Temporary monuments

Deep sea dis-comedusae

2011-09-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

We here present the starting point of an until recently unadapted abstract from the Oafy Oceanographic team.

Dis- comedusae

Abstract

Statistical phylogenetic analysis of 111 5.85 and partial –28s ribosomal DNA sequences (total aligned length = 434 nucleotides) including jellyfishes representingapproximately 14% of known scyphozoan romedusae constitute a fifth cnidarianclass (Staurozoa) basal to a monophyletic Medusozoa (= Cubozoa, Hydrozoa, andScyphozoa). Phylogenetic relationships among the medusozoans are generallypoorly resolved, but support is found for reciprocal monophyly of the Cubozoa,Hydrozoa, Corontatae and Dis-comedusae (= Semaeostomeae + Rhizostomeae). In addition, a surveyof pairwise sequence differences in Internal Transcribed Spacer One within morphospecies indicatesthat scyphozoan species diversitymay be approximately twice recentestimates based on morphological analysis. These results highlight difficultieswith traditional morphological treatments including terminology that obfuscateshomologies. By integrating molecularphylogenetic analysis with old andnew morphological, behavioural,developmental, physiological, and other data, a much richer understanding ofthe biodiversity and evolution of jellyfishes is achievable.

We hope to expand on the possibilities contained within this facenating commencement in the not to distant future.

As mentioned in our previous bulletin "prospective activity" posted feburary 2009

"We hope that our readers will appreciate our exploration of the bottom rung, often attributed to an interest in invertebrate lifeforms."

New Bulletin

2011-02-25T22:40:00.001-08:00

Still deep in contemplation of the coming year we here present a detail of psychical explorations undertaken by our graphical department which achieved some insight and financial reward from our relatively recent exhibition at Lesa Gallery, Petone.

The question of the exact ontological nature of the graphic sign continues to perplex visitors of the remaining images on display. Commencing from a new starting point in the not to distant future we hope to engage with greater metabolic environments than previously undertaken, as Oafy takes steps to affirm its place within the ebbs and flows of earthly systems. Dexter Deacon has also indicated a willingness to present further research of alternative energy technology. Please stay attuned.

The curious sublime

2010-10-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

After Months of painstaking research into the mysteries of decorative plate design our affiliates in the Oafy satirical department have commenced a new set of refreshing social imaginings.

A small sampling of these works is here produced in tantalising web only format. With the blue dye of willow pattern flowing like a river through the studios a fresh spirit has filled the environs of Oafy inc. Like a mountain piling up at the meeting place between the essential world of string theory or Zen buddhism and the daily social upheavels known as history- our Oafy Artisans are hard at work at the sublimation of an ardent desire to reveal new mysterious truths.

Please stay attuned for upcoming bulletins in the not to distant future.

wild thing

2010-05-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

During a recent visit to our company archives, a member of our pastoral development team came across this unique piece of experimental footage. The Naivety of the work seems to have a raw and wild quality to it and we decided it was time to reveal it to the wider viewing public, as a curiosity of mention.

While some of our more advanced conceptual efforts are being kept under close consideration by the board of Oafy inc, this small piece of seminal experimentation gives a rare glimpse into the untamed heart of Oafy. We are currently working on new developments at the intersection of the real and the imagined. Please check in every now and then..

Us and them

2009-12-14T18:09:00.001-08:00

Recent activity from our graphical wing has been on display at the Shelly bay defence base. Our No Bulls project has also begun its gradual expansion with the assistance of The Lesa gallery and Papakura arts gallery.

Our concept development team have also not been idle in what seems to be a year of diminishing outputs and notwithstanding a collapse of will power and economics should see new and analogous relations and objects formed with our Ouvre'

We are as always gratefull for your patience and wish all our sincere best wishes for the new year.

Little people

2009-10-08T01:41:00.001-07:00

It is with pride that we commence a new series of posts detailing events within our organisation.

we offer this as a means of commencing after many months of quietly waiting out the winter fury and devising new futures, as always informed by their relationship to the oldschool.

Ordinary sons

2009-06-15T01:31:00.000-07:00

Recent activity in our energy generation department has resulted in a series of studies of the natural formations of marine shells. Oafy researchers are excited about the upcoming possibilities as our team continues to explore the radical possibilities of design through bio-mimicry. The forms have been photographed under special laboratory conditions to reveal previously unknown energy formations existing within these complex calcite structures.
The conceptual modernist division are also assisting in the presentation of these images which should be on display publically in the not to distant future.

