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This page contains information on all of Lenkiewicz's themed projects.
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In 1973 a small book on the theme of Vagrancy, written by Lenkiewicz, was published parallel to the opening of the Vagrancy Exhibition in a large derelict building on The Barbican, known at that time as 'Jacob's Ladder'. The book was introduced by an essay titled: Melancholy, the 'Dance of Death' and Fool Symbolism, in relation to Vagrancy. In this essay Lenkiewicz associated contemporary Vagrancy with a tradition that predates Durer's brooding figure of 'Melancholia'. Hieronimo, in Kyd's 'Spanish Tragedy' declaims on melancholy: "There is a path upon your left hand side, that leadeth from a guilty conscience unto a forest of distrust and fear, A darksome place and dangerous to pass: There shall you meet with melancholy thoughts, whose baleful humours if you but uphold, It will conduct you to despair and death."
Lenkiewicz considered the extraordinary medieval iconography that represents the 'Dance of Death'; and in particular the image of Death as 'Jester'. "In 1568 a Fool Society elected itself in Poland under the name of the 'Babinian Republic'. Its structure was a duplicate of the Polish Constitution, and it filled its offices by employing fools. Those activities perpetrated by non members that were considered sufficiently foolish, were admired, and the person responsible for it was forced to join this Society. He was supplied with a licence, seal and a position that suited his folly. The Society became so large that hardly any person of consequence in Church or Government was not a member of it. Eventually the King of Poland, Sigismund August II, asked the Babinian Republic if they had a King. He was informed that as long as he lived the Society would not dream of electing another."
The poor-law legislation act of 1388 forbade the relief of
able-bodied beggars. It took 500 years for repressive and punishment
techniques to be replaced by rehabilitative ones. Attitudes towards the
vagrant have changed far less than the laws. To put the 'law' or
'service' into operation does not carry with it the commitment or the
responsibility of the man paid to do it.
"Fool Societies continue to self-elect."
In the early seventies Lenkiewicz schmilosophically influenced by
Schweitzer, Buber and Dolci, took over a number of derelict premises
where he housed several hundred (dossers, cowboys) vagrants. The
manager of Olivetti's in Southside Street allowed Lenkiewicz to present
the Project on Vagrancy in the large stables at the rear of his
property in 1973. Lenkiewicz became involved with a wide range of
remarkable street-people. Some of them were difficult, dangerous and
extremely demanding. He established relationships with similar
'do-gooding' group activities in Exeter, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds
and London; as a result of which, it was possible to 'swap' the problem
'cowboys' with mutual benefit. Endless tales can be told about these
unusual personalities, some of whom reminded Lenkiewicz of wandering
visionaries like the Desert Fathers. He learnt early on not to
romanticise or sentimentalise the lives of people who suffered in
varying and complex ways from alcoholism and who had severed normal
contacts with Society. The 'Cowboys' divided themselves into what they
called "I st, 2nd and 3rd Division and non-league players".
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
'Walking Stick'.
"It ain't no good in squawkin' when you're stoney broke and walkin'."
'Brother Blair'.
"If your feet get sore, walk on your hands."
'Senator Lynch'.
They had formulated a curious language out of a limited number of words:
"Let's tarpaulin muster, no deep tankin'. I've done a Hank Marvin
with a comic singer, and the gaff hanger is coming to the bardo. Muster
yolks are dead sham, shoot the craw, no more Jack the Ripper. I haven't
broken ice and there's no Giro for Cairo. A rustle is better than a
rattle, we'll need a Burma Star for the quick draw. Box clever, dive
bomb or we're for Jimmy the rattler. The dirty rat's done a Cagney, so
we'll need a bottle of the hurry up. I'm stuck with a Tootie Hawker and
a colshy Muck, there 's no ships on the horizon an' me trousers are a
laggin' cage."
Some of their names:
'Gentleman Jim', 'The Horse', 'Jukebox', 'Have no fear', 'Mouth
McCarthy', 'Be-my-guest', 'The Bishop', 'Brother Blair', 'Chic the
Bam', 'Steal-a-Horse', ' The Bag-o-Rags', 'The Singer', 'The Steam
Hammer', 'The Rhodesian', 'Harmonica Jim', 'Scarface Fitz', 'Big John
Wayne', 'One Way Rogers', 'Straight Back', 'The Roadrunner',
'Mephistopheles', 'Tank', 'Big Take it Easy', 'Black Sam', 'Cockney
Jim', 'The Irish Compressor', 'Billy the Kid', 'Senator Lynch',
'Brighton', 'Big John Barr', 'The Janner', 'Tragic Limp', 'The Silent
Beggar', 'No more cider for old Les Ryder',
Nearly all of the above are now dead.
