Hell on Earth

The Dead are in Peace, it is the Survivors who live in Hell, watercolour, 2015

Patrick Cockburn reported on 23rd October in London Review of Books, 5 Nov 2015 issue:

"According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 250,124 Syrians have been killed and an estimated two million injured out of a population of 22 million.  The country is saturated by violence."

Today the parliament in London has voted to take military action in Syria.  Russia, France, USA, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Assad, the Kurds, Shia, Sunni, Israel, Palestine, etc etc etc., oil, coloniasm, arms sales, sadistic misogyny, greed, terror tactics, lies, evasions, propaganda - a different agenda for each party engaged, a whirlpool of confusion into which humanity is being hurled: for the civilians, blood and horror.

War Diary

I have been keeping a visual war diary for several years now, filling sketch books with watercolour or ink and wash drawings in response to the endlessly devastating news on television in the evenings.

It gets ever more impossible to respond in any way that remotely reflects the ruined lives of survivors from the increasing number of war zones, let alone the millions who have died.  But I feel I need to pay some sort of homage to the women and their families who have seen their homes and communities destroyed, and the injustice of modern warfare which brings so much suffering to non-combatants.

My homage does not pretend to express anything of the terrible reality on the ground, it can only be an outlet for my own grief at the indifferent brutality of man. My own soul wishes to flee from the horror of it all.  But there is nowhere to go: the world is a small place now and doesn't everything that happens on earth implicate us all everywhere?

There are more drawings on my website www.bridgetheriz.co.uk

Winter Shows 2015

I have work in several Winter Shows in regional galleries at the moment, including the Merchant House Gallery, Lowestoft.  Also the new Gallery in the Lanes, 25 Bedford Street, Norwich and in The Bank in Eye.

Jackson Pollock reviewed

There is an interesting review in the latest issue of Jackdaw (Sep/Oct 2015, No.123) of the Jackson Pollock's Black Paintings exhibition at the Tate Liverpool.  The reviewer is Alexander Adams, who explains how Pollock turned to black and to images of conflict, war and death as a riposte to the accusation of insubstantiality after negative criticism from his 1950 show at Betty Parsons Gallery.

"All the time Pollock painted the Black Paintings, he had to struggle with the problem of representation as seen through the prism of critical debates of the era.  How could an abstract  artist prove he had skill and seriousness without resorting to conventional figuration? ...... Pollock's ambivalence is here on the canvas in front of us.  Pollock was no sooner making images than he was veiling them.  He struggled with contrary impulses ;to make powerful imagery and prove his skill and a need to maintain his stance as a committed abstract artist." And further on in the text: "De Kooning's Women encompass ambiguities whille Pollock's figures have none: fear, flight, strife, suffering and death are at the centre and there is no periphery.  Examine his figure paintings from his earliest years up to his last, Portrait and a Dream, and you will find that the bleakness of Pollock's attitude towards humanity is unparalleled by any other great Western artist."

Interestingly, in a further article in the same issue of Jackdaw, Lynette Roth reviews the show of Max Beckmann paintings at the Saint Louis Art Museum.  She notes that "Beckmann's presence in America had a great impact on American painters, with his paintings widely reproduced and praised.  Beckmann's status as his own artist (meaning?) and an opponent of Nazi persecution meant he was lionised as an individual over and above his qualities as a painter.  Beckmann's presence in the USA is a critical (and largely overlooked) factor in the genesis of de Kooning's Woman series (starting 1950, and Pollock's Black Paintings (starting 1951).

I am not convinced about the last sentence in the quote above from the review of Pollock, but it was something else that struck me about these excellent reviews.  It was the artists' self-consciousness regarding their reception within the art establishment, not just in relation to self-promotion and status 'as an individual', but actually as a dictate over the inner creative voice.  The pressure of this tyranny no doubt mitigates against complacency and in  the work of de Kooning and Pollock it forged a dynamic of remarkable breadth and vigour. Great work was the result.