The recent rash of plague-ridden caricature has abated but new studies of social unrest are being arranged to complement the previously mentioned studies in natural evolution. We hope that the combination of our Oldschool techniques and the virtual studies of digital nature will help to advance our understanding of new Arcadian possibilities.

a ‘continual process of protension and retension, a complex relay of anticipated futures and reconstructed pasts’.

Hal Foster

Publications update

2009-05-31T15:46:00.001-07:00

A recent foray into the world of publications produced this example from our satirical wing. This and other graphical works should be available via "The John Dory Report" a Christchurch Art Magazine with a growing reputation for quality Art criticism.

The happy mix

2009-04-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

Our exhibition at the Shelly bay Defence base is now underway. Interested parties can make the expedition along the narrow road to the base. The mind your head Gallery is located to the left of the road and is clearly visable from the road. It will run until the 17th of May

Our opening proved to be an amicable occasion and all groups, associations and interested parties mixed freely. Our programme of ambitious oldschool art projects has also been somewhat revived by the sale of works from the newly formed Association of the Plague, as well as other works from the Archive.Stay attuned for further Bulletins

1932 unemployment riots

2009-04-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

Dipping into the national archive we here present a preview of our upcoming studio exhibition. We hope interested viewers will undertake a similar effort in prescribing the correct view of the upheavals here portrayed.

We hope visitors to our exhibit will take the opportunity to view these events in an orderly fashion.

The association of the plague

2009-03-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

During the past week with all departments experiencing a disarray not uncommon in times of economic hardship, the OAFY executive were pleased to receive several submissions of collaboration between departments.

The research division, upset at the removal of key works from the collection for sale, have gone ahead with commissioning a series of works exploring cruelty, distance, theatricality and form. As distance from the visceral has long been an effort undertaken by the OAFY executive we have restricted the research commission to the production of a series of small works which retain in simple testamentary form the concept of the plague. This we are reliably informed is part of an ongoing project undertaken by the research division in reclaiming a rhetoric of the relationship of the Absurd to both distance and nature, we have also uncovered compelling evidence of various other groups engaged in the own plague ridden activities, while we naturally keep our distance, we applaud these efforts at sustained collaboration. Works from the association of the plague will be on display at the newly renovated Mind your head gallery, on the Shelly bay Wharf from the 18th of April- 17th May, by invitation.

Rat Race

2009-03-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

After much debate within the OAFY Archive division this memorial to one of our much maligned fellow mammels has been released for exhibition and purchase and will shortly be on display at the LESA Gallery, situated on picturesque Jackson street, Petone.

As always the collectors within our archive division were reluctant to distribute this work without the supporting materials. This loss of context however inevitable does not diminish the inherent elegance and humor of this work.

We hope that our dedicated readers will appreciate this early example of our environmental campaigning.

The frantic search for the origin

2009-02-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

While our more advanced efforts in establishing a paradigm of energy generated predominantly with the use of animation have been held back through lack of support, the recent crisis of our loss of place inspired this secret footage of some of the Oafy Ecotechnology energy devices. We thank Dexter Deacon for his generosity in releasing this footage. We hope to have established several fundamental prototypes in conjunction with our temporary monuments division before their carbon absorbing influence is of no use.

While exploring these essential issues, our outward eye has never strayed too far from the resurgent political influences currently on display worldwide, it seems that a mimetic fury is gathering in various corners of the globe. The frantic search for the origin of these events impels us outward from our peaceful residence, dwelling at the Shelly bay studios, where a temporary reprieve has been granted by our new landlords.

Prospective activity

2009-02-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

Looking back at our archive of recent projects we see a recurrant theme of our monuments in relation to social unrest. To that end our graphical wing have created this gentle image of societal tumult. Further drawing exploring the notion of lowbrow animation are currently on show at the prestigious Enjoy Gallery situated on the same street as the 1932 Unemployment riots, often confused with the Public Amenities Riots mentioned in earlier bulletins. We hope that our readers will appreciate our exploration of the bottom rung, often attributed to an interest in invertebrate lifeforms.

