online: 11 may 2004
modified: 9, 10 may 2004

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7 may 2004 the art of nature


11:00 Kensington Gardens: a wild garden (between railings and water) with bluebells, buttercups, mare's tail, thistle, nettles, dandelions (one dandelion already with 'clock' of parachute seeds ready to be blown away), and perhaps 10 - 15 other wild flowers and grasses I don't recognise - so many together that I wonder if they were consciously planted by the many gardeners working here today... I saw about 7 gardeners working together on 2 flower beds, many colours, consciously organised...

As I walked towards the Serpentine Gallery I saw a cluster of 13 daisies (two damaged) in very green grass - and chestnuts blooms growing so near to the ground that it's darker beneath the tree. Confronted by chestnut blooms at face level - white flowers with pink and yellow details - and such obtrusive growth of big new leaves and branches, almost obscene.

11:44

At the exhibition of Cy Twombly's works on paper at the Serpentine Gallery:

marked by the abstract expressionism which ruled his coming-of-age, he has never been content with its sovereignty of pure instinct (comment in a book by Simon Schama)

...Cy Twombly: he sees all inscription as ART - it's just a question of seeing it.

Lido Cafe, sitting down and writing on the handheld:
as I walked here across the grass amongst daisies I wished to be writing on this handheld while standing up - but up to then I was noting thoughts briefly on paper - and then I have to transcribe, (which takes time - and I may never do it) and some freshness is lost in the connecting of written scraps into sentences... But if I could write-digitally-standing on the screen I'd both save time and write more freshly, closer to thought. (I hope.)

I must try it. I did so - what follows was written standing:

As I looked at Cy Twombly's works (and particularly at books of his works with essays by others) I several times felt inspired to accept or adopt his wider perception of art (as including all 'inscriptions' from prehistoric onwards, no matter how roughly inscribed or how vulgar) - and thus (as when consulting an oracle) to inhabit a widened perception myself... And as I noticed the great variety of the interpretations of his work I thought 'his artworks are a bit like Herman Rorschach's ink blot pictures*' (in which one's own subconscious image-making is perhaps revealed)... is each critic seeing himself in these works?

When I asked one of the men raking soil 'what are you making?' he had to ask his mate...
who said 'Princess Diana's memorial fountain'.
'Improving the world?' I said
and they laughed - nervously, I thought.

Then I copied this from the explanatory poster:

...an extraordinary water feature, being a stone oval 210 metres in circumference over which water will run, tumble, cascade, curl and bubble before coming to rest in a large tranquil pool.

...a memorial that will reflect the personality and life of Diana...

...computer generated 3-D models are at present guiding high-tech diamond-tipped cutting machines as they work on Cornish granite...

All these elements, I thought, each a recent novelty, combine to enable the birth of a synthesis beyond the perceptions of their inventors

as I write, standing by the safety fence, a huge dumper deposits perhaps half a ton of soil before me.

The young man whose job it is to spread the soil with a shovel takes off his sweater and in doing so exposes inscriptions in gothic lettering tattooed on his back.

high visibility jackets must be worn
To write thus, standing, is very slow - it obliged me to stand in one spot for several minutes (would texting be significantly faster?)

A starling perches on the safety fence for about half a minute as it looks about before flying away

14:33 I've noted enough... there are several worlds here - as everywhere.



*Herman Rorschach (1884-1922) - his procedure for diagnosing mental disorders by noting a patient's interpretations of symmetrical inkblots in which most people can 'see' all sorts of figures, animals, trees, mythical figures, weapons, erotic images, anything.



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