But to what extent and for how long can the creative imagination be restricted to the formulaic boundaries and performance criteria which theory and patronage demand?  What if the urgency of inner voice demands a 'retrograde' step?  Invention for invention's sake is theoretically approved and effective as marketing device, but isn't obedience to inner voice the real challenge and essence of creative renewal?

Mother and Child in St. Mary's Church, North Tuddenham

St. Mary's Church in North Tuddenham is a fascinating church to visit, with a medieval painted rood screen in remarkable good condition, some medieval stained glass, and a unique Victorian decorative scheme. Definitely worth a visit!
I, along with five other artists, will be exhibiting work in the church over the weekend 12th and 13th September. The exhibition has been organised by the Friends group to raise awareness of the church and perhaps some restoration funds! 
Illustrated: Mother and Child, balsa wood, 2015

The Great Earth Goddess

Head of Inanna, cement,1994, by B Heriz

I was delighted to watch Dr Amanda Foreman's programme "The Ascent of Woman", shown on BBC4, 2nd September, in which she recounted with great clarity the high status of women in many aspects of pre-Hellenic society.   She  looked at the earliest human settlement in Turkey where there is no evidence of hierarchical difference between men and women, and where statuettes of the Great Earth Goddess abounded. (This is true also of the earliest settlements in Pakistan, as related by Sona Datta in her programme "Treasures of the Indus", BBC4, 31st August - good, old BBC!!!!)  

Even after the cult of warrior hero became dominant within communities obliged to allocate resources to defense, the enterprising and majestic Inanna was still worshiped by the Sumerians, for whom priestesses continued to play an important role and women had rights under law.

It was the Hellenic Greeks who invented the idea that the female sex was a different and inferior species to man, and as male property had no rights in law and no role in public life.  Women of citizen class were subject to the dictates of male "honour", a more precarious status I imagine than that even of mere slave. As such it was a necessity to wear shawls and veils when entering public space.  Women of lesser status were either actual slaves or prostitutes, and the latter were of course actually forbidden to wear shawls or veils.

Thanks to Alexander the Great and other factors, this concept bled into the cultures of the near east and from there was adopted by Islamic and Christian practice.  However, it was not fully embedded in the cultural norms of the northern Celtic societies, nor that of the Scythians, where women, in spite of the warring nature of their societies, remained significant players, had rights of inheritance and the ability to hold power.

These exceptions demonstrate how the delegation of women to inferior status was not an inevitable progression.  Yet it came to be believed that humanity is defined by the 'heroic' warrior ego able to realise a determination towards combat for supremacy, followed by entitlement to plunder all resources, human and natural, for its own benefit.  As clans, tribes, nations, and now whole continents compete for possession and control of resources, any group not geared up for war and competition has been and still is desperately vulnerable to pillage.   Nevertheless a yearning for alternative beliefs and aspirations has always existed and is it not stronger than ever, thanks to the environmental, economic, political and social challenges that  face us all on an international scale?

It is astonishing to think how it is only so recently that women (along with low-status men, serfs and slaves!) have gained the right to vote in the democracies of the West, have gained property rights, legal representation and 'permission' to play an openly public intellectual, creative and political role.  But when one considers the millennia over which the human species has evolved, even the last three thousand years is only a fleeting moment: the flexible human mind is surely capable of modifying its narratives, however deeply embedded they may be, and inventing new metaphors (and, indeed, new words) that can transform behaviour and attitudes.  The archetype of the Great Earth Goddess has potential surely for reimagination?

Summer Show, Merchant House Gallery

   Foam-born, painted wood and copper tubing, h,70cm, 2015

I will be showing new work in the Summer Show at the Merchant House Gallery in Lowestoft.

18th July - 22nd August, open Tuesdays and Thursday - Saturday, 11am - 4pm.