Delving into the problematics and essential origen of these events, we have comissioned our research division to produce a brief bulletin regarding the notion of what is popularly know as a differential system, usually associated with linguistic analysis we hope this psychological approach will help to alleviate some of the difficulties arising from current confusions.

small works department

2009-02-09T18:02:00.001-08:00

With our inner eye focused on the big picture we had failed to take into account the activities of the small works department. Utilising their limited resources they have commenced a line of mementos to the pastoral atmosphere of New Zealand.

The OAFY executive applauds their efforts, which will be on show at the LESA gallery, situated on picturesque Jackson street, Petone.

While the bull economy has ceased to rage perhaps these delicately sculpted busts will do something to ameliorate the financial woes of our OAFY artisans.

dwelling on the past

2009-02-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

Until recently the importance of international travel has been overrated in the development of the idiosyncrasies of place. Many guests to the temporary monuments studios have been impressed with the existential in-dwelling of the studios. The recent rash of caricature artists to be seen driving around the Wellington region, making scapegoats of the contrivances of local activity, even while declaring their lack of anthropological integrity has drawn to our attention the true predicament of our temporary monuments division, namely its loss of a real history- and now its loss of a place in which to fabricate the memory of itself.This imperils it toward the strange need to appropriate humorously or forcefully - a new site of belonging.

It is with a sense of nostalgia then, that we here present an image of our studio as it was during its glory days. An image of the happy meeting of finished and unfinished work, the armature, the endless column. Waiting, being- the great arc of time that opened before us...

Members of our OAFY research division have also reported that OAFY researchers have been dismissed in their application to study in the halls of higher education. Our proposal fell upon deaf ears during a gruelling twenty minute interview where pointed questions were raised regarding the relationship of OAFY researchers to the dark arts of Animation. It seems that the emergence of Animation as a potential source of energy has inspired incredulity amongst the Academic fraternity and without wider Governmental support we fear that our enterprise may fall short of it targets.

Further bulletins will be forthcoming as our organisation moves through this difficult transitional period.

Departure from our facility

2008-12-15T14:35:00.001-08:00

It seems that our tenure at the Shelly bay Airforce base, situated on the far side of the Evans bay peninsula has come to an end. During the month of January our entire faculty will be relocating to a new location. Our ten year residency in this location, with its peculiar combination of place and flight has seen our organisation steadily cement itself within the current history of the place. Employees enjoyed the faded modernity of this prefabricated wartime stronghold, as well as the gradually encroaching vegetation and a sense of peacefull artistic and cultural activity.

It is with a certain sadness that we begin the painfull process of relocation, but would like to spend some time in the coming months unravelling elements of our relation with the base as well as looking at aspects of its history. Our temporary monuments division are already chattering with excitement at the possibility of an advanced effort in monumentality.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our readers for their thoughtfull attention and wish a happy new year to all.

New display

2008-11-13T00:41:00.000-08:00

Our display at the Discovery centre is now underway. It has been some time since our last bulletin and we regret this lack of communication for our eager readers. Future posts will be forthcoming with the advent of recent activities gaining momentum. Any readers interested in viewing some of our comic book activities should visit Zinefest from 11-3 this Saturday. We present here a page from our satirical wing.

Dexter Deacon has returned from his Sabbatical somewhat subdued and appears to be developing an agricultural project, along with some variations on the objects from our free plants exhibit.

Ethnographic display elements

2008-08-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

As part of our upcoming display of examples of oldschool animation technology we here present an element of our display. We apologise for the hiatus in our bulletin, communication lines having been damaged in the recent fury of wind and rain as the arctic lows have collided with spring warming across the southern hemisphere.

OAFY update

2008-07-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

Following on from our successful work in environmental campaigning, members of OAFY are currently conducting research into previously unknown energy and transportation solutions and the art of animation. With global events, as always, snapping at our heels, OAFY is now pouring its resources into satirical and practical projects- thru any material means possible. Our hope is to develop our work on the philosophical nature of our group, but to proceed with practical activity driven as always by a sense of immanent catastrophe. Toward this end the temporary Monuments division are contemplating their next Idyll to forgotten events.

Dexter Deacon is currently on leave in his home city of San Francisco. During some casual readings on isotopes undertaken during the aforementioned sabbatical he has stumbled upon a review of our Temporary Monuments subdivision. The prestigious European art review ARTe' Contempto has granted the necessary permissions for us to post this review on our bulletin, in the not to distant future.

