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Abdication of Vocation

 

Abdication of Vocation

 

Robert Hughes spoke of the Aussie artist’s abdication from Great art, despite early promise

The shorthanding into reportage & cartoon & commonsense

Such is his internationalist perspective

It’s true, to a point

We shy from the tragic, the violent, the perverse, the carnal, the primal

To prove we’re ok

Just one of the boys or gals

We’re safe for the children to watch

The good art we make in this country

Is kid’s songs & kid’s tv

Homiletic & cheerful

The morality of put on a happy face

& don’t take things too seriously

As opposed to an Artaudian farce

& its comedy cruelty

We are aggressively normal

& have no time

For the spastic within

The volcanic & the homicidal

The lust for power, blood & sex

Like Eliot’s hollow men

We live, work, feast & die “not with a bang

But a whimper.”

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2024.

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