the whim of Chance, could have made a man, seeing that so much was needed for the construction of his being. But you must realise that a hundred million times this matter, on the way to human shape, has been stopped to form a stone, now lead, now coral, now a flower, now a comet; and all because of more or fewer elements that were or were not necessary for designing a man. Little wonder if, within an infinite quantity of matter that ceaselessly changes and stirs, the few animals, vegetables, and minerals we see should happen to be made; no more wondering than getting a royal pair in a hundred casts of the dice. Indeed it is equally impossible for all this stirring not to lead to something; and yet this something will always be wondered at by some blockhead who will never realise how small a change would have made it into something else.'

Cyrano de Bergerac (from Voyage dans la lune)

Addendum: In Her Own Words

Patricia Piccinini talking about her exhibition at Artium (Spain)

Your Ears Will Orgasm #26: Sineopolis (MixPod Player)

1. Main Title From Forbidden Planet - Louis & Bebe Barron
2. Apocalypse: Part 2 - Tod Dockstader
3. Mutations - Jean-Claude Risset
4. Bye Bye Butterfly - Pauline Oliveros
5. Melange - Klaus Schulze
6. On The Other Ocean - David Behrman

The Entrance Fee To Wisdom Is A Sense Of Humour

Fig. 1. Louise Bourgeois - Untitled (With Foot), 1989


'Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.'

Sir Francis Bacon

Truth Is, Everybody's Got A Recipe For Lemonade

Fig. 1. Giovanna Garzoni - Still Life with Bowl of Lemons, late 1640s

'An easy task becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.'

Terence

Addendum: When The Only Way Is Up, Grab A Shovel And Start Digging

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Digg!!!