anonymous waves - art projects by bob georgeson

Grace Kelly

In Bendigo at the moment it is hard to avoid Grace peering at us over her shoulder. She is everywhere, and the exhibition Grace Kelly Style Icon at the Bendigo Art Gallery has been packed out since it opened. It seems her popularity never wanes, and yet who is, or who was, Grace Kelly? I have no idea...and the show reveals as little of her personality as her wardrobe reveals of her flesh. It is an interesting fashion journey from the tailored, almost matronly suits of the Fifties through to some attempts at modernity in the Seventies, and as such reflects the moral standards of the passing decades, but nowhere do we get any indication of what Grace thought or what her motivations were. Famous yet anonymous, and one wonders in today's tabloid and Murdoched world whether such a feat would be possible.

However we do get to see the great fashion designers at work for what must have been their most prestigious clothes horse. Yves St Laurent's tent dress inspired by the painting of Piet Mondrian is pure perfect Sixties, thankfully he didn't use Picasso as a point of departure! Edith Head's little black number from Rear Window is probably the closest we ever get to sexy, and Cartier's jewellery comes from a period when a rock looked like a rock...

Personally Grace is not my kind of gal, but I don't mind this photo that captures the undeniably classic beauty with the untouchable virginal princess...

Photo by Howell Conant

Threshold

Bit of a lag in posts recently while touring regional Victoria. This is the facade of Latrobe Universities Visual Art Centre in Bendigo...most annoyed when I saw it because I had a similar idea and she's beaten me to it!

Jenny Pollak, Threshold, 2011, Digital photos

Jenny says:

'On the margins of experience

at the edges of understanding

-right there at the periphery of perception-

there is a point of entry

a threshold...'

...and that's a nice intro to some future posts about arts in Victoria, where art is valued, nurtured and supported by Government, councils, communities and even business...

Night nurse

Well, you gotta start somewhere...first the blogosphere, next Bollywood, then Cannes and maybe even Fyshwick!

Frowned objects (of desire)

There is nothing more endearing than a frowning woman. My feminist readers throw their hands up in horror at this blatant objectification of women. Guilty your honour. It's just something about that 'look'. Here are some of my favorites. Two seem in control. Two seem vulnerable. What do you think?

Caravaggio, Judith and Holofernes, 1599, Oil on canvas, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

Fillide Melandroni removes the head (and aspirations) of Michelangelo Merisi in this decisive moment from the Old Testament story of Judith and Holofernes.

Fillide was one of Caravaggio's favourite models appearing in at least three of his paintings. Painting directly on to the canvas without first sketching, Caravaggio, using himself as the model for Holofernes, has created a masterpiece of psycho sexual drama. X Ray examination has shown that originally she was bare breasted. But it doesn't take much imagination to visualise this, and to leave her without the blouse may have relegated this picture to the crassness of Vasari's Andromeda. Also an interesting similarity between her earring and the necklace worn by Manet's Olympia...

But it is her face that I am interested in. The furrowed brow, the moist lips, her horror at what she is doing and yet unhesitatingly committed to the task. Scary.

Louise Brooks by Eugene Robert Richie

Louise Brooks, somewhat anachronistic 'star' of the silent era (in that she hated Hollywood and preferred to make films in Europe, and who resisted pressure to cross over into 'talkies') is mesmerising. To see her play the tragic Lulu in G W Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929) is essential viewing for anyone interested in film and what qualities make someone a 'star'. For 130 minutes one is transfixed by her presence...

In this still Louise is repulsed by the attention she receives. She is not acting. Abused as a child and in her own words, "incapable of real love", she is paradoxically femme fatale but unreachable at the same time. And as style icon? Light years ahead of the pack...

Carmen Amaya, Queen of the Gypsies. I first came across Carmen when scouring through second hand records. A face like this stands out in a crowd. I bought the record not realising at the time she was accompanied by the great Spanish guitarist Sabicas. I had always liked flamenco but never really appreciated what was going on until seeing Paco Pena and his company in concert.

The duet with male dancers was like an elaborate mating ritual. All the female dancers had an expression that was as practiced as their steps. It said, "if you think you deserve me, then you had better perform better than what you are doing at the moment!". And of course, they try, but never seem to conquer the fiery independence of the women. Passionate stuff...