Notes accompanying the 1973 Vagrancy Project
The introductory notes published to accompany the exhibition on Vagrancy in
1973.
Includes an essay by Robert Lenkiewicz together with the remarks of
various vagrants and sitters for the project in response to the
questions:
1. How do you define the term "vagrant"?
2. Do you consider yourself a vagrant?
3. If yes, why do you consider yourself a vagrant?
3a. If no, why don't you consider yourself a vagrant?
4. Do you think vagrancy is a problem in the present local environment?
5. If yes, why do you think vagrancy is a problem?
5a. If no, why don't you think vagrancy is a problem?
Melancholy, the "Dance of Death" and Fool Symbolism in relation to Vagrancy
Robert O. Lenkiewicz
Whatever the word "vagrancy" may mean in contemporary terms it has
always been identified with the experience of isolation. We can all
remember a time when the sense of being alone was uppermost in one's
mind, for whatever reason.
The sense of isolation has always gone hand in hand with terms like
"irony" or "the human condition". The word most frequently associated
with this state is "melancholy". It is interesting that melancholy has
for centuries been part of western culture. It was originally related
to medieval medicine, which argued that an increase of black bile
created depression. This bile - on of the four humours governing the
human temperament - had to remain balanced with three other elements;
if it defected or operated in excess it allegedly created the imbalance
known as "melancholie".
Each of the four humours were associated with a planet. Saturn,
because of its slow apparent movement and great distance, became
associated with melancholy. The mythological origins of Saturn the god
reflect a disturbing list of traits: castration, imprisonment beneath
the earth, time, old age and death. The Saturnine mood is familiar to
many through the engraving by Albrecht Durer; the brooding figure of
Melancholia.
A fascinating manuscript in the British Museum (Sloane, 160: fol. 39) records
that:
"Some of these malancholike persons... troubled with this disease
imagine manye straunge, incredible and impossible things. Some that
they are monarches and princes, and that all other men are their
subjects: Some that they are brute beasts: Some that they be urinals or
earthen pots, greatly fearinge to be broken: Some that everye one that
meateth them will convey them to the gallows; and yet in the end hang
themselves. One thought that Atlas whom the poets faine to hold up
heaven with his shoulders, would be wearie, and let the skie fall upon
him: ...One (person) that had killed his father, was notablye detected;
by imagininge that a swallowe upbraided him therewith: So as he himself
thereby revealed the murder. But the most notablest example hereof is
one that was in great perplexity imagininge that his nose was as big as
a house..."
Du Laurens, writing at the end of the 16th century, has this to say about the
melancholy man:
The melancholike man properly so called... is ordinarily out of
heart, alwaies fearfull and trembling, in such sort that he is afraid
of everything, yea and maketh himselfe a terrour unto himselfe as the
beast which looketh himselfe in a glasse; he woulde runne away and
cannot goe, he goeth oftentimes sighing... with an unseparable sadness,
which oftentimes turneth into dispayre; he is alwaies disquieted both
in bodie and spirit, he is subject to watchfulness, which doth consume
him on the one side; for if he think to make truce with his passions by
taking some rest, behold so soone as hee would shut his eyelides, hee
is assayled with a thousand vaine visions, and hideous buggards, with
fantasticall inventions, and dreadfull dreames... he cannot live with
companie. To conclude, he is become a savadge creature haunting the
shadowed places, suspicious, solitarie, enemie to the Sunne, and one
whom nothing can please, but onely discontent, which forgeth unto
itselfe a thousand false and vaine imaginations...
The above description is clearly psychological and does not relate
to the more cultured variant of the malcontent that developed at this
time. Melancholy was to become an art; a touch of irony, a dash of
unrequited love, the merest flavour of heavy-lidded eyes, folded arms
and floppy wide brimmed hats, these and more were the ingredients for
melancholy pie.
It became equated with the absurd, the tragi-comic and the fool.
Nothing could be taken seriously and yet the "secret" may be under
one's nose. Jaques, in Shakespeare's "As You Like It" says:
"It is ten o'clock:
Thus may we see, ...how the world wags:
'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
And after one hour more 'twill be eleven;
And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot
And thereby hangs a tale."
