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“For the animal
shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they
move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of senses we have lost or
never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.” - Henry Beston
When I lived in
Europe I went to marvellous performance by a group called Cirque du Soleil.
This is a fantastic troupe that has taken the circus and has made it a new
scintillating and mesmerising spectacle. It did away with many of the
traditional circus offerings (for example, no animals are used) and has created
a show that relies on the amazing abilities of the human body. As well as
showcasing incredible feats of acrobatics, juggling, balancing, tight-rope
walking, dancing and clowning around, each show is based on a theme and there
are underlying higher level messages running through each themed performance.
For example, the
first show I saw in Europe was called “Saltimbanco” and was designed to be a
celebration of life. It was “…conceived as an antidote to the violence and
despair so prevalent in the 20th century, this phantasmagoria offers up a new
vision of urban life, overflowing with optimism and joy. Saltimbanco is
anything but linear; rather, it is a kaleidoscope, a whirlwind, an adventure in
which anything can happen. Saltimbanco has its own special language, and its
spirit is conveyed through voice, movement and music.”
Advertising hype
aside, I think it exemplifies how even something like entertainment can keep up
with the spirit of the times. Now that most civilised people around the world
are beginning to be sensitive to animal rights, now that exploiting animals and
torturing them has become a behaviour that is not only unacceptable but in many
countries around the world illegal, a company like Cirque du Soleil has altered
the way that we perceive traditional circus entertainment. Although the animal
acts are gone, the entertainment that has been constructed in their absence has
proved to be enchanting and spellbinding.
Many circuses
still use animals in their shows. The species most commonly involved are
elephants, tigers, bears, lions, horses, ponies, dogs, crocodilians, various
snakes and non-human primates (usually macaque monkeys or chimpanzees).
Occasionally, zebras, giraffes, hippopotamuses and camels can also be found in
circuses and travelling shows. The physical and practical constraints of the
travelling circus environment result in animals being either chained or
confined to transport cages or “beast wagons” at virtually all times when not
performing. They are forced to defaecate, urinate, eat, drink and sleep all in
the same tiny area.
Most wild or
non-domesticated animals retain a need to engage in their instinctive behaviour
patterns. Prolonged confinement frustrates these behaviour patterns, and can
lead to serious psychological distress and the development of abnormal
behaviours. Abnormal aggression, apathy, self-mutilation, and stereotypic
movements such as head-weaving, rocking from side to side, bar-licking and
pacing are relatively common in performing animals, and are indicative of an
abnormal environment.
Trainers
routinely dismiss suggestions that they mistreat the animals under their care,
pointing to the fact that their animals represent a substantial financial
investment, and abuse would jeopardise that investment. Moreover, they argue,
it would be dangerous for trainers to abuse wild animals, along side they would
later have to perform. However, many past trainers have come forth with
shocking reports of animal abuse. For example, former animal trainer Pat Derby
reports having witnessed “…elephants being beaten and electro-shocked in the
vagina, ears, mouth, and anus; bears’ noses broken and their feet burned, and
big cats being struck with wooden bats.” (see: http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-In-Entertainment/).
It’s time that
we as humans become humane. Not only towards our fellow human beings, but also
towards the other animals that share this planet with us. The arguments for
using these animals for entertainment are simply not logical, compassionate,
civilised or intelligent. Animal-free circuses are not only possible, but more entertaining
and are thankfully becoming more widespread.
"Give
us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors." - New Testament, Matthew, 6:11-12
Nutritional
deficiencies are the world’s greatest health problem, compared to any other
individual disease. Presently, 40 people per minute die worldwide from
malnutrition. Even in the developed countries such as Australia, North America,
Western Europe where the richest people in history live, we find evidence of
nutritional deficiencies. In the 1950s, the world had 3 billion people, and one
person in two went to bed hungry. Today, with 6 billion people, only one person
in five goes to bed hungry, however, the developed nations are even more
prosperous and pay the price of over-eating and obesity-related diseases.
Marasmus is the
generalised wasting away of the body and is the result of deficiency of total
caloric intake, while kwashiorkor is the result of a dietary deficiency of
protein. Both of these disorders are
still disturbingly common in the developing countries of the world and the
victims are unfortunately mostly children. Africa and Asia are the countries
with most of these famine-related problems.
Vitamins are
substances in the diet, which the body needs in small quantities but cannot
manufacture itself and which take part in important metabolic reactions.
Vitamin deficiencies are very unusual to rare in the industrialised countries,
except amongst food faddists. In countries like Australia and the USA it is
often claimed in urban myth that the population has a variety of subtle,
subclinical vitamin deficiencies for which they need to be supplemented with a
variety of available over the counter pills and tablets. These are for the
major part hypothetical deficiencies and if the diet is balanced no need for
vitamin supplements exists. It has been said that the most expensive urine in
the world is produced by Americans, so many of whom take great quantities of
vitamin supplements that they excrete them in enormous quantities in their
urine. By contrast, in the developing
countries, vitamin deficiencies together with other nutritional deficiencies
are still a major cause of disease and death.