Jelena Dokic. Tennis star. Poor Jelena. As if having a fascist nutter as a father wasn't bad enough she just never seems to be able to crack the big matches. No wonder she looks pensive...

...but then she wins a point and it's all about revenge of the Croatians. It could be Judith again, brandishing the sword of Holofernes...

Perseus and Andromeda

By way of contrast to the complexity, subtlety and mystery inherent in Olympia, Giorgio Vasari's Perseus and Andromeda (or Story of the origin of coral) is a classic example of Renaissance pseudo-eroticism...

Giorgio Vasari, Perseus and Andromeda, 1550-52, oil on slate, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

What is going on here? Beheadings, bondage, bathing nymphs, exhibitionism, lesbianism, drownings, sea monsters. Never meant for public view this painting appears a veritable feast or perversions, or is it? Originally designed as a door to a cupboard whose contents would be in some way related to the subject matter (perhaps a collection of coral which was seen as a good luck charm), it is in fact illustrating the myth as told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. Perseus...

...made a bed

Of leaves and spread the soft weed of the sea

Above, and on it placed Medusa's head.

The fresh seaweed, with living spongy cells,

Absorbed the Gorgon's power and at its touch

Hardened, its fronds and branches stiff and strange.

The sea-nymphs tried the magic on more weed

And found to their delight it worked the same,

And sowed the changeling seeds back on the waves.

Coral still keeps that nature: in the air

It hardens; what beneath the sea has grown

A swaying plant, above it, turns to stone....

Then to his heart he took Andromeda,

Undowered, she herself his valour's prize.

"It's odd, I always thought I made men uneasy"

The first in a series on masterpieces of erotic art...

Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, Oil on canvas, Musee d'Orsay, Paris

The title of this post is a quote from Victorine Meurent, the model for Edouard Manet's Olympia...

She stares at me. I stare back, embarrassed to take my eyes away from hers for fear of being seen as a voyeur. But I cannot ignore the petite, porcelain, perfect figure. The cat is clearly not impressed by my presence. The maid holds flowers. Are they a gift from me? Will they be accepted, or discarded?

She looks at me with detachment and a slight bemusement. Manet has made me confront my own sexuality by inviting me to participate in this picture. This woman is not for sale...I can admire but not touch. Not only a superb exercise in painting (the form in the figure achieved with true economy of tone), but an exercise in moral standards and the role of women in society, just as relevant today as it was in the nineteenth century. This is what makes Olympia erotic, not the fact that it is a nude...I feel uneasy.

For the Victorine Meurent story I recommend Alias Olympia by Eunice Lipton, Thames & Hudson, London, 1992.

Early Twentieth Century Erotica in Spain

Every now and then you come across these little treasures...and pleasures...

A Virtual Wunderkammer: Early Twentieth Century Erotica in Spain is a site put together by Amanda Valenzuela at UCLA to accompany the book Cultures of the Erotic in Spain, 1898-1939 by Maite Zubiaurre. Highly recommended...

Just a little taste to prove that Friday 13th can be your lucky day!

Adam shoots a blank while Bill hits the spot

When I started this blog I made a decision not to yield to the temptation of bagging out everything I didn't like. To do so would leave little time for anything else. But, I couldn't let this one pass without comment...

Last year the so-called enfant terrible of the Sydney art scene Adam Cullen got busted for drink driving on the Hume Highway. Police also discovered a stash of unlicensed firearms in the boot of his car. You and I could get 14 years in the can for this offence, but Cullen got off with a suspended sentence because some people think he's collectible, he has bipolar disorder, and he was using the weapons to make 'art'! The magistrate tells Cullen to develop "mental hardness". Cullen's motto is "Endurance is more important than the truth." Your correspondent sees red...and immediately thinks of El hombre invisible.

