Ways of Seeing

I first saw this in a one of repeat of BBC classic series, it was a TV series and a book by John Berger about art and art history but from a radical perspective, the most profound piece for me was when…

In Ways of Seeing Berger shows us a landscape of a cornfield with birds fliying over it and asks us to look at it for a moment

Then…

He tells us THIS WAS THE LAST PAINTING THAT VAN GOGH PAINTED BEFORE KILLING HIMSELF, and this changes the image, the image becomes an illustration of this sentence in the programme then some music is played and he suggests that the painting changes again.

The effect of this and later reading the book of the same name which had originally accompanied the program, changed my life. I was lucky my mother was an artist and had encouraged this critical eye in me at an early age and I was dragged round exhibitions from Bridget Riley to Turner and Picasso, with her loud ringing tones, saying that this or that painter had probably managed a discount on a job lot of paint that week , which was why all his paintings were blue or red, or whatever.

Seeing this picture again, some while ago now i wrote this

Black Bird Fire

Big Black Bird
Moving out of a burning sun
Big Black Bird
Flying over a burning cornfield
The raging flames of golden grain
The world is crackling
Big Black Bird
Wings unfurled, gulls wings
In a flaming pastel world
Heat Haze, lifting
Thermals drifting
Big Black Bird
Caught between the suns fierce rays
And fields of flame
turning and turning…
No falcon here
No roost that will not roast
Big Black Bird
We must leave you flying
Not drowning but dieing.

Author -Jonathan spencer-

What is interesting from a spiritual and psychological point of view, at the beginning of his book Berger says in a direct counterpoint to In the beginning was the word…”seeing comes before words, the child looks and recognizes before it can speak.”

Related posts:

Related posts:

1. Children of Men
2. Designer something and adorno

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  Jonathan Spencer : Posted a new post on their blog
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