Rumors are also circulating that elements of our animation folklore collection will be placed on display in the ethnographic section of the Discovery play area at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, accompanied with early examples of Old School Video Art. These rumors are at present unsubstantiated, but would be an exciting addition to a year already bristling with possibilities.

Dexter Deacon concludes

2008-06-25T16:08:00.000-07:00

Given the complexity of Dr Deacon's analysis of this inaugural Oafy project we are here posting his final comments on the subject of the ecotechnological elements inherent in our World Vices installation.

"..."Bull in a china shop" analogy generated by the HGM (Helpfull gallery minder) certainly drew my attention to the common suspicions of an increasingly broad community at odds with the industrial era. This demonstrated how often mythological elements can be confused within the context of contemporary events. The ecotechnological paradigm or Arcadian element as I have called it is inevitably drawn into the task of becoming a reference point for problems which face us in the present. In other words the desire to find a solution to technological problems beyond our control summons up visions of a better way of doing things, which is based on principles developed from a mythological past. This is perhaps the minotaur trapped within a labyrinth of its own repeated self image.

However as I have shown in my exposition of the fundamental workings of the mysterious egg forms, our historical unease has another set of principles with which it can seek relief. While social and historical forces almost inevitably gain the upper hand in priorities of interpretation and solution, and the desire for endlessly deferred pleasure leads us into an animistic quest of hedonistic expansion- we can still keep in mind the principle of centripetal motion. The current focus on centrifugal motion and heat and friction generating technologies has led to the global result of a lack of binding or inward moving technologies and cultures. The storage or release of nutrients in water depending on rising or falling temperature gradients is a basic example of this, a response to this phenomenon is the natural breathing cycle of plant life as nitrogen is stored or released in response to the anaerobic or aerobic activity in soil microbes. The egg form is of course the energy residue of an inward moving and therefore binding flow dynamic, a cooling temperature gradient allowing for the storage of carbon elements-bound by calcium in the shell and gently held in an energetic state by the rotation of water within this form, the ideal state for germination or uptake by other living organisms.

While this exposition leaves many gaps and unanswered questions I would like to thank OAFY and the conceptual modernist team for allowing me this brief interpretation of the ecotechnological elements inherent in the World Vices installation. Perhaps by placing the worklight inside our mysterious egg forms we have in a sense, in the act of gazing into that place- concealed from ourselves a process which was taking place. The frustration of such mysteries will no doubt lead to further speculation on my part.

Centripetal compositional elements: Analysis by Dexter Deacon

2008-06-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in our previous bulletin, our chief ecotechnologist Dr Dexter Deacon here presents some of his views on the technical elements of the Free Plants World Vices exhibition. Dexter holds a Phd in Naturalesque rotational geometry from the non-linear department of interspecies anthropology, Berkley California and is a leading Authority in this area.

The Dr D.Deacon Analysis.

Greetings friends, thank you for taking the time to explore with me this wonderful, if crude example of rudimentary ecotechnology. I am honoured to share with you in a technical interpretation of this simple arrangement of elements, so precariously displayed within the confining yet atmospheric walls of the artificially induced space of the installation. I must not also omit to thank the conceptual modernist team for allowing me the opportunity to develop this analysis of the ecotechnological elements of the installation. While it was my original intention to proceed with a diagrammatic display of the meanings, both latent and explicit -within the installation, I have decided to rely on some of the wonderful photographic images.

In the third photograph we can see the clustering of objects which make up the arrangement. The world corresponds to a roughly central placement within this composition and is elevated by a "Pastoral table" the three moulded eggs- slipped, cracked and upside down respectively, form a triad which draws the eye to the herd of carbonate cows toward the rear of the space. The light is ambient depending on the time of day and a large screen or filter mediates the atmosphere from the outside. If we look back at the photographic image of the pastoral table with the screen directly behind it we can see that this also forms a composition, where the darker central panel corresponds to the table and the lighter areas of the screen correspond to the eggs, placed on the floor. It is clearly some sort of visual metaphor at work, the eggs themselves appearing to have taken the light from the screen, this is of course their suggested function within the inferred ecotechnological paradigm we are proceeding from.

Dexter Deacon returns with the second part of his facenating exploration of our installation in our next bulletin.

free plants world vices

2008-06-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the resolution of our integration into the new arts organisation OAFY. Temporary Monuments has been allowed to maintain its original goals of producing public artworks which are testament to events which may have been forgotten.