Melancholy can also be allegorical; through symbol it may be
possible to bypass a host of preconceptions about terms like "sad" and
"happy".
Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy" has Hieronimo declaim on melancholy with
several "Images" that strike deeper than a more literal approach:
There is a path upon your left-hand side,
That leadeth from a quilty conscience
Unto a forest of distrust and fear,
A darksome place and dangerous to pass:
There shall you meet with melancholy thoughts,
Whose baleful humours if you but behold,
It will conduct you to despair and death:
We have, it seems, the twin factors that seem to relate the
"melancholy state" to the "human situation". The image of the Fool and
the image of Death.
It is at this point that we leave the Elizabethan melancholy
tradition with all its gentle innuendo, its preoccupation with the love
theme, and metaphysical thought, for a period that is earlier and
somehow less refined, but riddled with a stark and sinister duality,
Death and the Fool.
Early medieval culture in Europe inherited a wide variety of symbols
from antiquity. No symbol was more common than the image of death.
Though not everywhere, the symbol of the skeleton is the most common
image of death that was employed. It is said that Egyptian festivals
were preceded with presentations of small skeleton figures to all the
guests in order to remind the party that - in media vita - death may be
ever-present.
The Poor Law legislation of 1388 forbade the relief of able-bodied
beggars without any attempt to differentiate between types. It took
over five hundred years for repressive and punitive techniques to be
replaced by rehabilitative ones. It would be a mistake to think that
attitudes towards the vagrant have changed as much as the laws.
Sympathetic and more positive approaches are the product of only the
last few decades and by and large they are represented by only a small
section of the social services. To put the law or service into effect
does not carry with it the commitment or the responsibility of the
person paid to do it. A service may be enlightened while the person
responsible for putting the service into practice remains retarded in
his private attitude.
NOTE
These notes and observations are designed to draw attention to an aspect of
local community life.
Plymouth, like all other cities in this country, has a number of
people who are classed as vagrant from one point of view or another.
Experience and familiarity with these people quickly reveal that their
circumstances are at times very difficult for them to come to terms
with. Facilities for the rehabilitation and/or accommodation of these
people are limited. This much is known.
The following pages may help to indicate some of the problems
involved, from the point of view of local welfare and other voluntary
agencies. There are also many contributions from people who for one
reason or another consider themselves vagrant. These contributions
were collected with the full co-operation of the individuals quoted.
The notes conclude with a more philosophic collection of anecdotes
collected from those individuals who were inclined to contribute. This
much is not so well known.
The vagrants' response to questions about the nature of vagrancy
1. How do you define the term "vagrant"?
2. Do you consider yourself a vagrant?
3. If yes, why do you consider yourself a vagrant?
3a. If no, why don't you consider yourself a vagrant?
4. Do you think vagrancy is a problem in the present local environment?
5. If yes, why do you think vagrancy is a problem?
5a. If no, why don't you think vagrancy is a problem?
HAROLD JAMES FROWDE Born: Plymouth, Devon. 17.10.1923
Station Sergeant
Central Police Station, Plymouth.
1. A person who has no means of support or, alternatively, a person who having
the means of support lacks the wherewithal to use it properly.
2. No.
3, I am financially able to look after my family and myself; I am aware of the
value of money.
4. I think it is in Plymouth.
5. I think first of all that there is not enough accommodation provided for
this type of person. We have two hostels in the city: the Salvation Army hostel
and St. Peter's hostel, both of which though helpful to the police are limited
in their capacity to accommodate. Quite a number of their beds are allocated to
people classed as residential. To my knowledge only two beds are provided for
people who are absolutely stranded. This may be enough in the summer when most
of these persons prefer to stay out rather than pay for a bed. Inclement
weather, however, means that all the beds are full quite early in the day and
the late-comer has no chance.
I deal with quite a few of these people after the pubs have turned out; you get
to know the regulars. The genuine person arrives now and then and if the two
beds are occupied, there's nowhere for them to go.
Vagrancy, like crime, is related to unemployment.
I feel like Plymouth made a mistake when they demolished the old hostel -
Clarence House - at Stonehouse. It had a resident warden and was relatively
unconditional. It was run by the Local Authority.
You get the Samaritans, the Alcoholics Anonymous or the Bath Street Mission;
they supply advice and food, but when it comes to the problem of a bed there is
nowhere to send them; then the problem comes to us. I've had fellows come here
in a state of collapse and there are no facilities available to help them.