102 High Street, Lowestoft, NR32 1XW.

www.merchanthousegallery.co.uk

 

 

Inanna, radiant Queen of Heaven and Earth

  

Above: Inanna, Mesopotamia, Old Babylonian period c 2000-1600BC, baked clay, 11.9x6.6cm, Paris Louvre AO 12456

Musician with harp, Mesopotamia Ur III period, c 2100-1800BC, baked clay, 7.3x8.5cm, Paris Louvre, AO 12454

Inanna in Ruin, Bronze, 27x34x15.5cm, 1991



"The musicians play for the queen:
They play the loud instrument which drowns out the southern storm,
They play the sweet algar-instrument, the ornament of the palace,
They play the stringed instrument which brings joy to all the people,
They play songs for Inanna to rejoice the heart."
from "Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth" by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer
 
Jude Lockie gave me this glorious book as a present in 1986.  The story of Inanna dates back to the ancient Sumerians who lived in the alluvial valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, in what is now southern Iraq.  This land was first peopled in the 5th millennium BC by settlers who lived in villages, farmed, wove, worked leather, metal and clay.  By the 3rd millenium the culture of these people was fused with the incoming Sumerians to create an urban culture often referred to as "the cradle of civilisation".  They were a literary people with a cuneiform script which developed from pictographic to phonetic signs. The were technically advanced and enjoyed a rich visual and musical culture.  They also had advanced concepts of law and justice, with a law code and legal documents which have been excavated. I was fascinated by the Sumerians when I first learnt about them at school.

So I devoured this glorious book narrating the stories and hymns of Inanna, the great Sumerian goddess, so rich in wisdom, joy and humanity.  Inanna descends to the underworld where she is strippped of all her powers and hung on a hook like a corpse.  She is rescued by creatures, neither male nor female, that entered the gates underworld like flies, slipping through the cracks.  The win the gratitude of the Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal by displaying empathy - when she moans of her sufferiings  "Oh! Oh! My inside!", they repeat "Oh! Oh! Your inside!" and continue in this vein until Ereshkigal moved by these creatures sighing with her agrees to let them take the corpse of Inanna which they revive by sprinkling upon it the water of life.

I have always loved that passage, along with the moment when a fly appears to help her find her love, Dumuzi.  The fly bargains first, however, and Inanna says "If you tell me, I will let you frequent the beer houses and taverns.  I will let you dwell among the talk of the wise ones.  I will let you dwell among the songs of the minstrels."  The fly is blessed in its intimacy with human beings.  Everything is blessed by glorious Inanna and the people feast, dance and sing with joy in her honour.

And now we have these strange child-men smashing up the ancient wonders of Mesopotamia, the beautiful sculptures and reliefs that inspire with wonder.  There is nothing manly in their actions - you can observe in their movements and carriage how infantile they feel to attack defenceless objects with sledge hammers, drills and explosives, witnesses to the spirituality of our ancestors that no previous regime or invade has considered destroying.  But these are people of the Word and the Word progresses easily to the sword and to negation, as we know  from our own Christian heritage.  The Word serves authority well, in division and controlling creed.The ISIS men are carrying out a cultural war along with the slaughter of civilians.  And of course they are seeking to shock - publicity is all in this digitally connected world.  Whether you are an artist of the democratic west, or a soldier of radical Islam, your 'products' need to be commodified for public consumption.  Sensational and scandalous news bites are the most successfully and rapidly  distributed.  It is all so depressingly mindless - the vandalism of cultural brigands.

Like so many others, I feel unbearable grief to see such beauty created by the great civilisations of the past recklessly destroyed for momentary stuntmanship.  Future generations will never have the opportunity of being inspired by these ancient works.

Communard

Girl, watercolour, 2015

I was shocked to learn that between 21-28 May 1871, during the Paris Commune, the national army slaughtered as many as 25,000 civilians and combatants (London Review of Books, 2 July, 2105, Philippe Marliere).  On behalf of the National Assembly the army used "machine guns to perform mass executions. Hatred of the proletariat, and a determination to avenge humiliation at the hands of the Prussians, prevailed among the army's officers.  The Versaillais regarded the Communards as common criminals or worse - 'vermin', 'beasts', 'wild animals' - and were bent on 'purifying' the streets of Paris." 