The Oldschool Art Funnys group have commenced their work with us in fitting fashion by producing an outstandingly whimsical environmental exhibition on the edge of world attention as it turns toward Wellington for world environment day. Our artisans have completed their work and the exhibition performed well. Over 250 plants have been distributed to the people of Wellington to aid them in creating an idyllic existence for themselves and other. A focus group of OAFY conceptual modernists after much deliberation provided Temporary Monument artisans with blueprints for the construction of a metaphorical installation of objects light and sound. The following images document some of the most important views of this pastoral miniature space.

We have asked the head of the OAFY ecotechnology technical department, Dexter Deacon to provide a technical diagram of the meaning of the installation. This will comprise the larger portion of our next bulletin. We will also be providing further dramatic images of the World Vices section of the exhibit- elements of which it is hoped will be utilised in generating initial imagery for an upcoming OAFY film project.

takeover bid!

2008-06-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

Readers of our bulletin will have found little new material over the past few months. This is due to a negotiation involving the merger of Temporary monuments into a new umbrella organisation. A generous offer has been made to subsume theTemporary Monuments brand into a larger collective organisation. We are currently drafting agreements as to the terms and conditions of this merger and will endeavour to inform our loyal readers as soon as an accord is reached. We should also mention an interesting expression of the temporary ideal currently on show at the Thistle Hall Gallery, from June 5-7.

Our three monuments

2008-03-08T16:52:00.001-08:00

Over the past weeks our three monuments have stood as testament to events which may have been overlooked. We would like to reproduce here an image of these monumental moments along with the accompanying text from the plaques which this bulletin has elaborated on. In the coming weeks we will be turning out outer eye to other events across the municipality while our inner eye searches for new moments in the psychic ocean. With that we declare the close of our virtual Arcadias, we hope it was a meaningfull experience. Please stay attuned.

Walter the Tireless 1853-1882

Walter Jarry was the brother of the famous absurdist
playwright Alfred Jarry. Walter emigrated to New Zealand
in 1876. He shared with his brother an enthusiasm for
bicycles – preferring off-roading to riding around and
around in circles, which his brother Alfred loved to do.
Walter became known among the artistic avant-garde of the
time as ‘The Pastoral Flaneur’.
He died tragically in 1882 while swearing to avoid a curb.

The Spectre of Conceptual Art

Few Wellingtonians would remember the public amenities
riots of 1932. Many newly constructed conveniences were
closed for several months due to an epidemic of missing
urinals which swept through the city. This was finally
attributed to the removal of Marcel Duchamp's ‘Fountain’
from the Academy of Fine Arts.
The subsequent serial theft of urinals perpetrated by overly
enthusiastic conceptual artists rocked the capital and caused
considerable inconvenience. Thankfully we have come a
long way since those darktimes, and yet the threat of our readymade past lingers on.

Slow progress

It is rumored that Jules Verne, author of the epic nineteenth
century underwater adventure Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea, visited Wellington as a young man. He was
enthralled by the tale of Kupe's battle with the giant wheke.
In French literature of the time a Giant Octopus or Squid
often symbolised the struggle of workers against capitalism.
Verne also envisaged the first submarine known as the
Nautilus. Whether he chose to name his submarine after a
humble seashell is a riddle unanswered. However, being
composed of calcium carbonate, the seashell is a repository
of greenhouse gas – a mystery of the ocean and more of a science fact than a science fiction, a hidden player in our climb toward a radiant future.

The monstrous snail of the idiocracy

2008-03-06T13:46:00.001-08:00

Our final monument is now weathering the return of the northerly winds. It seems as though time is running out. The monsterous snail is in its last days of suspension along the seawall. It perches there reaching up to its slab of marble, as a reminder of the slowness of our evolution, but even more so of the sucking and dragging back that this great earth performs on us daily as we attempt to alienate ourselves from her limitations.

We would like to mention more on the subject of Jules Verne's visit to Wellington as a young man, but that moment now has become so shrouded in the past that it may well have taken on the guise of mythology. It is true however that our wit has perhaps run its course, and that the monstrous inaction that sits just out of sight, the abject and unthinkable other is coming now to meet us bearing with it the symbol of the vortex from which all things commenced.

"There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of god. But while this sleep, this dream is on ye, move your foot or hand an inch, slip your hold at all; and your identity comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you hover. And perhaps, at mid-day, in the fairest weather, with one half throttled shriek you drop through that transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise for ever."

