What?
Every teacher knows the look. Eyes that stare and don’t see. The look of blank incomprehension. I know it too, not only from years of
experience, but also from last night!
It is one
thing to have a class not know what you are on about, it is quite another to
have fellow poets in your Poetry Group look at you in the same way.
I was, I
must say, quietly pleased with my effort from the freewrite, which was on
‘conflict’ and I had taken on board a suggestion from Maria, the group leader that
evening, to think about the concept of whether the word or the sword was the
more powerful. This came out as a rather
odd scenario in my writing where, in the poem, I burned a copy of Macbeth and then there were a few
phrases from the play and . . . OK, I know it sounds a bit odd, but it seemed
crystal clear to me when I wrote it. Not
crystal clear to the others and they were experienced poetry readers and
writers.
I brooded
on the reception of my piece and I was loath to let it go. This morning and this afternoon I have been
working on it and, eventually I got something which I think is a little clearer
than the original.
A few
changes, quite important changes, and I think it reads a little better. You can read my present draft of the poem, Torture, at: http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es
And I would appreciate comments!
Eating out again!
Lunch yesterday was a bit of a disaster, it was frankly
awful, and we were not surprised that the restaurant is for sale. I hope the sale goes through quickly and new
management makes the eating experience rather better than it was! I shall protect the guilty here and not name
it, except to say that it is next to a waterfall on a roundabout – which
narrows it down a bit! I hope the owners
succeed in their next enterprise because the restaurant trade is not for them.
So, today
we went to a tried and tested restaurant within walking distance of us (and if
you know me, that means it is very near) and had an excellent meal. This was in the restaurant that some friends
will be staying in when they come for the United Nations Day Meal in October –
The Solifemar. For €14 each we had an introductory glass of
vermouth, a three course meal, coffee and a shot after. I also had a bottle of wine with Casera
thrown in too. Oh yes, with bread,
olives and a few crisps too! Now that is
what I call value for money!
You can
check out a selection of restaurants we have patronized by going to Toni’s blog
at: http://catalunyaplacetoeat.blogspot.com.es
Freedom short lived
The brief relaxation which came with the sending in of the
pro forma has now officially ended and I am deep in the theoretical
justifications and explanations for Conceptual Art. I will give you a flavour of what we have to
read in one of the more approachable comments in our text book:
But the development of Conceptual Art was in
part impelled by a perception that the increasing co-option of art to a
modernist culture of spectacle had been achieved at the expense of its critical
and subversive content.
So
there! Disagree if you dare!
To be fair
the books that we have to read, if taken in bits and read carefully, guide you
fairly clearly through a minefield of pretention. And you have to keep a firm hold of your
sense of reality as you look at some of the art work that we are supposed to be
considering.
For
example. Take a piece by Lawrence
Weiner. The title of the piece is A
River Spanned, 1969 and the photograph that we have of it is from the
exhibition ‘When Attitudes become Form’ Institute of Contemporary Art, London,
September 1969. The exhibit takes the
form of a card with: 116 LAWRENCE WEINER A River Spanned 1969 typed
on it. The curator of the exhibition
took the decision, as he was fully entitled to do by the artist, not to realise
the work but merely to put the card there as an indication of what might be
done. He could, as he suggested, have
fired a line across the Thames attached to an arrow and therefore, spanned the
river. But he decided not to.
So that is
the sort of stuff that we are looking at now.
It makes André’s bricks and Judd’s metal boxes look positively fussy by
comparison!
And I have
to write an essay on things like this as well!
I’m loving
it!
