Proposition : Put by “Artists Installation Publication” #3

James Harley and Shiralee Saul.

1993.

Dependant on natural resources of food, the Kwakiutl have nevertheless built up a rich culture with surplus wealth and leisure necessary to develop an extraordinary superstructure of manipulation of symbolic forms of wealth in a game of prestige and rivalry. This fantastic game, fiercely played out to the death, is but lightly tied to the realities of life; or rather, it constitutes a wholly different order of reality”. P. 459

‘General Anthropology' Franz Boaz.

Rivalries developed when two people competed for the same name, song or other privilege. Each contestant tried to demonstrate their right to the claim by reciting their genealogical connection with it and , of fundamental importance, by outdoing their rival in the amount of property that they could distribute or destroy, when one of the competitors reached the point where they had no more property they were forced to admit defeat. This could take several generations.

The greatest merit and prestige accrued to the one who could destroy the most property and thus the community recognized their right to the contested honour. The ostentatious destruction of property demonstrated their utter contempt for property; the implication being that they were so rich that the amount that they destroyed was of no concern to them. Coppers, canoes, house planks, blankets and slaves could all be destroyed.

On some occasions Oulachon Oil was poured onto the fire until the flames scorched the house rafters and the clothes and skin of their rival who was forced to sit impassively, or admit that they were discomforted by the wealth of their competitor.

Response to Potlatch.

John Bartlett.

It isn't easy being green and when one's diet is limited to natural foods boredom is bound to soon set in and one way of over-coming boredom is game playing. Having grown from childhood trying to own Park Lane and charging amazing amounts of rent when anyone was unlucky enough, or stupid enough, to land on it, I understand that a game that doesn't revolve around the acquisition of money and property and the contemptuous dismissal of one's competitor is not worth playing. The Kwakiutl people's absolute engrossment in the playing of games using symbolic forms of wealth; the achievement of merit and prestige accompanying the contemptuous destruction of competitors; is the result of being in direct line of descent to the originator of this time-killing device.

Any society of peoples that is involved in something like Potlatch must eventually terminate with the ultimate winner having survived all the former players and beating his opponent in the final game. This in fact did happen at a different time to ours; way back. The competitors faced each other overawed at the realization that the last game by the last two surviving members of the Kwakiutl tribe had finished and that one was the loser and one was the winner. One of the two admitted he had nothing left to destroy yet observed that neither did his opponent and declared a stalemate. The other; our Hero; denied that, saying he could continue destroying and claimed victory. The nub of the claim was that the result of all their forebears, and themselves,, being busy with this game of destruction, was that everything was now destroyed – except one thing which he claimed, and that thing was the void they had all created. He said he could now begin to destroy that void whilst the loser had nothing. Enraged and frustrated, the loser demanded to know how the Hero could destroy nothingness, a void. The Hero replied “Easy, all I need do is create something and that something will fill the equivalent part of that void thus destroying nothing”. The Hero then officially claimed victory and treated his competitor with such an extreme of utter contempt that the loser slunk away gnashing his teeth whilst cherishing a hatred and a vow to gain absolute vengeance. True to his word the Hero commenced destroying the void by creating all sorts of puzzling, marvelous, demented things. Now, once one gets hooked on destruction the problem can be of restraint – when to stop; enough is enough. The time, of course, came when the void was destroyed; replaced by all that our Hero had created. Then the Hero considered what he had done and he saw that it was contemptuous and such was his contempt for anything and everything, such was his addiction, and such was his need for merit, prestige and self-knowledge, that the Hero then commenced to destroy all that he had created. The Hero quickly remembered he had inadvertently built into his creations the desire to destroy and self-destruct and so he left them to destroy themselves because he had become aware that his forgotten opponent had meanwhile discovered the flammable quality of Oulachon Oil, and was causing certain other people in another place to feel distinctly discomforted. But that is another story.

John Bartlett.

Thoughts on Art.