Herman Melville Moby Dick

from the fountain to the sea

2008-03-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

Perched on the seawall to the north of the band rotunda, along the promenade of Oriental Parade, our final monument of the current festival has been installed. After the initial gale force winds tested the strength of our intervention, curious locals are venturing out for a peep over the edge.

"The most famous part of the novel, the battle against the school of giant squid, begins when a crewman opens the hatch of the boat and gets caught by one of the monsters. As he is being pulled away by the tentacle that has grabbed him, he yells "Help!" in French. At the beginning of the next chapter, concerning the battle, Arronax states that: "To convey such sights, it would take the pen of our most famous poet, Victor Hugo, author of The Toilers of the Sea." The Toilers of the Sea also contains an episode where a worker fights a giant octopus; and there, the octopus symbolizes the Industrial Revolution. It is probable that Verne borrowed the symbol, but used it to allude to the Revolutions of 1848 as well: After all, the first man to stand against "the monster" and the first to be defeated by it is a Frenchman."

Last night of the urinals

2008-02-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

It is the final night for our monument to the spectre of conceptual art. Of all the concerns raised during our investigation of the public amenities riots of 1932, none were more pressing than the threat of an imminent breakdown of the fabric of society itself.

While Marcel Duchamp's fountain opened up the art halls of the continent to the idea of utilitarian objects possessing qualities of meaning as valuable as the mythological associations generally carried by great works of art- it was an idea that could only be introduced with a great deal of provocation at the time.

The mood was similar in Wellington nearly twenty years after the first unveiling of the fountain. When the Academy of Fine Arts refused to exhibit the fountain it was because they considered it a threat to what was valued as art at the time, although they may have thought it a boring and impish piece of imitation lacking in originality. Regardless of the mindset of the curators of the day, the fountain was refused. Not only that but several members of the Avant-Garde who had argued vigorously in favour of its inclusion were made to feel foolish for their support of progressive notions of social and cultural activity. It is strange that the backlash which this authoritarian attitude engendered, resulted in the wholesale and enthusiastic damaging of public utilities, by the Avant Garde, in an attempt to acquire their own works of art. Thus, sadly for the progressive idealists of the time the very source of their inspiration, the fountain from which great possibilities seemed to flow, became the target of misguided vandalism and acquisitiveness.

"Even in the most closed cultures men believe they are free and open to the universal; their differential character makes the narrowest cultural fields seem inexhaustible from within. Anything that compromises this illusion terrifies us and stirs up the immemorial tendency to persecution. This tendency always takes the same direction, it is embodied by the same stereotypes and always responds to the same threat. Despite what is said around us persecutors are never obsessed by difference but rather by its unutterable contrary, the lack of difference."

Rene Girard The scapegoat

Eager for progress

2008-02-26T19:05:00.001-08:00

As a boy growing up on the streets of Paris the young Marcel Duchamp would sometimes venture with his playmates into the artistic district. It was on one of these occasions, as they ran back and forth across the road pushing a hoop and generally carrying on as children are wont to do, that a shot rang out across the neighbourhood.

In later years the now fully grown Marcel insisted that the bullet passed thru his hat and shattered the glass of a nearby window, but that is merely a matter of conjecture. In reality the shot was fired by the now notorious Alfred Jarry. This was many years since the demise of his unfortunate brother who had left behind the comforts of Parisian life in search of Pastoral harmony with nature, and ended up, as we know, falling foul of a pedestrian and a curb.

The young Marcel's mother, who was herself still lively for her years- upon hearing that crazed playwrights were now taking potshots at children in the artistic district, marched - and if the cliche' is not too onerous, with a rolling pin in hand to the doorstep of Jarry's apartment.

We can only imagine the remonstration received by Jarry at the hand of the young mother, as astonished Marcel stood by. Jarry's response has now become the stuff of legend- that his target shooting endangered her children, he replied, " If that should ever happen Ma-da-me, we should ourselves be happy to get new ones with you."

Whether impressed by such a degree of provocation or simply deciding that it was safer to keep his enemies close at hand Marcel began following Jarry, taking notes on the collection of dust , the rules governing exceptions, and the difficulties encountered in proving through chance that alternate realities do exist- an obsession attributed to his love of chess.

