Author: stevendouglasblog

Born in 1954. Chequered career including Lecturer in English, Social Worker and Lecturer in Social Work. Had breaks related to mental health that also meant I worked in social care. Now retired.

Marina Abramović: but essentially the artist is absent. The conceptual pitfalls of a beautiful show.

November 22, 2023

I wrote a blog in preparation for this show. You can read it if you wish at this link: https://livesteven.com/2023/10/29/this-blog-is-my-preparation-to-see-the-retrospective-exhibition-on-the-work-of-marina-abramovic-at-the-royal-academy-the-first-held-there-on-a-female-artist-in-london-on-22nd-november-i-prepared-by/. Some things I guessed but got wrong. On entering we are first confronted by The Artist is Present (2011) which fills an entire room. But it is, in the bodily absence of stills as I … More Marina Abramović: but essentially the artist is absent. The conceptual pitfalls of a beautiful show.

April pierces to my root, no wonder we call him cruel.

November 21, 2023

What’s your favorite month of the year? Why? April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. T.S. Eliot ‘The Waste Land’, lines 1ff. For whole … More April pierces to my root, no wonder we call him cruel.

Durham: a cathedral, a castle and a prison – and a river runs through it.

November 20, 2023

What is your favorite place to go in your city? The front of the then School of Education, Durham University Soon after I moved to County Durham I studied for a PGCE in teaching English and Drama. Those portals to teaching were taught in then School of Education in Durham University in the College of … More Durham: a cathedral, a castle and a prison – and a river runs through it.

This is a blog about the emergent meanings of family, home and the endurance of relationships in a global multicultural queer world where those categories no longer have a simple meaning. It discusses Bryan Washington (2023) ‘Family Meal’.

November 19, 2023

‘I close my eyes, just for a moment, and I think about tomorrow. / And the days afterward. / And what it’ll mean to step through a home, in a brand-new place, where my people aren’t’.[1] This is a blog about the emergent meanings of family, home and the endurance of relationships in a global … More This is a blog about the emergent meanings of family, home and the endurance of relationships in a global multicultural queer world where those categories no longer have a simple meaning. It discusses Bryan Washington (2023) ‘Family Meal’.

‘Eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves’: The dream of a permanent home or the choice of a luxury setting?

November 17, 2023

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Daily prompt? I have seen this question come and go and shuddered at the assumptions that I feared were its motives. Today, I want to confront it, in the light of my visceral response to it, for the world is too much with … More ‘Eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves’: The dream of a permanent home or the choice of a luxury setting?

To meet and part and then travel on. ‘Nothing beside remains’.

November 16, 2023

If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why? Daily prompt – laptop options We turned a corner off that street halfway Between the library and museum. The day was already in its decay So present was the past that had Priam stood as if in metal made, Trojan brass, we … More To meet and part and then travel on. ‘Nothing beside remains’.

“Everything I had willingly drawn was female. But here, through these coal-mine drawings, I discovered the male figure and the qualities of the figure in action”. How a concern with sex / gender manifest itself in Moore’s mining drawings. This blog looks at Chris Owen (2022) ‘Drawing In The Dark: Henry Moore’s Coalmining Commission’.

November 15, 2023

“Everything I had willingly drawn was female. But here, through these coal-mine drawings, I discovered the male figure and the qualities of the figure in action. As a sculptor I had previously believed only in static forms, that is, forms in repose”.[1] Henry Moore said this when talking to James Sweeney in 1947. It suggests … More “Everything I had willingly drawn was female. But here, through these coal-mine drawings, I discovered the male figure and the qualities of the figure in action”. How a concern with sex / gender manifest itself in Moore’s mining drawings. This blog looks at Chris Owen (2022) ‘Drawing In The Dark: Henry Moore’s Coalmining Commission’.

“I’m nobody! Who are you? / Are you nobody, too?”

November 14, 2023

Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met? Daily prompt Emily Dickinson is quite ‘somebody’ nowadays. I haven’t met her though I read her work frequently and THAT IS A KIND OF MEETING. I think it is unlikely that you, dear Reader (surely there’s one of you! La!) have met her … More “I’m nobody! Who are you? / Are you nobody, too?”

To be a palimpsest of impressions.

November 13, 2023

What’s the first impression you want to give people? Daily prompt Codex ephremi (The S.S. Teacher’s Edition-The Holy Bible – Plate XXIV).Source is Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36972 Ancient manuscripts were written on parchment (though an even more ancient writing surface – the wax-coated tablet of stone was the origin of the idea of writing as making … More To be a palimpsest of impressions.