William S Burroughs: "That's an interesting little juxtaposition"

William S Burroughs wasn't the first artist to use guns in art. He recalls conversations with Marcel Duchamp in which Duchamp had shot at paintings but missed because "he was a very poor shot." Surrealist Joseph Cornell had constructed a work in 1943 using a bullet holed piece of glass. Italian Alberto Burri had shot paint cans in front of canvasses in the Fifties, and Yves Klein and Niki de Saint Phalle had done variations of this into the Sixties. And the list could go on...but none of these artists have realised the form as much as Burroughs did from 1982-88.

William S Burroughs, The Curse of Bast, 1987

Burroughs says "I want my painting to literally walk off the god damned canvas, to become a creature and a very dangerous creature." In firing a gun at a picture Burroughs is not just exploring a technique but holding a mirror up to society. Even now his art and writings still present us with a frightening view of our future if we allow ourselves to be controlled by conservative attitudes and institutions. Burroughs is mentally hardened. He is a twentieth century giant who has incessantly fought for the liberation of creative thinking and processes, as well as mankind. He is a genius. Burroughs will endure, and remain truthful to himself and his audience. Cullen will not.

Final score: Adam Cullen 0 - William S Burroughs 10.

I am indebted to the publication: Ports of Entry: William S Burroughs and the arts by Robert A. Sobieszek, Thames & Hudson Ltd 1996

Eros & Thanatos

Bob Georgeson, Holy Grail, 2010. Photomontage. Private collection.

An Easter present...

I have been asked on occasion about the process that leads to works such as this. I collect images that I like, thinking that one day they may be useful. They are cut out using a scalpel and cutting mat. The subject matter follows in the dada/surrealist tradition of sex and death, religion versus freedom. There is nothing particularly original in this. Call me stuck in a time warp if you like but in so far as art is concerned I think that very little of interest has been done since the dada revolt and the demise of the surrealist 'movement'. For me the surrealistic aesthetic lives on!

In this picture the background takes views of the dome in St. Peters basilica and throws them together in a distortion that creates two circles (life and death). The crucifix came from a photo of a site in Europe where a massacre of the innocents had taken place...I can't remember exactly the location. It just happened to be the right tones and size although I did like the chains as an added double entendre. The stockinged legs and rather ample derriere are courtesy of Lucy L'Vette, a porn star who specialises in legs, feet and nylon fetishes. What is it about a pair of shapely legs in black thigh high stockings that is so universally erotic?

The communion cup's origin is unknown, possibly also from the Vatican. It just happened to fit the composition with the cross at the grip aligning nicely with Lucy's backside. The position of her head aligns with the genitals of Christ and the receptacle of the chalice. Out comes the spray adhesive...it's glue time!

Holy Grail is from the Brides of Christ series...

The inspiring, the woeful, the moving and the brilliant!

A brief cultural journey...

First stop was Gallery Bodalla, where Linda Childs - van Wijk was exhibiting a lifetimes work in an show mysteriously called the naive eye. At first glance Linda's paintings are presented in a 'primitive' form, but closer inspection reveals an conceptual sophistication and technical rigour that belies the show's title. Fascinating pictures that invite you into the mind of their creator. The Gallery is also one of the most delightful 'spaces' I have been in, and matched by the charm of Director Valerie Faber, who has a social conscience and is not just interested in profit and power when it comes to art. Inspiring...

Linda Childs - van Wijk, Beyond midnight, acrylic on canvas

Next stop was ANCA Gallery in North Canberra, where the warm fuzzy glow dissipated seconds after entering. The show Material World - extraordinary environments made from ordinary things was a shocker and reflected everything that is wrong with contemporary art. The two bright young things that 'curated' this show say in their introduction, 'the artists have seized the opportunity to remind us of the responsible use of energy and technology, the need to recycle, reuse, reforest and, above all, to respect.' Well, how about respecting the intelligence of your audience? A twig sculpture? You must be kidding...Another work was so clever that it was hidden from view, another required the use of a smartphone (not supplied) in order for it to work. Art you can't see, music you can't hear. I must be getting old. Woeful...

Fortunately spirits were revived with a visit to the National Library of Australia to see the Treasures Gallery, where major pieces from the National collection are on display. Having recently read about Cook's voyages it was a treat to see his portable writing bureau, and to imagine him charting the oceans and writing his journals on such a small surface. Jan Utzon's model for the proportions of the Sydney Opera House was a beautiful object in itself, and intriguing in its concept. Photographs from immigrant detention centres lent a sobering note. I have always been fond of maps and the early charts of Dutch explorers are as graphically pleasing as they are historically interesting. Moving...