Sadly Jarry passed away, perhaps before his apprentices training was complete- however the foundation had been laid and Marcel went on to infamy of fame, as the case may be- depending how you look at it

Virtual Arcadia

2008-02-25T18:38:00.000-08:00

We are delighted that the installation of our second monument proceeded in a discreet and trouble-free way. We feel something of its benign yet disconcertingly conceptual gaze fall upon us as we cross over the isthmus between two roads.
Already moss, branches and ferns have leaned gently over our spectral sprite as if it had always been there in that place. Clearly the great water-pump of the city and the smaller fountains of gas, water and air which make up the breath of the trees that hang over the amenity, remind us of a time when nature and man lived together in harmony.
Wishing to pause for a moments relief and clinging briefly in our mind to the image of this idyll, we must move now to the subject of the public amenities riots of 1932, this and some of the questions posed by the querulous Marcel Duchamp will comprise the substance of our next bulletin.

" His philosophy, briefly, is this: since the 17th century, certain enlightened thinkers have been taking the world away from the old-fashioned nature-bound life, and here he quotes Thomas Hobbes' famous characterisation of life as "nasty, brutish and short", and towards a new virtual world where we have conquered nature. Value now exists in imaginary things. "

Tom Hodgkinson Jan 21 The Guardian

Wheres Walter?

2008-02-21T13:09:00.001-08:00

While busying ourselves in preparation for the installment of our second monument, we have lacked the time to inform our readers of the attack sustained by our first monument. Walter's status as a truely temporary monument was confirmed on Tuesday evening by what appeared to be an act of boisterous vandalism. What remains now is nothing but the shadow of Walter's form- his famous "Tireless" Bicycle.

"Laws are currently being drafted to curb the killer pedestrian. With the aim of gathering fuller documentary evidence regarding the latter, we exposed ourselves to his ferocity, mounted on a heteromobile. The pedestrian we observed, an infant, behaved in complete conformity with out earlier description in the pages of this review. We had nothing further to ask of him once the experiment was over, so as a service to humanity we put him out of action."

Alfred Jarry the killer pedestrian

While we are what may be described as a Pan-civic organisation, perhaps the irony of bold but lonely Walter on his bicycle was not lost to the users of the locomotor machines on the thoroughfare. Perhaps Walter was too much of an exception to be tolerated. It is also a pataphysical notion however that the exception proves the rule, so while it seems now that Walter nolonger exists, it is in his absence that peculiarly we remember him at his best.

In light of this event, we have decided to move on to the subject of our second monument, currently to be situated in the midst of a comprehensive redevelopment and directly surmounting a disused public amenity. Our second monument looks back to a time when the roots of the city were put in place. New ideas were beginning to move across the globe, along with the wholesale transportation of goods came the origen of a trade in ideas. With the rapid development of a modern society the gothic edifice of a society in permanent repose began to crumble. This intermingling of Virtual Arcadias, endlessly reproduced in lands distant from their origen caused considerable friction in the Art society of the 1920's and 30's. This culminated in what was known as the public amenities riots of 1932. The perpetrator of which we make our next monument to.

"All great Aesthetic ideas are the same-narrowly obsessively imitative. Traditionally art is only spoken of in terms of mimesis. The passion with which we deny this is suspect, since art has rightly withdrawn from our world. By discouraging imitation we are not eliminating it but forcing it into the ridiculous fads and ideologies that make up our contemporary attempts at innovation. Our desire for originality end in insignificant efforts."

Rene Girard The Scapegoat

2008-02-16T23:44:00.000-08:00

The following is taken from the secret manuscript of Alfred Jarry, the brother of Walter Jarry- a legendary offroad cyclist of Wellington, who from 1876-1882 could be seen in the hills around the city. It is a glimpse perhaps of relations between the two brothers, different but not dissimilar- for while Alfred was addicted to the speed and rush of Absinth, Walter was a risk taker of a different order, someone for whom "the beauty of speed" was equal to the experience of flying down a hill on his small bike. It is possible to say that Walter was in fact the originator of the BMX, in that he had made for himself an especially small bike, to match his own diminutive frame.

