MODERN DANCE. A metaphor for the paradoxes and excesses of contemporary indulgences, Religious, Political, Social. How eager humans are to be swept up in ideas, in the attempt to attach meaning to their existence. ALL VIDEO AND MUSIC BY CHRISTOPHER LAWRIE. PLEASE USE HEADPHONES
M D VIDEO ART/MUSIC
Works on Paper / Videos 2022
Celebrated tanka poet rode the tumult of his times as he transformed from provincial romantic to national firebrand. The society of Takuboku Ishikawa’s era was in dramatic political flux, and its complex issues became his personal obsessions. After his death, Takuboku’s preoccupations came to be seen as a symbol of the social and emotional upheavals of his times...
'The corrosive nature of salt provides an aesthetic and cultural metaphor for the attrition of memory and a colonial past. Christopher Lawrie's installations of works on paper utilise historical artifacts to form contexts for contemporary readings of the past.' Hazelhurst Catalogue. Works from 'the History of Salt . . .' form the basis of these videos and works on paper.
Two women defied a centuries-old ban on entering a Hindu temple in the Indian state of Kerala on Wednesday, sparking rowdy protests and calls for a strike by conservative Hindu groups outraged by their visit. Police fired teargas and used water cannons to disperse a large crowd of protesters in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, television news channels showed.
Christopher Lawrie's paintings and drawings from before 'the History of Salt . . .' form the basis of these videos and works on paper.
DUALISMOS are 2 videos played simultaneously. Basically a Diptych. One or both soundtracks are played together. For use on a Desktop or Laptop Computer. These will not play together on a mobile device. (Tablet or phone.)
A QR CODE HAS BEEN PLACED AT THE SITE AT WHICH THE VIDEOS BELOW WERE TAKEN. THESE QR CODES CAN BE ACCESSED BY PHONE AND WILL LINK EACH VIDEO TO THE SITE ON WHICH IT WAS TAKEN. VIRTUAL GRAFFITI. Inspired by Arthur Stace known as Mr Eternity.
Outside became inside. Isolation, alienation, emptiness, melancholy and the loneliness of clerks. Cockatoo Island is empty.
For Millennia, atmospheric carbon dioxide has never been above this line . . .
It is true that Australia has always endured bush fires, such as the Great Fire at Alma on Black Thursday 1867. These fires were not of the scale of the fires of 2020.
“Indian cricket, and the youngsters themselves, are dealing with issues inconceivable a few summers ago. Riches and all the attendant temptations are thrown at them before they have started shaving regularly.
While they attended to his body she went to her bathroom, had a bath and put on the brand new clothes that she had stored in her trunk. For sati we don’t wear widow’s clothes but wedding clothes, with the ivory bangles and everything. The colour she chose was a sort of light pink called saptalu, which none of the wives of the Sisodias can now wear because they now do puja to that colour.
A chronology of key events. 1947 - End of British rule and partition of sub-continent into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority state of Pakistan. 1947 - The Maharaja of Kashmir signs a treaty of accession with India after a Pakistani tribal army attacks. War breaks out between India and Pakistan over the region. 1948 - India raises Kashmir in the UN Security Council, which in Resolution 47 calls for a referendum on the status of the territory.
I normally wake up at nine and I pretend that I’m asleep till 11 o’clock or sometimes 12. I start to ask God for help for two or three hours and when there is no response from God, I get up and say ‘OK there is no God, let’s get up.’ My wife and I are not going out much. We are not even talking to each other much. We are just like ghosts. Sometimes we watch TV. Yeah, that’s it. I really don’t know what I’m doing during the day. I contemplated suicide millions of times.
One day I was possessed when I was in the temple, and when I came to I found the Pundit of the Temple had garlanded me. Not only that, he had washed my feet, and put a sandlewood paste tilak on my forehead. I asked why he had done this but he just replied ‘Ma, don’t refuse’ From that point on, people at the Temple used to worship me, as they thought I was possessed by the Goddess, and they gave me offerings and tried to interpret what I was saying during my fits.
“Civilization and society rest on morals. Morals rest on religion. Religion rests on the Bible and faith in God and Jesus Christ.” “America needs a tidal wave of the old-time religion. America needs to be taken down to God’s bathhouse and the hose turned on her. And the time isn’t far distant when the wheels of God’s judgment are going to go sweeping through this old God-hating world. “And I want to take a pledge and this audience to join me in pledge—that you will never rest until this old God-hating, Christ-hating, whiskey soaked, Sabbath-breaking, blaspheming, infidel, bootlegging old world is bound to the cross of Jesus Christ by the golden chains of love.”
It was in the morning. My father was a Doctor. My mother was a Nurse. As we went to school they bombed the town. People were running and children lost their parents. Some were killed when the bomb hit the school. Then they bombed the hospital.
If you could see Mary now I am sure you would not know her, she is so stout again as she was, and has not had a days sicknefs since she came here, she many a time pities you when she thinks of you all confined in the Gallowgate up three stairs while we are under a fine climate, with plenty of parrots flying over us, and in as delightful a country as any one could wish to live in.
“When your brothers were smitten at the battle of Uhud, Allah put their spirits in the bodies of green birds; they went down to the rivers of Paradise, ate its fruit and nestled in lamps of gold in the shade of the Throne. Then when they experienced the sweetness of their food, drink and rest, they asked: ‘Who will tell our brothers about us, who will tell our brothers about us in order that they might not be disinterested in jihad and recoil in war?’ Allah Most High said: ‘I shall tell them about you’
The verdure is so beautiful that one could forget about having to die today. The deep blue sky with a white cloud floating idly by. June in Chiran, where the cicadas are already singing, is almost like summer. The little birds sing so happily. This is what Sugimoto says while lying in the sun on the grass. Today at 1500 hours I will take off from Chiran. Goodbye to the dear land of my ancestors. I send you my favourite pen as my keepsake.
The Zoids are Christopher Lawrie, Mark Moody and Christopher Moody. The Zoids Suite contains a small amount of video that was not shot by Christopher Lawrie. Not knowing the way to the Temple of Heaped Fragrance, Under miles of mountain-cloud I have wandered Through ancient woods without a human track; But now on the height I hear a bell. A rillet sings over winding rocks, The sun is tempered by green pines…. And at twilight, close to an emptying pool, Thought can conquer the Passion-Dragon Wang Wei
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