an old man's grapes

"I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and may therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, from "The World as Will and Representation" 1819

vaguely feminine

"mountains and sea" (1952) by helen frankenthaler at the tender age of twenty-three.

"she didn't give a fig for theory"

a watery-stained tableau...an enacting of the memories of the north atlantic sea encapsulated in her wrists...a controlled falling or gentle pouring of thinned oil paint onto untreated canvas...

sharp curves, crests, pooling & spreading hills.

adieu ms. frankenthaler!

helen frankenthaler (1928-2011)

a moving painting

alas I still have yet to see a performance of 'sleeping beauty' and the infamous rose adagio. my ideal would be this one with margot fonteyn as it looks like a moving van dyck painting... but I'll settle for one in an old european opera house with faded painted backdrops and red velvet seats...

a man walks into a bar... a penguin slides into a bar...

"ahhm.... ok.... it's alright.... alright alright alright alright.... a man walks into a bar.... a hippopotamus walks into a bar.... it's a bit manic today.... ok... if you like.... I am expecting more people... if you'd like, a request.... we're just going to move down this way.... it feels a bit affected today... so, ok... ahm... ok... we won't do it now... so a hippotamus walks into a bar... old older.... old material... no no... it's alright"

if you ever get the chance I highly recommend you attend a performance by brent harris. each encounter is an agonising and awkward dissection of rehearsal/repetition and attempting to perform. idiosyncratic quirks, deferrals and gags pepper his physical and psychogeographic works which are marked by an acute awareness and enactment of the liminal moments of presenting performance.

brent harris
"poring"
monday 12 december, 2011
as part of oct dec series
w st pauls st gallery
auckland

the great unbuilt

architecture student yumian (dino) chai's '100 rooms of solitude' is 100 small models representing 100 days of memories... inspiration was gleaned from daily walks to auckland university from mt eden and it was constructed from whatever materials were at hand at the time...

it's a lovely image, a lone architecture student wandering around the city, remembering then making...

see here, see now

image: yumian chai 100 rooms of solitude

crinkle & pink

some lovely crinkly glasses and a saccharine-pink crown lynn bowl were recently found. fairy parties will ensue...