#387 The Banquet

               All honour’s mimic, all wealth alchemy.
               John Donne: The Sun Rising

New pigments populate the palette.
All shades are considered vegan-
friendly, easy to incorporate into
your diet. Even bees are considered
sacred. Not so coffee grown in the
sun. Has been taken out from under

shadow, the natural canopy cut down
to make that so. The driver wealth,
to produce much higher yields, more
money for the grower. No hint of
alchemy, especially that part of it
concerned with prolonging life. No

natural forest so fewer insects &
migratory birds. No falling leaves
to provide compost as they rot so
more fertilizer. More water needed
to produce. Trees used to rise behind
the setting sun. No longer. No honor.

#386 Les Jeunes Amours

Not all European artwork focuses
on Friday night shopping or offers
economic incentives for improving
the supply chain. Certainly it has
been known to promote products
from famous parfumiers, or use
monocled vamps who smoke a
particular brand of cigarettes. Things

not for the young, who are often
gripped by poverty. Though, as
Aristotle said, have learnt the use of
trinkets as metonomy. Throw colored
balls up into an air where they shouldn't
exist. Then bring them down as apples.

#385 The Message to the Earth

This is the evidence. It is
presented in a frame so
there is distance between
the audience & the objects
they are observing. The
sponge was probably white.
Now thrown to earth / its
blood vessels broken / stain
has taken over. & petrified.
Is front of stage, before
the curtain, behind which
wires can be seen. Would
be wrong to think they
were there for telegraphy —
come from, go to, nowhere.
Part of a disquieting display
which leaves dimensions
disturbed, connections am-
biguous. The tableau is the
message, is whatever one
makes of it. But underneath
it says: We are here already.
You just need to learn the
language to understand that.

#384 The Denizens of the River

The exteriors are thought-
fully designed, the branding
concepts unique. Much use
of plays on words. Artillery
shells gathered from the
river, clothes that floated by
in an illumination of flood-
lights, the occasional limb

artificially placed or worn
as necklace. Gloved fingers
rehearse the future journey
on a globe of trackless water.
Then the plunge, & kick to
the groyne across the river.

#383 The Gun

An object is not so attached to its name that another one more suitable cannot be found to take its place.

le terminus œil de triton miasme la girafe éternité le tronc d'arbre ce cavalier campagne philosophique la liste lambiner le canon.

#382 Les surprises et l'océan

There is a head shaped
like an ear that carries with-
in it a magic mirror that
may or may not hear, but
offers a diffident aspect

of the ocean. A woman in
a little black dress carries
it as she waits for dinner
to be served. The narrow
pyramids of sand are there

to snack on if she gets hung-
ry, fretting for her date to
arrive. Who may surprise her.
The sea is fairly flat, seems
perfect for galloping in on.

#381 The Loftiest Game

#380 The signs of evening

Night approaches. Upright,
uptight, the painting that
divides crepuscular &
corrugation bursts its banks.

Too much to contain, that
the same day has different
times in different places.
Maybe even a different

season as some kind of fruit
is falling. It rolls out of that
picture & into this. Gravity
strikes. Plus globalization.

No sign of source identity.
Confusing. This time of day.

#379 Les verres fumés

In a time of turbid
media & a weakened
economic outlook, this
display of stone tools
was put together. We
struggled with the
structure, were divided
over whether, with
the data sets that were
available, we portrayed
a goddess of resurrection
& rebirth or Fanon's dictum
that colonialism doesn't
come to an end with the
declaration of political
independence. Both
would require dark glasses
for their viewing. The one
because the brightness
blinded, the other so we
wouldn't see our shame. In
the end we compromised,
put both together, some-
what incomplete. Are pre-
paring a plaque which reads:
"Will be a lifelong pity if
having visited Tiger Hill
you did not visit Gödel."

#378 La traversée difficile

The eye model presented
is the stuff of legends, a
stylistically pleasing & emo-
tionally useful device in which
is embedded a sonar sensor
ultrasonic rangefinder that can
detect objects up to many kilo-
meters away. Can't always
identify what they are, though.
Thinks what we see as a storm-
battered square rigger might
be a mere rough stake, or a
piece of shapeless wood, or
even an expensive delicate ship,
escaped from some other Museum
of Fine Arts, that has somewhere
to get to & sails calmly on.

#377 Magritte

ran
second in
the Rockhampton Cup.
 


 
Might
have won
except the jockey
 


 
left the course
& got
lost.