According to the Vagrancy Act one has the power of arrest in respect of vagrants
who are directed to any reasonable place of shelter and who fail to do so. But
in view of the fact that the hostels are full and there is no reasonable place
of shelter to direct him to, your power of arrest falls by the wayside.
WILLIAM ROBERT BLACK Born: Cookstown, Northern Ireland. 01.11.1941
Police Constable, Plymouth.
Known as "Paddy".
1. Someone who through his own choice, or force of circumstances, has no
permanent address. In the majority of cases it would be through their own
particular choice.
2. Being Irish, and by the nature of my history, I go where the work is; in
that sense I could be considered a vagrant. And for promotion purposes, I would
have to become a vagrant, in so far as I would have to be prepared to move
around.
3. Very much so.
4. Because the official sources have not provided sufficient means to cope with
homelessness. The established institutions for dealing with it have become too
class conscious and can't be bothered with the real down and outs. In my
experience, the Salvation Army in Plymouth just don't want to know. Through
force of circumstance or otherwise, there seems to be a change in policy, that
means that the real down and outs are ignored. The Salvation Army is the only
place that really gives them help as there is nowhere else for them to go.
The number of people involved in vagrancy has increased and modern facilities
have failed to keep pace with this increase. Vagrants, in my experience, rarely
want to be reformed. They just want a place to sleep.
The Salvation Army has built a reputation on the image of helping people in all
circumstances of vagrancy. Consciously or unconsciously they have now undergone
a discreet change of course where they "select" those vagrants that are likely
to conform to their standards and requirements. You can understand why this is
necessary; many of these vagrants have no control over themselves and really
cannot, for all intents and purposes, be helped. But nonetheless, the Salvation
Army does have a reputation for helping vagrants and where real vagrancy is
concerned, they don't. From the point of view of the law in Plymouth, vagrants
have it easy; it is unreasonable and impractical to arrest a vagrant in
Plymouth, as there is nothing that can be done with him. Policemen, being
human, realise that the law cannot be complied with. It is required under the
law that a vagrant be first directed to a place of reasonable free shelter.
(There are two free beds in the Salvation Army, but we have no control over the
allocation of those beds; this is entirely at the discretion of the Salvation
Army). The only place of this kind is in Bristol. The vagrant would need to
refuse to go there before he could be arrested and for this reason he is simply
"moved on" instead of being arrested. In any case the Plymouth courts don't
like it, as the only option would be to send the man to prison. They take the
view that prisons are not designed to resolve this sort of social problem.
It may appear that I am very critical of the Salvation Army but they are more or
less the only institution designed for this problem in Plymouth.
Proportionately, they probably do quite a good job; but they, like the rest of
society, choose to ignore the "real" down and outs. And the public, as usual,
want the police to do their dirty work for them.
HARRY GREVILLE Born: Oldham, Lancashire. 11.03.1916
Principle Probation Officer
1. Someone who has defied the efforts of society to make him conform. He
rejects responsibilities except for his own survival and opposes any attack on
his independence.
2. No.
3. I am a member of a family unit for which I am responsible. By and large, I
conform to the rules and laws of society and subscribe to the doctrine "Take
what you need," said God. "Take it and pay."
4. It is a problem to the vagrant. Since the local reception centre, Clarence
House, was closed vagrants have had to bed down either in the open or in
unoccupied property. Both these factors create problems both for the individual
and the environment.
5. I deplore the local government attitude that if you don't make residential
provision for vagrants, they disappear. This is a kind of irresponsible social
existentialism. If charity organisations are left to deal with vagrants, then
the state, through local government, must make finances available. Perhaps
because the vagrants are usually unable to make known their needs, are
inarticulate, are not a formidable force, society and its elected
representatives can choose to ignore their needs. Unfortunately, the more
sophisticated society becomes, so will the vagrant have less chance of survival
unless someone has concern for their welfare.
STEVEN HOWSON Born: Yorkshire. 08.02.1907
General Secretary of the Guild of Social Services.
1. The man that nobody wants to know, because he's dirty, he won't work, either
from choice or his inability to be regularly employed.
2. No.
3. Because I am endowed with the faculty to wish to live a useful life.
4. Yes.
5. Because the standard of living has risen so rapidly over the past 50 years
and our society has become so affluent, that the "vagrant" stands out like a
sore thumb. During the 1920's when millions were unemployed, the so-called
vagrant or inadequate was simply submerged in the near poverty that then
existed.