Excerpt from the manuscript:

"The doctor having taken occasion to park his sieve on the curb, and instructing his baboon faced assistant to prepare lunch with a slap to the neck, set off in the direction of the town. "Faustroll" he whispered to himself, "An epiphenomenom is that which is imposed upon a phenomenom, the whole foundation may be sand but dust still clings to your shoes."
It was at this point in his speculation that the doctor was surprised by the sight of a man, seated upon a bicycle and brandishing a riding whip while pursued by a group of hungry looking curs. "Faustroll" He mused to himself "How stupid those dogs must be, when all across France and indeed the civilised world, dogs along with children have learnt of the dangers of these new locomotor machines. Why would it be that these curs are seeking the shin of that unfortunate rider?" But as the offroader drew nearer he concluded "Haha, I see now that I have reached another epicentre- it is my brother, the antipodean." At which point he occasioned himself to hide behind another passerby suspecting quite rightly that his brothers predicament came from the leg of mutton, which protruded from his jacket."

The Diminutive Alfred Jarry

2008-02-12T23:22:00.000-08:00

Alfred Jarry was considered to be the father of Absurdism , he lived in an apartment in Paris. He stood under 5 feet tall and as an Absurdist pioneer was happy that his landlord had lowered the roof of his apartment to half the usual height to make way for an additional floor, as an artist he was sad that the same landlord had not lowered the rent also. There is much that can be said about Jarry, but it does not concern public sculpture in Wellington.
It was in fact thru the auspices of the pataphysics research laboratory in London that we came across a manuscript which did concern us. Alfred Jarry was of course a well known playwright, much of his writing happened in the century before last. Thru secret connections in various Avant-Garde circles the research library came to hear of our efforts to uncover hitherto unknown psychic roots in Wellington, offering us proof of an extraordinary role that Wellington has played, almost since its beginning, in developing and nurturing lucid but hallucinatory notions of existence.

As a preamble to launching of our first monument , this Sunday outside thistle hall, at 5 o clock we will be reproducing segments of this previously unpublished Absurd manuscript - fully translated from its original French. But until then we leave you with this quote from the playwright, taken from his excellent essay - The killer pedestrian

"Now that, in our opinion, is an excellent, and for reasons that will become obvious as the circumstances unfold. In the year 1888 or 1889, tourists on bicycles or penny farthings were insulted, barked at, bitten and encouraged to topple over, until such a time as dogs, as we can see today, had acquired the habit of steering clear of the new locomotor machines, as they had previously learnt to do for cars. Canine education being now complete, the riding-crops and other defensive weapons of the cyclist of those bygone days have been thrown on the scarp-heap, like the tyre levers of the stone age."

Our first Monument

2008-01-21T23:38:00.001-08:00

With the launch of the companion book to our project, we expect some individuals to have noticed its existence. Excitement is growing and with any luck our first Monument will be unveiled on the 17th of February. By keeping our nose close to the ground we have uncovered a striking and unusual character from Wellington's chaotic beginnings prior to the 19th century. We hope to adorn a popular thoroughfare with a monument to this "Pastoral Flaneur" as striking as that from the school of Permanent Monuments in our sister city to the North. Further submissions are being made to the cities planners and so we leave you for now, hoping you will return for further elaborations.

"We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace."

F.T.Marinetti - Futurist Manifesto 1909

From the school of permanent monuments

2007-11-11T15:13:00.000-08:00

During travels in the north our representatives stumbled upon this great work from the school of permanent monuments. In the city of our neighbours to the north it seems that great ideals hold sway. The faultless execution of the monument was also impressive. We felt humbled by the majesty- the bearing and wise presence of this monument. The grandeur of its gaze swept the park wherein it had been surmounted. For the makers of such works no mistake could be tolerated, it reminded us of the perfectly sanded and painted wall of an art hall. We were finally attracted by the air of loneliness in this monument as it sat amongst the order it had chiseled from around it.

Something on the edge of our memory

2007-10-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

Something about this apparently innocuous public convenience caught our attention. There are roots reaching deep into the underground at this place. It stands like an isthmus between two lanes of traffic, why has it been left here? It speaks of a time when buildings were shorter. It has all the appearance of a crypt, we will consult the records-something has been forgotten, it may deserve a monument.

so many places

2007-10-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

It seems there are many stories to tell, buried deep within the concrete and steel fabric of the city.
We must do honor to those forgotten moments before their great contribution to our collective life is gone forevermore. Our psychic operatives are now busying themselves with tapping into this great ocean of collective memory and preparing accurate pictures of these moments for reproduction into temporary monumental form. Please stay attuned.