Skip to main content

Art & Writing

 

Art & Writing

 

It’s scary writing because you’re so exposed. Words appear so definite when really you’re just digging through space & time on a particular day, in a particular mood, with a particular mindset & capacity. Words isolate & divide. They are sequential. Unlike music or painting which is able to show multiple simultaneous sounds, tones, motifs or images, writing is linear. One thing follows one another. When I look at the works of serious painters, I am envious, of the avoidance of thesis allowed visual language. Even films. That last mad procession in Mad Max Thunder Road with the guitar player at the spear end & really what is happening, what does it mean? John Olsen when he painted his great Spanish Encounter under the influence of Dubuffet was able completely get away from rational thinking. I’m currently watching an interview, which I had to pause to start this. & I remember when I first looked at Surrealism, it was clear that it was ill-suited to writing, despite Breton’s automatic claims. We allow our artists to manifest all sorts of wildness, violence, madness & yet we require that our writers must believe what they write. Particularly in this age of PC, it’s such a conservative time, we have to write on our knees in this country, for fear of being cancelled, in whatever way that is. While trillions of dollars that could be spent housing & feeding people is spent on imprisoning & killing people, it is a surreal time that we somehow still require caution & censorship & self censorship. Why do we take such care with our words, what about what poetry is, which is a journey through the subconscious? We live in a time when politicians tell a succession of bold faced lies & so we must, we writers be tamer than our governments. It’s bizarre. The challenge of surrealism was that it put the fear of God into politicians. It scandalized the world & politicians cowed (at least privately). But today’s artists & writers are more like civil servants. Obeying the rules of the government run grant Arts. Who, then, to borrow from Don Chipp, is keeping the bastards honest? I write then as an outsider, but please don’t think that there’s not a huge price to pay. The mental cost in leaving myself wide open & vulnerable is enormous. I just have to keep going, in the belief that I can ‘break on through to the Other side.’

 

 

 Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2024.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In a very unorthodox way

  In a very unorthodox way # (For Max Sometimes) In a very unorthodox way, I’m an Irish Catholic. Of course, in terms of Belfast politics that MEANS something. & while that maybe true – in Australia, for different reasons, as Fr Bob Maguire put it – when Mary first saw Jesus walking out of the tomb on day 3 of his death, she exclaimed “JESUS!!!” – the first time his name was used as a swear word. In that way of an irreverent joke, REVERENTIAL & ORTHODOX are not my way to the Sacred/Love*. For me – I’m not really into Theology – as Max Sometimes quoting me, quoting my mate Richard, quoting Bob Marley, quoting Rasta elders, said today “who feels it knows it.” & I believe that if I am to write my Mass/Symphony of Hope/Love, I must include at least one blasphemous hymn, else the vision depicted be simplistic, like George Handel’s Messiah. The Hope/Love represented or perhaps alluded to (if you prefer) must include genuine despair, dejection, transgression else it...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anagram Schizophrenia In a Numbing Society/Oppression

  Anagram Schizophrenia In a Numbing Society/Oppression   This has gotta come off this band aid’s gotta come off. I’m exhausted. After 52 years of struggle. “Bent out of shape by society’s pliers” to borrow from Dylan. Violence in the womb. Violence from birth. Violence in school. Going to live in the place with the highest murder rate in Europe. Living in a flophouse there. Putting out fires. Literally & figuratively. The literal one that saved everyone’s life in that house. 10 people's lives I saved. Being around generally. Being around. Getting to know people at the bottom. Getting to know people on the ‘wrong side’ of the law Getting to know people on the ‘right side’ Who all jammed together. Rival gang members at my house. Being given a black bandana. A 'hood pass'. Protecting a teenage boy being beaten up by his 6ft 6 Russian stepfather. You know… Friends getting beaten up Friends getting killed   Then what was...
Post a Comment
Read more

An Australian funeral 2024

  An Australian funeral 2024 Urn scattering Irish ashes Australian Irish son Australian Jamaican chief mourner Pelicans present The visiting witnesses: Random assortment of fishermen Seagulls both native & non Boaties hosing off their hulls Nice waving guy Frenchman who told strange story Retiring to Funk & Reggae Herb white rum & okra steamed with salt Getting deep Riffing on Tripping Still despite the fact that I’m tripping you’re tripping they’re tripping Tripping Tripping You’re tripping etc Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1742) “Man is born free Yet everywhere in chains” This IS a WELL established fact Yet still the ignorant are in power & not solely Still people pull the chains to their conditionally adjusted above maximul pull I’m tripping  Chief Mourner unable to tell story Son cackling like a hyena  Angry neighbour on hands free  Chief mourner recovers his flow “I ain’t mad at you” Delivers vocal trip drop Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2024....
Post a Comment
Read more