In other words, the problem has always been with us, but now it is highlighted
by its contrast with affluence. There are far more people with a social
conscience, motivated not from "wanting to do good", but from a genuine interest
in the lame duck, be they university students or business tycoons.
The high standard of care at present evident and applied to our less fortunate
members of society, makes the truly vagrant more vagrant than ever.
When I was young, a tramp was member of society, if he came to the door for
food, they'd say; "Hey you, go to the back door, that's your place!" Then they
would give him food; you see he had his place in society, now he is turned away,
probably very pleasantly.
There used to be a comic called "The Tramp" when I was young, I remember "weary
Willy" and "Tired Tim".
They've closed the workhouses which were the country seats of your vagrant, and
they knew every one in the land. Each county sent them on, they were only
allowed to stay a few nights but they knew exactly how far they had to walk to
the next one, where it was, and when it shut. That doesn't exist today.
I would say that Plymouth is a delightful city, is has none of the problems that
Birmingham or Wolverhampton have. But much like the Victorians, Plymouth dose
tend to sweep under the carpet one or two problems that it does have. A greater
problem on this issue will develop when they pull down Wolsely Home. They say
that it's substandard, but substandard is what these people need because they
will be turned away from any highly professional local authority residence - and
they will be turned away - there's no doubt of that.
Some are turned away from Wolsely Home as it is.
JEAN GREEN Born: Hertfordshire. 05.09.1922
Senior Social Worker.
The Plymouth Guild of Social Service.
1.
Someone who is a homeless wanderer, usually associated with unemployment
and
frequently rendered inadequate by alcohol.
2. No.
3. Because I have the advantage of a settled home, employment and good
health
and education. I also have stable family relationships.
4. Definitely.
5. Through my work here at the Guild, I have encountered many men and
women
whom I would term vagrant. There are frequent requests here for clothing,
money
and accommodation.
37 of the 55 cases that came to my department in the month of February
were
requests for clothing, financial aid and accommodation. Of these, six
were
technically vagrant. That may not sound very much but that works out at
more
than one a week. It is also important to remember that I only meet the
vagrant
that has the courage or common sense to approach us in the first place
and I
should imagine that this is a very small proportion of the vagrant group
in
Plymouth.
ROY HARRIS Born: Birmingham. 18.02.1924.
Director of Samaritans, Plymouth.
1. Generally a person who has opted out of society either through their
own
free will or by force of circumstance. He has no means of support and,
by and
large, does not care to look for any.
2. No.
3. Because I am fortunate enough to have had the kind of background that
has
enabled me to integrate myself into society. I have a steady income, a
home and
a job.
4. Yes, indeed I do, very much so.
5. There are the "local" vagrants and there are a fair amount
of men passing
through to Cornwall ostensibly looking for work or claiming to be looking
for
work. Most of them have nowhere to go and the fact that there is nowhere
west
of Exeter for these people to find a roof aggravates the problem. I have
been
in touch with Cornwall and there is no accommodation for them there.
I am of the firm opinion that the local authority should take it upon
itself to
provide, if at all possible, - and I think it should be possible - some
form of
shelter for all types. I do not think that this should be left to voluntary
agencies.
As Samaritans we find it very difficult - especially in winter - to turn
a man
away from our door and tell him he will have to sleep in Bretonside Bus
Station.
But by our rules we cannot provide accommodation and Bretonside is the
only
form of accommodation, as far as I am aware, apart from the Salvation
Army and
St. Peter's Hostels to which such a person can go.
CAPTAIN JOHN YOUNG Born: Selkirk, Scotland. 12.07.1941
Salvation Army Officer.
Officer in Charge,
The Salvation Army Hostel,
102 King Street, Plymouth.
1. A vagrant is a person without any means of support and who is unable
to look
after himself or herself, and who has fallen out of society.
2. No.
3. Because I am able to look after myself and I support myself.
4. Yes, I would say it was.
5. The problem of vagrancy is such that many down and outs - because of
their
social behaviour - have nowhere to go. It is true that we are unable to
take
some of these people because of: (a) the lack of facilities such as medical
supervision for the alcoholic and the drug addict; (b) when you have a
great
percentage of men who want a restful night's sleep, the disturbance caused
by
these types of men can create quite a problem.
It would be untrue to say that we have turned away all such people but
when we
have given such a person a chance to redeem himself, he has invariably
abused
the opportunity.