The Communards, these vermin, promoted equality for women and established a Women's Union. They were committed to universal democracy and free, compulsory and secular education for all children, whatever their social background. They believed in international republicanism, not nationalism.  They set up the Artists' Federation with the aim of "free expression of art, released from state control and privilege".

The use of the term 'proletariat' is shocking.  I had to look it up to remind myself what exactly it  means - the lowest social or economic class of a community - different from our dignified 'working class', which refers to the class of people who work, especially manually, for wages. Different also from 'plebian', a member of a lower class of society (not necessarily the lowest), used by the elite as an insult suggesting coarse and uneducated.

I'm often told not to use the term 'working class' any more as it no longer applies to our society.  I suppose in view of the dismantling of our manufacturing base and heavy industry generally, there could be some justification for saying that the opportunity to join a significant workforce undertaking manual labour, skilled or unskilled, for wages is no longer very prevalent and the culture created by this workforce is disappearing. The service industry is hardly the same, even if it provides a wage. 

But on the same day as reading the article on the Paris Commune of 1871, I heard the term 'underclass' used on the radio, and also 'the great unwashed', the latter no doubt used ironically.  Even so, It is ominous.  Luckily, from my experience, the communities that remain in what were industrial 'working class' locations are rich in wise, intelligent, pragmatic and resilient people whose humanity is pretty free of sentimentality. The assumption is that the less they are valued, the more excluded or deprived of opportunity, the more likely they are to turn to the xenophobia and resentment facilitated by right wing media and politics.  But perhaps there is a more optimistic lesson in the aspirations and long-lasting influence of the Communards. 

Video of my show "A Conversation with Giordano."

Matthew Harrison created a beautiful video of my 2014 solo show at the Merchant House Gallery, "A Conversation with Giordano: The Judgement of Paris."  To view, go to http://youtu.be/WCing61L61o.

The House of the Dead

Study from William Blake's "House of Death" 1795

I have been re-reading Dostoyevsky's  "The House of the Dead" and was struck by Blake's print illustrating Despair attending the "Numbers of all diseased, all maladies of ghastly spasm... Dire was the tossing, deep the groans," taken from Paradise Lost.  In the print God-the-Father/Death presides over all with a scroll on which is written when the agony will end or presumably when death will release these terrified people from their suffering.   I have replaced this figure of the divine with a volcanic mountain - for me adequate symbol enough.  Despair looks strangely hesitant, or guilty, in Blake's print - no doubt shamed by his lack of faith when faced with all this suffering.

I met a Russian-speaking Ukrainian last year who disowned Dostoyevsky as a Russian writer.  It's mystery to me why one would want to do that, though I suppose his compassion is somewhat disordered in the breadth and depth of his exploration through the landscape of the human soul - disordered but glorious.   

The prisoners described in "The House of the Dead" have their own codes which preserve their dignity, however depraved their crimes.  But the executioners can become "like tigers, who thirst for blood to lick.  Whoever has experienced this power, this unlimited mastery over the body, blood and spirit of another human being, his brother according to the law of Christ; whoever has experienced this control and this complete freedom to degrade, in the most humiliating fashion, another creature made in God's image, will quite unconsciously lose control of his own feelings.  Tyranny is a habit; it is able to, and does develop finally into a disease.  I submit that habit may coarsen and stupefy the very best of men to the level of brutes.  Blood and power make a man drunk: callous coarseness and depravity develop in him; the most abnormal phenomena become accessible, and in the end pleasurable to the mind and the senses.  What is more, the example, the possibility of such intransigence have a contagious effect upon the whole of society: such power is a temptation.  A society which can look upon such a phenomenon with indifference is already contaminated to its foundations."  Part 2, The Hospital (3), The House of the Dead, published 1861-2.
What a warning - not that to warn is to prevent.