When I returned to Sydney in Febuary I had committed to participating in a
group art-show at The Damien Minton Gallery entitled “Eternity”. The brief I
had been given was to represent the concept of eternity, somehow include the Sydney
character Arthur Stace and incorporate the work of Martin Sharp who had covered
both subjects in previous artworks, and I attempted to do all three. The
opening of the show was only two weeks away, and I had 10 days to get it in,
for it had to be spaced and hung amidst the other 40 contributions, thus I
painted furiously every night till dawn, the results of which you see on this
page.
Arthur Stace became famous
for writing the word “Eternity” in chalk on the pavements all over Sydney during the mid twentieth century. He’d been a
stretcher-bearer in the First World War and had come back to Auz a broken man,
getting lost in drunkenness, gambling and consorting with so-called unsavoury
types such as crims and prostitutes till he languished in the gutter, deadbeat
and fallen. Then he had an epiphany at the Tabernacle Church in Darlinghurst, straightened up, turned evangelical
and an avid member of St. Barnabas Church on Broadway and threw himself into
his obsession with the graffitti of “eternity” on every surface he could reach.
After much thought during my
Indian sojourn I decided to represent his life in a mere factual manner; as a
rationalist and scientist I know there’s no such thing as anything being
eternal, not only do stars eventually burn out, the very Universe we co-inhabit
will some day come to a heat-death and not exist as we know it, unfathomably
far off in the future though it be. Certainly the human body has only a very
limited life span, and not being a Christian I don’t believe in concepts such
as an “eternal soul” or “life everlasting in a heavenly here-after.” Thus I
called my painting “From Dust to Dust” and if the Christians give me a hard
time over it I can simply reply, “Well, it is a direct quote from your precious
Bible!”
Even St.
Barnabas Church itself proved the lie of the concept “eternity” as sadly a few
years ago some fuckwit put a match to it and burnt it down, heartbreaking
really as it was of marvelous heritage architecture, a testament to the
ingenuity and brilliance of humanity, (not god), and it took with it an ancient
church-organ of which there are only a couple of examples in this country. I
put a pub in the middle of the painting as the site of Arthur’s and many
another alcoholics’ downfall and was bemused to learn that for many years St.
Barnabas and the Pub across the road from it on Broadway waged a “slogan war”
with each other on banners fronting the roadway, a simple example of which
could’ve been “Dust to Dust” on the church and “Lust to Lust” on the pub.
The show attracted a crowd of
about 500 people, all babbling and imbibing the free wine, but annoyingly
nobody bought much art and certainly not my work, which I expected, as money is
not my motive, communication of gutsy ideas being my burning life’s purpose. Many
did peruse my painting though, and took photos of it and that made me happy. Most
of the other stuff took the concept of “eternity” in its fluffy, nice sense,
such as “eternal love”; well I suppose love of family is eternal, romantic love is another question. I’m happy for those who have
lifelong loving marriages, something denied us gays here in Auz, but many love
affairs I've witnessed end in antipathy and acrimony so I'm somewhat of a cynic. (It's true that in today's cruel world Love is a much needed phenomena, what a pity there's not enough of it! And anyway, eternal love has nothing to do with the concept of eternity.)
And few mentioned Arthur
Stace himself, perhaps his story is too tough and controversial to approach,
but I found it fascinating, not as a religious treatise, more as a
contemplation upon the human condition. I’ve got his life stretched out between
one exploding star and another, from youth to death, as if there is an eternity
in a lifetime, for let’s face it, for some of us life seems long, and inside it
we feel as if we could never die, we’ve always been here, slugging it out, with
the pleasures and pains taking us high and low. We certainly don’t like the
idea it will all end some day, and maybe there’s nothing else, that’s why
religions get invented I think, in fear that life could be meaningless.
I don’t think it is, I love
the exhilaration of being, of learning, of wonder at the marvelous complexity
of this universe, this is all I know, I don’t long for an eternal hereafter, I
have a buzz right here and now. And art as well as knowledge is my raison
d’etre; the joy of creating, it’s better than cheating, stealing, selling
armaments, making war etc. What a naïve fool I am as most don’t seem to give a
shit about art, certainly not my meager output, I had to carry my canvas home
and stash it with all the rest crowding out my bedroom, one day to be thrown in
the dumpster when I return to the interstellar dust.
Even this Blog will disappear
one day, for instance if there’s a nuclear war and an electro-magnetic pulse
wipes out all the content of cyber-space! But in the meantime I will continue
to write my labrynthine tales of “Remembrance of Things Past and Future”, jump
into it anywhere you wish, head backwards or forwards, no matter, the gist will
unfold, hopefully some gems amidst the trash, tales of the human condition in a world
reaching for the Heavens but bent on Hell, from another of the fallen, like original sin, we're all flawed, genetics, environment, society makes sure of it.
If you enjoyed this story please go to the WEB
address above and consider buying my book of tales about growing up
anarcho-queer, rock and roll punter and mystic adventurer in Australia and India
of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