Therefore, what is required in Plymouth would be a hostel solely designed
to
cater for the "problem" person. It is a full-time job to look
after the
"problem" person, and this is the main type of person that we
have to refuse.
However, we are accommodating people who are alcoholics and others who
would be
down and outs if we didn't accommodate them.
I think that we as an organisation need more staff and more appropriate
training. I speak of an organisation that I respect and believe makes
a
valuable contribution to the community.
Local authority is technically responsible for the well being of every
person
that enters the city. This city needs people who have been trained to
deal with
the problem person. We believe that God ultimately redeems such persons
but we
believe that a man also needs material help. Therefore, it is up to the
local
authorities to provide finance to train people for this type of job and
then to
establish a suitable residence for them.
ALFRED
GEORGE ELLIOTT Born : Plymouth. 18.06.1918
Manager of St. Peter's Hostel for Men,
100 King Street, Plymouth.
1. A person that
has no means of support.
2. No.
3. Because I am able to look after my wife and family and to keep a roof
over
my head.
4. Yes.
5. There are not enough hostels in the town for these people. There are
people
who are dirty in their habits, who need medical treatment, and it is just
not
possible nor practical for me to take them in. We do not have the facilities
to
cope with their sort of problem.
I think I should explain that the only funds we receive, from which we
operate,
comes "over the counter"; that is to say that we are not subsidised
by any other
bodies. We are self-supporting and we only just make ends meet. To accept
the
sort of person that makes life in the hostel difficult would be to undermine
the
whole purpose of the hostel.
Drink is the biggest problem of all where vagrancy is concerned. What's
needed
is some sort of hostel where they can get the treatment they want or need.
It
is a difficult problem; I wouldn't envy anyone who had the job of looking
after
such people, I've seen so much of it here during the last sixteen years.
They
want doctors and people that understand their problems better than I do.
I
honestly think that closing Clarence House was a very bad mistake; there
was a
need for it then and there is a greater need for it now. Sometimes, I'm
so full
up that I've got to turn away some of the regulars. Another problem that
occasionally contributes to vagrancy is the person that arrives in the
city with
no money; he's too late for the MSS and he comes into my place to be let
in for
nothing on the agreement that he pays after the weekend. When I let him
in,
invariably I never see him again. Arrangements could be made where I could
have
an official form for him to sign, promising to return with the money.
This
suggestion has not even got off the ground.
There should be no need for any man to be sleeping rough. But what can
you do?
They've got nowhere for these poor devils to go, have they?
ANONYMOUS Born: Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland. 22.02.1901
Known as: Crabbit Jock.
1. A man who hasn't got the price o' his bed.
2. Not at all, I've loads of money, I've been a man o' the road but not
a
vagrant. There's a difference.
3.
4. I don't think so.
5. It's a problem for the people that are sleeping out, but not for the
other
people.
ANONYMOUS Born: County Limerick, Eire. 1925.
1. Somebody that sleeps "abroad". No fixed abode, in other words.
2. At the moment, yes, I suppose.
3. Well, I've been roughing it quite a bit of late and I haven't done
any work
for some while. No settled home of any description, a night or a week,
that's
it maybe then.
I should imagine that's enough reason , isn't it?
4. Well I think it's a problem all over the country. All these poor areas
are
being pulled down and these are the only places where you can get a cheap
room
or lodgin' house. They're being pulled down and you've got nowhere to
go,
there's no new places going up, no new hostels, really. You gettin' conned
left, right and centre with digs and places like that. Seven eight pounds
a
week and no food, it's ridiculous. The honest fact is that I'm a drinkin'
man,
some of us can regulate the drink and some can't. Most of us are on the
way to
becoming alcoholics, you know that as well as I do. That's the honest
point,
isn't it? You can put it down to the person themselves I suppose, there's
just
no go in them, no ambition, it's as simple as that.
ANONYMOUS Born: Freedom Fields, Plymouth.
1. I've seen a man goin' through the bins and I feel sorry for him, but
he
likes to have his own way, he likes to keep to himself. It's like the
old
fellow at my place, he's eighty one and he had property down Ebrington
Street
and they took it all off him, and now he just sits there, and he gets
27
shillings a week, but he seems quite happy, with his pipe.
2. No.
3. I can get out and about, if I got money I can spend it, not like some
that
can't even move from the Sally. I'm still young ain't I?
4. Yes.
5. Everything's going up, we're going into the Common Market now aren't
we?
