herstory

Armadale 1971

Introduction

1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Model

Working as a model, I watch some artists at work.

2004 Lisa at the Newcastle Gallery with John Brack's The Pink Carpet, oil on canvas, 1971

In 2004 I went to Newcastle Gallery. I saw myself in John Brack's painting, The Pink Carpet. Brack had a studio built in his back garden. I went there once a week while he made preparatory pastel drawings and this finished oil painting. Brack's wife, Helen Maudsley, is also an artist. I caught a glimpse of her studio inside the main house. She would always make us a pot of tea after the modeling session. There were always biscuits.

The first session with Brack was awkward. He paced a lot up and down the room, with a tweed hat pulled low over his brows. Later we began talking during breaks. he introduced me to Tolkien, and lent me the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. I got through the complete series during our sessions. That gave us lots to talk about.

I liked how he drew and painted in series. He would focus attention on an idea, and draw and paint to explore it in different ways. He said he painted nudes in between series, as a way to allow ideas to emerge. The nude, he said, is a neutral, elemental form. Perhaps the nude provides a from upon which to project ideas.

By this year, 85 per cent of the Australian population was urban; 15 per cent was rural.

Senator Neville Bonner became the first Aboriginal member of any Australian parliament, filling a casual vacancy in the Senate. In 1972 he was elected on the Liberal Party ticket to represent Qld.

Evonne Cawley, ne Guolagong, the first Aboriginal to compete at Wimbledon or to represent Australia in world-class tennis, won the women's singles from Margaret Court.

Tension betweenthe Minister for Defence, Malcolm Frazer, and the Army over the latter's activities in Vietnam let to Frazer's resignation when Prime Minister Gorton indicated he would support the army. Fraser accused Gorton on, significant disloyalty to a Senior Minister' and as a back-bencher, attacked the Prime Minister in the Party Room and the Parliament.

Gorton faced a 'No-Confidence' motion, the vote being divided 33:33. Gorton, as chairman, used his casting vote against himself declaring the office of Liberal leader open. William McMahon and Bill Sneddon stood for office and McMahon became Prime Minister. Fraser returned to the Ministry, but not the Cabinet, as Minister for Science and Education.

Jack Mundy, leader of the Builder's Labourer's Federation, applied the term 'green ban' for the first time, supporting conservation measures protecting historically and culturally significant landmark sites for redevelopment.

'R' rating for restricted movies introduced by the Commonwealth Film Board.

The Australian Almanac, Pub. Angus & Robertson 1985

During Derrida's stay in Algeria...

...he took the opportunity to visit the seaside villa where he had been born, his kindergarten, and many other sites of childhood memory. His 'nostalgeria' was from now on to be rendered all the more poignant by the death of his mother. Cryptic references to those sites of his former life, and oblique undications of his feelings about them, now began appearing with increasing frequency in his work. But why this elusiveness when he had nothing to hide? Apparently to express such feelings directly would have been to diminish them. Their vitality would have been limited only by trying to contain them in words, which would have come between the actuality of his memories. Once again we have the pharmakon, which both cures and poisons, betrays and stimulates our memory. The pharmakon, or writing, is like a joker, the wild card in the pack. It can signify anything. Words are difference, not identity. We should be looking at how much words can signify, not attempting to see what they signify. Derrida wishes to keep his memories intact the reason for this willful elusiveness with regard to autobiography becomes clearer.

Strathern, Paul, 2003, p.30-31, The Essential Derrida, Virgin, .