Some excellent
charities and international relief organisations exist that are desperately
trying to make this world of ours more equitable, more fair, and attempt to
make life easier for those millions upon millions of disadvantaged who do not
know where their next meal is coming from. Please visit the web links below and
if you can, donate from your surfeit so that those less fortunate can have a
piece of their daily bread:
OxfamCare International: http://www.careinternational.org.uk/
Various: http://www.ethioworld.com/FamineRelief/foreignrelieforganizations.htm
This link is to a very distressing picture by Kevin Carter that encapsulates the
whole of the famine situation so poignantly. However, it is a picture that
illustrates famine so dramatically that it seems to have been what broke this
photographer’s will to live. After being exposed to so many situations like
this, which he photographed, he committed suicide. Please do not look at it if
you are likely to be affected adversely – but it is the truth and reality is
cruel.
“A book that is shut is but a
block.” Thomas Fuller
At the weekend while browsing in a second-hand
bookshop I came across a fantastic book that I just had to buy! It is called
“At Home with Books” by Estelle Ellis, Caroline Seebohm and Christopher Simon
Sykes, published by Thames & Hudson, London in 1995 but has been reprinted
many times since (attesting to its popularity). Its ISBN 0-500-01684-4 and here is the Amazon link where this book is available and you can even peek
inside it.
It is a large format book, lavishly illustrated and deals with how
booklovers deal with the problem of dealing with the space required to house
their book collections. Although some of the libraries illustrated are palatial
to say the least (for example, the Duke of Devonshire’s, Loren & Frances
Rothschild’s or Paul Getty’s), there are also libraries of common mortals,
libraries designed by experts, by amateurs and libraries that “just happened”
without their owners realising it! Towards the back of the book there is a
wonderful section on book storage, conservation, enemies of books, building bookshelves,
library ladders, confessions of bibliophiles and a section on great public
libraries of the world. The book ends with a well-researched Resource Section
on suppliers, rare book dealers, etc.
I love this book and I can definitely recommend to anyone who has books
at home, who loves books and who is transported into a state of bliss when they
find themselves in a room full of books. I really had to deal with a serious
case of the drools I got when leafing through this book. I felt a wonderful
sense of kinship with all of the people whose libraries are illustrated inside
and I could definitely nod my head appreciatively when I read some of their
comments that struck familiar chords in my psyche…
We are bibliophiles in home and one of the reasons for extending our
home a few years ago was to make more room for bookcases and books. We have
quite a serious collection in several languages and ranging from fiction to
non-fiction. In case you are wondering, no, it is not me in the photograph. It
is an illustration from the book and an image of its cover!
bibliophile
|ˈbɪblɪə(ʊ)fʌɪl| noun
A person who
collects or has a great love of books.
DERIVATIVES
bibliophilic |-ˈfɪlɪk|
adjective,
bibliophily |-ˈɒfɪli| noun
ORIGIN early
19th century: From French, from Greek biblion
‘book’ + philos ‘loving’.
“Death may be the greatest of all human
blessings.” – Socrates
Euthanasia: The
very word strikes fear or repugnance into many people’s mind. The idea of
deliberately causing someone to die, even if that person wishes it to be so
himself, strikes us as something contrary to the laws of nature, is a thing
proscribed by many religions and is something that is impossible to even
contemplate for many persons.
Euthanasia
literally means “a good death” in Greek and is often described as a “mercy
killing” or “assisted suicide”. The issue is one fraught with immense moral and
ethical questions and is highly controversial. Here is a web resource (Stanford
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy) that you may find interesting to consult.
The basic
question posed by euthanasia is the following: "Should a person who is
terminally ill, and who feels that their life is not worth living because of intractable pain (and/or
loss of dignity, and/or loss of capability) and who repeatedly and actively
asks for help in committing suicide and who is of sound mind and not suffering
from depression be given assistance in dying?"
There are many
people who will without thinking answer immediately and without thought with a
resounding “NO!” to the above question. Others will answer with an unqualified
“yes” and many will find themselves in a dilemma, not being able to make up
their minds finding arguments for both sides of the debate. My offering for
Movie Monday is a film that examines this question of euthanasia, and which is
based on a true story. It provides an amazing insight into the life of Ramón
Sampedro, a person who desires help in committing suicide. His attitude is
summarised in this quote by Norman Cousins: “Death is not the greatest loss in
life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
The 2004 film is
by Spaniard Alejandro Amenábar and is called “Mar Adentro” (‘The Sea Within’). It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film in 2004 as
well as 56 other awards. The acting, direction, story development and
cinematography are excellent in this film, but overall it is the raw emotional
power that it packs that makes it worthwhile. The film, despite its profound
theme is not depressing and there moments of genuine humour, tenderness, as
well as gut-wrenching emotion.
This is a film
that is going to shock many people as it explores a highly emotive and
controversial topic; a film that will definitely make you think and question
your own beliefs and ethics, a film that will cause you to question your own attitudes
and thoughts about death and love, a film that will above all else make you
feel…
“Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk.” - Henry Miller
For Art Sunday today I am featuring three works by different artists that have fuelled great controversy in Australia. This once again demonstrates the power of art to challenge our comfort zone, to makes us ponder as to what constitutes art and what the meaning of art is.