The old people can't afford to buy the things with the money they've got.
We
had a chap out at our place, but as soon as he runs out of money, he goes
and
sleeps rough, see? Then when he's got a few bob, he comes back again.
They say
there's a lot of jobs going round, but I don't see them and I've really
been
looking.
WILLIAM HENRY BANFIELD
Born: Indian Queens, Cornwall. 04.12.1903.
Known as: Joe, Bill, Ernie, Henry.
1. No visible means. If I'd gone in the bloody Sally, they'd want two
an' six;
well, I ain't got two an' six, see? No visible means.
2. Yes.
3. No income, no weekly wage. No accommodation in Plymouth, is there?
4. Yes.
5. Well, there's no accommodation, no room, no lodgings, no home. Can't
be
nothin' else, can it? I'll go to the Mission tonight and see a dozen of
'em an'
they'll be sleepin' rough.
CHARLES CHRISTOPHER BYRNE Born: Dublin, Ireland. 06.02.1914
Known as: The Singer.
1. Now vagrancy is what you want to do, that's all. The word vagrancy
is
stupid, we're all human beings. It's bad to call a man a vagrant, he's
a human
being, that's all.
I've met all kinds of people that were called vagrants, their clothing
might
look a bit rough, but the mind is the most important thing in the world
and some
of them have wonderful minds you know.
2. Now come here 'till I tell yer, I consider myself a human being like
anybody
else. Someone might have a lot of money, but he's got nothing more than
me when
it comes down to basics. Anyway, Paul Getty's a vagrant, and all the lords
and
peers are vagrants, they live off the fat of the land and they do no work,
they're all vagrants, aren't they?
I used to be a "spider-man", a steel erector. I was a man, I
mean a man, I'm
old now, I won't accept defeat. You think that you're the man you used
to be,
so you hate charity, so I prefer to sleep rough, you know?
3.
4. It's not a problem anywhere, I'm tryin' to tell yer; if he wants to
be that
way - he'll be that way. Can't you see that, now accept that, accept it,
it's
as it is. I'm going to tell yer something my friend, if you want to be
on the
monorail of life, you'll never sleep out. I mean, they'll give you a bowl
of
rice pudding with a bit of religion or whatever, and you've got to be
in at
nine. Don't drink, don't do this, don't do that, don't do the other; Lord
above! You've got to drift away from that. To be yourself, you've got
to sleep
out, you know. It's a problem all over the world, not only in Plymouth.
Human
beings are everywhere, aren't they? Sleeping out all over the world, right
at
this minute. God knows what they're fighting or what they're fighting
against.
The vagrancy act according to law is wrong, if a man has nowhere to go
and you
arrest him, and you make a criminal out of him right away. I was a "vagrant"
in
this country in 1930. There was no need for me to do it - not a bit of
it -
it's my way, you see, it's my way.
Vagrancy is not a problem, the problem is just to be able to understand
each
other. If I go to the Social Security, he looks at me as though I'm a
German or
somethin', it's a problem of understanding.
When you tell the truth - it's bad news.
PATRICK CONNELL CAMPBELL Born: Port Glasgow. 31.03.1931.
Known as: Paddy.
1. Well now, it's a bloke that wanders about with no aim in life, eh?
Ninety
percent of them from what I've seen have taken to the hard alcohol, you
know,
the "Jake". I've noticed that the cause of all that is blokes
that's got broken
marriages; there's a hell of a lot of that. You know this "Justice
Manual",
well I've read that an' it's got a clause in that dealin' with vagrancy,
and it
seems to me that it's been cut and dried to suit these magistrates. You'll
be
walking from town to town, like me, I've walked from Bournemouth to Torquay
-
pulled up fifteen times by police patrols, and I was tidily dressed, sober,
and
I'd got myself a job which had lasted twelve weeks in a hostel. This word
vagrancy seems like a term coined to suit the law, to whip someone inside
for
being a "vagrant".
2. No.
3. Because I can get work and a place to live, providing that the money
is
reasonable. That is one of the reasons that I keep on the move, to find
a
better job all the time.
4. Well now, I won't mention any particular spot, but I've been all round
the
country, I've been in Sally armies, doss-'ouses, and from what I've seen
in
these places, it looks to me like a collection of alcoholics and head
cases; and
what I think causes a lot of it is that they've become a bit disillusioned
about
themselves, they might have been good workin' class people, who hit the
drink.
