Re: [-empyre-] nice and not nice...

[The Paul Annears <the.paul.annears@gmail.com>]

Beautiful story, Mr Collins, thank you.  And 'true' as well!  You
wouldn't have an image of Uncle Barrie?  Story and picture would be a
great addition to the zeitgeist section of  The Concise Model of the
Universe.

My comments about the dire state of tertiary education in New Zealand
is an analogue or meta-version of the same story, perhaps.  There are
no doubt some talented artists who are also talented teachers.  And
there are no doubt some talented students.  But you would have to pick
and choose to put together a picture that didn't look like an
abortion. (When I say 'talented' I don't mean 'self-obsessed' or
'self-promoting').

Lets not pretend that this is a new observation.  Presumably everyone
here has read (for example) Ivan Illich?

Is it possible that talented artists either don't want to teach as a
job or are sacked for taking the teaching somewhere that the
bureaucrats don't like.  The students are much more often than not
avoiding getting the sort of job that they will have in the real
world.

When the Polytechs were being repositioned as an alternative to the
dole (here in New Zealand) there was the intention to employ artists
as teachers for one or two days a week (and to have no or few full
time teachers).  That would have made sense.  Any more than a couple
of days a week doesn't make sense.  The idea that extending
institutionalised education (and some sort of bottle-fed existence)
for people who don't want to work, and who have zero artistic ability,
makes no sense either.

In response to HVJ (corporate whore!), who says that she is not sure
what point I am making: I was hoping that my story might stimulate
others to tell their stories in a way that reveals their souls.  I am
not convinced, so far, that a bland and nonchalant wordiness is what
it (new media and art in general) is about.  I am not objecting to
academic discourse in whatever specialist language is appropriate (and
some of them are wonderfully esoteric in themselves and occasionally
attract people who can write, but the context here is an open or 'by
invitation' forum and therefore will hopefully involve thinking
outside the participant's norm.  And of course thinking outside the
norm has its own advantages, as well as difficulties.

To discover (and to show) in these black marksthe doorway to another's
mind - the distinctive flavours and quirks of that particular tiny
corner of the universe, is that not what reading and writing is about?

In my own case this exploration takes a number of paths on several
levels. Dr Paul Annear's life work was reading the stars.  Paul Conde
Annear drank too much and 'acted' other people.  Another Paul Annear
survived the WTC 'smart-bombing' and is now a Christian missionary in
Africa.  Then there is the Paul Annear who was until recently the
physio for the All Blacks. There is also the Paul Annear who travels
into other realities while making jewellery. (Visit The Concise Model
of the Universe (at www.xxos.net) and click on '2' on the site tool
bar for more on the Paul Annears).

In response to Dr Rackham's posting, my opinion at this moment is that
hybrid has more going for it than apartheid.  A forum like this can be
inclusive or exclusive.  If this one is to be inclusive it will aim to
be attractive to a diverse range of views by promoting discussion that
is far-ranging and questions everything - rather than seeking out
representations of this or that ethnic, cultural, or whatever group.

With Mr Picnic's (nice name) catchy combination of 'itchy fingers',
surgical distinctions about what a list is and is not, mock
philosophising about the 'man alone'  and butch talk of 'unnecessary
romanticism' and 'crap assumptions', we have a clever example of
comedic writing and we are back in Uncle Barrie's polyglot playground,
thank goodness!

A Paul Annear








On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 21:24:47 +1100, Barrie <barriec@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> Cheers, Barrie, on 18.1.05 07:44 PM, The Paul Annears at
> the.paul.annears@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> > Dear Soft-Skinned Peeples
> >
> > There are (at least) two groups that seems very very under-represented here on
> > this discussion.
> >
> > One group is the indigenous Aoteraoan, however that might be defined.
> > This is only an issue because we are supposedly discussing the new
> > media from the perspective of the Aotearoan, indigenous and otherwise
> > if it is possible (or rather: sensible) to make that distinction.
> >
> > The other group that seems to me to be under-represented is the
> > practising artist (full stop).  The practising artist (full stop)
> > being a person (or other sentient entity) who doesn't have a job at
> > what is known in NZ as a tertiary institution.  The distinction that I
> > am making is not that teaching is evil, but rather that the artist,
> > who doesn't have a job 'teaching' students (most of whom have
> > absolutely no talent and in any other non-middle-class reality would
> > have to get a job), this artist, I suggest, has a rather different
> > perspective and is operating in a rather different realm.
> >
> > For myself I can say that I have had a number of grants and have
> > taught in a few workshops but for many years now I have not had a
> > comfortable middle-class existence and looking at the results of
> > middle-class art: a huge explosion of galleries and of middle-class
> > buyers and a extraordinary implosion of completely puke-worthy 'art'
> > leads in the same direction
> > as the rest of the bloated society is heading, to wit, down the
> > non-composting toilet.
> 
> I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.
> Oscar Wilde
> 
> > The practising artist's role, be he Aotearoan or not, be she online or
> > offline, is to push the limits, to go where no sentient being has gone
> > before.  OR, perhaps, is the practising artist's role to work the
> > room, shoot the breeze with the people who will further their careers
> > and generally be, at least on the surface, fawning and disgustingly
> > appreciative of the favours that might be dripped upon them?
> >
> > In 1982 I had an exhibition of my paintings.  One of them was a
> > colourful matrix, a labyrinth of uncertain meaning to the uninitiated.
> > The gallery dealer took me too firmly by the arm with his alcoholic
> > hand, whispered hoarsely at me that the people he was about to
> > introduce me to were going to buy the painting and that they would
> > like to meet the artist before they did.
> >
> > These people who reminded me very much of my Uncle Brian and Aunty Jean
> > (who at that very moment were watching The Sound of Music for the 29th
> > time with their three plump children) wanted to ask me a question.
> > Fire away, I said, with a euphoric sinking feeling.
> >
> > They liked the colours the size of it and it would go very nicely on a
> > certain wall in some room or the other, but what was the painting
> > about?
> >
> > I explained that it interested me that young people liked to dress
> > up...and go out and get covered in blood...and be mutilated...and die
> > horrible deaths...the red they admired was blood.
> >
> > It is not the job of the artist to be provocative, mildly or
> > otherwise.  But it is the job of the artist to question everything, to
> > stand outside everything, and how can someone who is questioning
> > everything survive in a
> > middle-class environment?
> 
> Money can't buy friends, but it can get you a better class of enemy.
> Spike Milligan
> 
> > I suppose the answer might be: by being wonderfully brilliant.
> >
> > Voyeuristically yours,
> >
> > The Paul Annears
> 
> I had an uncle, dead now, from my first marriage. He was an actor, his stage
> name was the same as mine - Barrie Collins, which never ceased to amuse him,
> he performed on stage during the depression here in Australia.
> He and his mates in the local barber shop were always short of cash, one day
> they were discussing art and discovered that each of them could paint one
> thing really well. My uncle could do a nice sunset, another bloke said he
> could paint reasonable trees, another quite good lakes and the last could do
> a good flamingo.
> So they set up a business painting landscapes with flamingos which they sold
> in the barber shop, made enough to pay for the beer, what more do you want.
> 
> Barrie
> 
> (its a true bloody story, I only wish I had one of the paintings)
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> 


-- 
The Paul Annears
www.xxos.net