Melbourne’s drunks have leered at a particular painting for over a hundred years, and this painting is one of Australia’s most famous. This is because “Chloe” hangs not in the Victorian Arts Centre, nor does it grace the walls of a museum, but because it is on the wall of the little pub known as Young and Jackson’s, which occupies one of the nation’s prime real estate sites in Melbourne, directly opposite Flinders Street Station.
“Chloe” was painted by the Frenchman Chevalier Jules Lefebvre (1836-1911) in Paris in 1875. Legend has it that he used as his model a beautiful Parisienne named Marie. One evening she gathered her friends about her, and treated them to a magnificent dinner. When all of her guests had gone she spent her last remaining sou on a box of matches, boiled the heads, drank the poisonous water and died in terrible pain.
The painting was brought to Melbourne for the Great Exhibition of 1880. It was purchased by one of the city’s best-known surgeons, Thomas Fitzgerald, who on one occasion, loaned it to the Melbourne Art Gallery for a public showing. There, it created such a storm of controversy over allegations of ‘indecency’ that its fame was well established. When its owner died in 1908, the picture was bought by Mr Norman Young of the team of Young and Jackson, hoteliers, for 800 guineas and was put on display in the saloon bar where it may still be seen.
Sir William Dobell’s (1899-1970) portrait of Joshua Smith sadly no longer exists. The original was almost destroyed by fire and only a clumsy restoration survives. The destruction of this masterpiece was the last of a long line of humiliations suffered by one of Australia’s most amazing works of art. The vigorous, uncompromising study of Dobell's fellow artist, Joshua Smith, won the 1943 Archibald Prize.
The trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW were impressed by its dramatic style, and the likeness. However, two unsuccessful exhibitors were so outraged that they decided to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court. The painting, they claimed, was not a portrait but a caricature. The case involved some of the best legal brains in the country. Some of the press mocked the painting mercilessly. It was alleged in court that the portrait was a pictorial defamation, “a stricken creature”. At one stage even a Macquarie Street doctor was brought in to declare that the painting looked like a corpse with ten vertebrae in the neck rather than seven.
Dobell said that he painted his friend, with whom he had shared a tent while working for the Army, as he saw him. The case was dismissed and Dobell kept the prize but he suffered a nervous breakdown and the word “caricature” would plague him forever. Joshua Smith also suffered deeply and at one stage he and his father arrived on Dobel’s doorstep in tears to try to buy the painting. But the artist, fearing they might be compelled to destroy his work, refused to sell.
Many years later, when the painting was burnt in a fire, Joshua Smith thought fate had intervened to end his pain. However, the wealthy owner had the painting restored and now the clumsy rendition survives, reminding us that art can cross swords with the law to the detriment of better judgment and common sense.
Norman Lindsay’s (1879-1969) paintings were not to everyone’s taste. In his ninety years he painted, drew and sculpted acres of naked bodies and in so doing scandalised what he called the “wowsers”. Lindsay was the ultimate artist, with a head full of fairytales, dreams and inspirations of castles, legends - and yes - full-breasted women.
Critics and public alike mistook his ingenuousness for Satanism, failed to detect the carefully staged decadence, and shouted out accusations of pornography. However, he was far from radical but rather, a quaint anachronism in the permissive age he had helped pioneer. He was born in the small country town of Creswick, Victoria, the son of a doctor and a missionary’s daughter and maybe this was part of the problem: “My mother used to try to instruct us in the story of Jesus, how Jesus died on the cross for us. I loathed the story. My whole being rose in revolt against this pestilent notion that anyone should die for me... my concept of life is a gay one you see.” The whole family was enormously talented, as were Lindsay’s own children, but he was clearly the prodigy.
As a young man his reputation grew as an illustrator and he moved to bohemian Sydney to join the political magazine ‘The Bulletin’. In fact, his political cartoons were often extremely reactionary. In 1907, however, his stylish drawing 'Police Verso' (Latin for “thumbs down”) caused outrage when it was purchased by the Gallery of Victoria for 150 pounds. Another Lindsay etching depicting nudity in a religious setting, “The Crucified Venus”, caused a similar scandal. Julian Ashton refused to remove it from public gaze and compromised by hanging it face to the wall. In 1931 the police launched a prosecution against the journal Art In Australia when it published a special edition devoted to Lindsay’s work.
At one stage Lindsay left the country, swearing never to return, but, of course, he did, muttering and spluttering. Although he was a master etcher, Lindsay was far less successful with oils and sculpture where he had problems of structure and scale. Perhaps he was just too prolific. He produced for example the classic children’s book ‘The Magic Pudding’ and a string of interesting novels such as ‘Saturdee’, ‘Redheap’, ‘The Age of Consent’, ‘A Curate In Bohemia’. His preoccupation with wine, women and song didn’t seem to do him any harm and he was ninety and still working when he died in 1969.
The 1994 film “Sirens” looks at Normal Lindsay’s household and how a minister and his wife are challenged by Lindsay’s progressive lifestyle and confronting art.