Conditioning commences too soon. At a certain individual age we begin to understand and strive to undo that conditioning, regain individual originality of thought and expression, whilst being able again to create freely, naturally. That striving continues until one can think and live independently, not overly concerned for the opinions of others. It is not essential that the artist be an intellectual; insight and intuition rather than reason and logic give birth to asymmetry and the unpretentious. Austere Sublimity reduces imagery to the essential, while introspection, practice and observation enable work that is direct, honest, convincing; paintings that show the human hand at work, that transcend mere technique penetrating to something more fundamental, also displaying the delight of using  the brush and the burden of making art.
The act of painting is exploration of the unexplorable, getting to know the unknowable as well as developing variations on what is known, imagined and seen, all then passed to the viewer through the viewer’s reflection and contemplation. It is in the act of creation, in the solitary wee hours of the mind when the only sound is no-sound, working in isolation not waiting for inspiration, the artist gives generously of himself/herself, plumbing the depths and scaling the heights of reality and the spiritual. And within the painting where nothing is stable, everything is constantly changing; even the beautiful red flowers will soon fall; the artist works in isolation obedient to the prompts of the work, for intentions rarely equal the result; the artist having plans soon comes to understand the painting has a mind of it’s own, has thoughts that it soon begins to suggest, suggestions the sensitive artist heeds. Accidents and the random happen to introduce disharmony and imbalance requiring of the artist flexibility, an ability to improvise, be nimble and turn the unexpected to advantage.
One does not have to think about what one knows so the mature artist having assiduously worked at his/her practice and having aquired knowledge of composition, perspective, proportion, colour etc. operates freely from the conscious and subconscious untrammelled by rules and conventions, at times creating a painting that unwittingly conforms to other principles. And so it is with Wabi and Sabi and their 9 Principles; Principles that are a development of centuries of practice in the East and can now be a working reference; principles that I accept and will use as unwittingly I have in the past.
A conundrum of art practice is the tension between the planned and the spontaneous. Considerations of an intellectual, art-education nature vie with direct intuition, impulse, immediate and direct mark-making similar to Sumi-e; I now spontaneously brush in an image and when the dust has settled ignore changes prompted by rules and conventions, changes that will tidy the work, polish it , give it finish, make it contrived; how much can/should one tidy the untidy, tame the primitive in search for polish and refinement, when should the artist intrude into a stream of consciousness?; only the artist guided by intuition can make those decisions. The artist should be true to principles, have an open mind, be resolute while ready for the long haul prepared to swim against the current seeking beauty and truth in the mundane, the imperfect and ordinary; as a self-taught artist I wonder whether an art-education would have extended my reach as it can deepen and expand knowledge, broaden and elevate horizons. In art as in life beauty and truth are to be found in nature and the natural, in the deformed and ungraceful; when searching  for wisdom it is better to gaze back within oneself; if however one feels compelled to stare outwards; simplify, and look into a grain of sand for in there is all that is.

John Bartlett.
29 April, 07.

Concerning Ceremony and Change

The Ceremonial and I Ching Hexagram paintings relate ancient Chinese Oracle   I-Ching Hexagrams, Ceremonial Body Painting of the Australian Aborigine and the Japanese Zen Buddhist Aesthetics of Wabi Sabi. This Body Painting of course is not limited to the Australian Aborigine.
In accordance with my practice of simplifying imagery to its fundamentals, having dealt with I Ching  Hexagrams I reduced the horizontal Hexagram bars from six to four making what I call a Quadgram, alternatively if one considers the light background then a Trigram is formed wherein the lights and darks compete for the forward plane consequently creating tension and  dynamism. I also take the liberty of realigning some bars from horizontal to vertical and breaking the unbroken Yes bars to become broken No bars thus forming an array of blocks consequently changing the bars from I Ching Change to Body painting.
The I Ching centres not on things in their state of being but on their movements in change; not what is but what IS is changing to; whereas the Australian Aborigine through Ceremony, Singing and Body painting is concerned with what WAS, continuing the past through customs and rites, re-enactment and story telling.                                                                                                                             I paint using an economy of means, a limited palette of raw earth pigments and Ochres bound with virgin beeswax on 1.2mm Aluminium support.
Aboriginal Ochres on Bark is very Wabi Sabi.

John Bartlett. February 16, 2009.

Poems

Narcissus.

John Bartlett

Pine trees dark and proud
Stand in a crowd, like a group
Of Quakers, all stove-pipe hats
And sideways glances; swaying
To life's gentle rhythm.

Willows weep and wander by the creek,
Wilting, bedraggled hair switching about,
Crows caw from the gums and
All nature's creatures hang about
Soaking in the sun.

And sitting on the creek's high bank
Gazing down
Is one of God's lesser creatures.
Proud and dark of mood
Rocking in a consoling motion;
Mesmerised by what she sees.

Parade.

Knowledge.

There where the wild garlic grows,
There where the Black Swan goes
And the red silt-laden river flows
And the tribal elder knows; remembers,
Dreaming – and all he needs to know;--
The Songs, the Stories.

Summer.

All floats and shimmers
Ochre Grey-Green Sienna
Crow calls CAW CAW CAW