Attributed to Abraham Anias (1694–1750), Chart of the Indian Ocean 1730

Displayed in the foyer on the way out was a copy of Helmut Newton's SUMO, the largest and most expensive book produced in the 20th century (by favourite publisher Taschen of course). Newton is very high on my list of influences. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the book was open on a portrait he had taken of art critic Robert Hughes...I would have much preferred one of his more perverse images ;-)

Then off to the National Gallery of Australia to see Renaissance - 15th & 16th century Italian paintings from the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo. An outstanding exhibition in every way. Not only a rare opportunity to see the 'real deal' up very close, but a superb lesson in art history and techniques. From International Gothic through to late Renaissance one could trace the transition from tempera on panel to oil paint on canvas, and the development of human representation from idealised form to actual portraits of real people. Standouts for me were Mantegna's Saint Bernardino of Siena...

Andrea Mantegna, Saint Bernardino of Siena, c.1450

...absolutely dripping with piety...and the four works by Lorenzo Lotto:

Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of a young man, c.1500

Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of Lucina Brembati, c.1518-23

Lorenzo Lotto, Holy Family with Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c.1533

Lorenzo Lotto, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c.1523

Not only a profound lesson in technique, but a demonstration that you don't have to work on a large scale to convey beauty and complex ideas. Brilliant!

The fetishist

Bob Georgeson, The fetishist, 2010. Photomontage

My son, who runs a very successful fishing blog, told me on the weekend that the only reason I get any visits to this site was that I had the word 'eroticism' listed as an interest. Could it be true? So, just to whet your grubby appetites...

PS Fishing guru Rex Hunt says that 'catching a fish is man's second biggest thrill in life'. I like fishing too...but give me a choice...well...

That is such for practical purposes though not in name or according to strict definition...

Bob Georgeson, Explosion and The moment I had been waiting for, Mixed media, 2012

My original idea was to have an online presence for my art and thought that a blog might be marginally more interesting than a static image repository. I wanted to be able to 'point' interested parties (like prospective gallery directors) at a site so they could get an idea of what I did and where I was coming from.

Then I started to think about the 'blog' becoming the art work in itself. This had great appeal because of my distaste for being 'curated' and having to deal with art wankers, not to mention the cost and stress of mounting exhibitions that few people see because I happen to live in a remote part of the planet. In this environment I can control what I want to exhibit and how it is presented, and reach a far greater audience than in the 'physical' world. Like many other artists around the world I am also concerned about the way in which the conventional art 'system' works and is controlled, and look for ways to exhibit in, and support, non-elitist public spaces.

Virtual art is a term usually associated with computer generated imagery and gaming, but art displayed in the virtual environment is a relatively new concept. I had been flicking through an art mag recently and thought how do you know that these images of installations are real? And since so much of our experience of art comes from reproductions in books, magazines and the web does it even matter? British man of letters Samuel Johnson said a very long time ago that 'a room full of pictures is a room full of thoughts'. Does not the thought linger regardless of the medium?

It may be hard to make money out of it but as an artist with a dismal sales record anyway it really doesn't make much of a difference, although it would be nice to get funding for large scale installations and the video work that I want to pursue...

The title of this post is the definition of 'virtual' from The Concise Oxford Dictionary. I hope you find it helpful...

You staring at my girlfriend?

Bob Georgeson, You staring at my girlfriend?, Photomontage 2009

Built like a battleship, or just titanic proportions?

Steps to becoming a submerging artist

To become a submerging artist you must:

Be over 50 years old
Never have attended art school or left prematurely after arguing with a lecturer over principle
Know how to spell Caravaggio without looking it up
Detest being curated
Think that grant is a man's name
Never been seen wearing white sand shoes
Think that mentor is a mint flavoured European sweet
Strive for originality
Not possess thick framed spectacles with square lenses and angular sides
Believe that art should be accessible

Feel free to add your own criteria...

Toe be or not toe be

Bob Georgeson, Untitled, 2010. Photomontage

I am interested in online collaboration...

The above work goes back a while. I kinda like some of the things happening in it but always wondered whether it was just stating the obvious, and needed some other element to 'finish' it. As a consequence it has sat in the cupboard until now. Here is your chance to win a signed original Bob Georgeson artwork posted to the address of your choice! Suggest ways in which this work could be improved, other than the obvious 'stick it up your #$%&' or 'put a match to it'. You can also send me the elements you want added. I will cut in suggestions and let's see where we end up...

You can collaborate by posting a comment, or by email (which can be found on my profile)...

Copyright

Tracey Moffatt, Laudanum (detail), 1998

Tracey Moffatt's Laudanum is one of my favorite works in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. Rarely on display the immense tableau is at once mysterious, erotic and controversial (a perfect 3 out of 3 in my book!). Perhaps it's infrequent appearances are for the above reasons. After all the National Gallery stirs up more controversy with its sometimes questionable acquisition policies than it does in promoting 'out there' art. But that's another story, and what has it got to do with copyright? Read on...

In sourcing much of the material for my photomontages from existing print publications, I have been asked on more than one occasion about copyright issues. I am aware of the Copyright Act 1968, and in principle agree with its premise. I would be the first to jump up and down if I thought I was being ripped off! The Act acknowledges that artists refer to other artists work and 'appropriate' material for their own use. The Act says there is a problem when a 'substantial' portion of another copyright owners work is used, and when 'profit or gain' is to be had from use of the same...certainly defining the latter point is easier than the first.

For my own work I use material sourced from Op shops and second hand shops. One could argue that this material was already in the 'public domain'. I also think that if other well known artists can get away with blatant copying then why is my work suddenly different. At least I change the context or meaning of the original source. And if a copyright owner should object to my use of their work and I have made profit or gain from it I would give them the money. It would be foolish to contest such an issue in court...

I prefer to think of my work as 'paradigmatic plagiarism', where the original source is changed in such a way to create an entirely new tone and meaning. I first came across this term when reading critical studies on my favorite Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who lifted large slabs of passages from German idealist philosophies. Excuses are made for Coleridge because he suffered from bipolar disorder and was addicted to opium tincture, also known as laudanum...

International Women's Day

She said this morning that she was going to clean the bathroom and vacuum the floors. I said 'You can't do that on International Women's Day', to which she replied 'DON'T TELL ME what I can and can't do on International Women's Day!' and added, with finger wagging perilously close to my chin, 'and DON'T call me dear!'. I crawl back to my studio...

Later in the day I say 'Why don't you put your feet up and relax while I cook dinner'. She says nothing...

Bob Georgeson, She rests her tired legs, 2011

There's no time like the virtual

Bob Georgeson, Worlds in Collision #1, 2012

Ines Rojas, Director of the Museu d'Art Virtual de Barcelona, stands in front of Worlds in Collision #1, a six-channel digital video installation at the 2012 Barcelona Biennale...

Desecration in the Church

Bob Georgeson, Time of Desecration, 2012

...for Alberto Moravia, who's Time of Desecration is one of my all time favourite novels, and for all those babies who have pissed on the priest at baptism...

Thanks to Suzanne for modelling...

Dog love

Bob Georgeson, My dog is better than your dog, 2012

Always one to appreciate serious obsession I couldn't resist popping in to the local dog show. The 'dogvan' above had a generator running all day (unclear whether it was for air con or television). One thing about the dog owners in general is they are not an effusively friendly bunch, but on further enquiry I found out that the dogs had actually painted the van themselves! Made me think there is an opportunity for the grey nomads to do the same. Don't leave it to the hippies and backpackers to decorate their 'Wicked' campervans, lets see some serious portraiture on the Winnebago!

More pics here...

Creativity in education

In my last post I mentioned a past life as an art teacher, and how valuing and encouraging creativity in the case of Danius Kesminas had led to greater things...at the time at Xavier College they were going through a period of reassessment of their role in society (i.e. Is it in the Christian spirit to be an elitist educational establishment?). I was asked by the Headmaster: 'Why are we teaching art?' Answer: Through art we teach visual perception, the ability to see objectively...nice to see all these years later that Xavier still values this aim, even if it can't shake its elitist reputation.

If you are interested in this subject one of the key global evangelists (not religious here, but who seriously believes in the need to nurture creativity in order to save the world) is Sir Ken Robinson. His talk on the subject at a TED conference in 2006 is not only very profound, but very funny...nearly 9,000,000 people have seen this...you can too by clicking here...

Danius Kesminas

Slave Pianos, The Execution Protocol 111: Mutually Assured Production (The MAP room), 2007-11

I first met Danius Kesminas in 1978 when he was around 12 years old. I was an art teacher at Burke Hall, the preparatory school for Xavier College in Melbourne. One of the greatest rewards a teacher can ever have is when one of your pupils becomes famous! What part did I have to play in this? Well, absolutely none, because by the time I met Danius he was a more than competent draftsman, an accomplished musician, and brought that Lithuanian heritage to the finish of a crafted object. All I could say is develop your own projects and go for it!

He has since gone on to do just that, not only in his own artwork, but a series of collaborative projects that span categories, countries and trends. Whether it's blasting out the 'drip and splatter' with his band The Histrionics, forming collectives like Punkasila with young Indonesian punk artists and musicians, or the above work with group Slave Pianos (where the audience can 'execute' an avant-garde artist from the list on a console, track their movements on the world map and listen as a giant electric chair activates an antique piano in a farewell ode) Danius challenges the contemporary art world without ever losing his sense of humour.

He is represented by Darren Knight Gallery (for more info click here), and was recently featured in eyeline - contemporary visual arts, which is in my opinion the only art publication in Australia worth reading. Hang on! Did I say read? Silly me...of course you can't READ it, its full of wanky art speak, but the pictures are nice...

...and back to The MAP room...no prizes for guessing I would choose Joseph Beuys first.

Spiral Gallery - Past and present

Bob Georgeson, Burnt out cafe, Campbelltown, Tasmania, 2011

Last night Spiral Gallery in Bega celebrated 15 years in existence with the opening of Past and Present, a group show comprising the 54 members who had been involved with it since it's inception in 1997. The exhibition was opened by founding member Barb Crowden who paid tribute to the original vision of Alexandra Seddon in bringing the co-operative to life. The show, which runs until 29th February, includes some of the far south coast's finest artists, and is testament to the voluntary dedication of members and associates who believe in the Spiral aesthetic of a non elitist public art space. An honour to be exhibiting the above work in such company...

Bega to Cobargo after the party

Bob Georgeson, Bega to Cobargo after the party, 2012

I was going to enter this one in the Bega Valley Art Prize but when I saw who was judging it! Ooops...just joking...I actually couldn't afford to get it framed...which reminds me that all of my work in this site is for sale...

The series...

Etta James

Etta James passed away last month. She was a few weeks short of her 74th birthday. That she made it that far is something of a miracle, and the usual sensationalist media reports focused on her struggle with addiction rather than give her the credit she deserves as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. Not possessed of a range like Flora Purim or the gospel clarity of Aretha Franklin, she more than made up for it with an honesty of expression that is rarely matched. The capacity to go from a guttural roar to the most delicate of tones virtually within a single word, let alone phrase is her trademark. When Etta sings "I'd rather go blind" you FEEL the pain of a failed relationship, and when she sings "All the way down" you know she's been ALL the way. Her version of Randy Newman's "God's Song (That's why I love mankind)" is spine chilling in the ferocity of its delivery. Where Randy sings it with his usual laconic cynicism, Etta is pure destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Effortlessly transcending genres she soars from rock'n'roll to blues to soul to funk to jazz with a total lack of pretence in delivery or stage presence. Much missed by those that like their music powerful and passionate...

Jelena #1

Bob Georgeson, Jelena #1, 2011

I have absolutely no interest in tennis as a sport, either as player or spectator, but I am fascinated by the central European female stars...they have a 'look' about them which not only reflects their region's history, but I keep getting drawn back to Caravaggio's Judith with the furrowed brow as she beheads Holophernes. (Jelena and her father perhaps?)

More images...