It breaks the mind up, and they can't stand on their own feet, I've seen
some of
the concoctions that they get up and they definitely need some kind of
help. As
I say, I've been all over, I sit and read the paper and I listen and watch,
and
it seems to me that there's something missin' up top, you know? Something
missin'.
HENRY CANN Born: Stonehouse, Plymouth. 08.04.1932.
Member of staff at the Salvation Army Hostel,
102 King Street, Plymouth.
Known as: Henry or Harry.
1. Someone that's got nowhere to live, he's on the streets all the time.
2. Yes, basically.
3. Put it this way, at the moment I'm on the staff of the Salvation Army.
If I
get another job, I can't live 'ere, they say so. So I got to find other
accommodation. To find that - which I've tried to find - it's a matter
of seven
to eight pounds a week.
4. Yes, definitely.
5. Because, to start with, we 'aven't got enough hostels to accommodate
for the
likes of these men. A man comes into the town, he goes to MSS, they gives
'im
what they think they'll give 'im. He's got to live on nothing for a week,
a
man's bound to be a vagrant, he can't afford to do anythin' else. He sleeps
rough, he gets loused up, he drinks, he's up in court and fined. What's
the
reason, eh?.
I see 'em here every day, they got a few bob, they're goin' to starve
themselves, to drink themselves stupid. They got six quid, "We'll
sleep rough",
they reckon; they're down on the Hoe, the bus station.
They're killin' the workin' man in this town. You know who I mean.
JOHN CASEY Born: Mile End, Bow, London. 22.05.1937.
1. It's an 'ard question; it's a fear - not bein' able to communicate
with
people.
2. I work, sometimes - but it covers up my real self. I' m far 'appier
walkin'
down the Hoe with a few pence. But then you've got to 'ave the money for
food,
sleep, an' all that. You're not in society unless you workin', are you?
In the eyes of the public, I suppose I am a vagrant.
3. No qualifications. My appearance - I seem to look a suspicious person
to
some people. I'm not really, but there you are.
4. Yes.
5. I'd say it was accommodation, any town you go it's the same, accommodation.
It's easy to fall into the atmosphere of despair, depression and all that
when
you're livin' in a place that costs two quid a week or somethin'. You
know what
I mean, the Sally Anne, for instance, it's no good for you, you're not
encouraged to do anythin' livin' in a place like that. They go into their
own
cocoon, their own world, you know what I mean? The distrust that is caused
by
livin' in those places.
In a proper lodgin' house, if things get bad - you look for a likely guy
that
you can put the 'ammer on - if things get bad, you know; but in these
places
they're all locked up in themselves, they don't want to know about anythin'.
I know what it's like, I mean I've lived in parks and dossed around for
ages and
when I settled down somewhere for a bit it would take others two months
or more
to get a word out of me. So I know what it's like not being able to talk
to
anybody. I'm English and all that, but I went to the foreigners in the
West End
for three or four years, which was a mistake. I mean, you can't escape
your own
in the end. It catches up with you. I went right down and ended up in
a
rehabilitation centre and the group therapy and the talk definitely did
it for
me. I saw others there like me and it made me realise that you've got
to push
yourself.
ALEXANDER DOUGLAS Born: Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. 19.03.1942.
Known as: Dougy or Jock.
1. Someone who don't get the chance to improve himself, I should think.
Definitely someone who's had it so hard that they've hid themselves away
from
the rest of society.
2. I have been a vagrant, I'm not at the moment 'cause I've got a bed
and
breakfast place to stay at.
3.
4. Of course it is.
5. You've got people who know that all this is going on, they've seen
it on
television an' all that but they don't do nothin' about it.
It's one of the most beautiful things that can happen, to see someone
the likes
of me an' the others bein' built up from nothin'.
I've been an alcoholic since I was eighteen years old and I've done eleven
years
inside now, off and on. All for the drink, you know? It's since the parents
died, you see. The world represents the wild side of life, you know? You
steal
and you drink an' things like that. The daffodil represents the divine
thought
as a child, which I'm sure is still in me it gets a chance to bloom.
THOMAS DUNSTAN Born:
Rochdale, Lancashire. 21.04.1914.
Known as: Tom.
1. Personally, a vagrant is a tramp, a man who's got nobody at all to
worry
about him. He's got nowhere to go. It could have been caused by a marriage
break-up or home troubles - an' he's never bothered to worry about himself
or
anybody else. It could have been a soldier or a sailor returnin' from
the wars
to find his wife and kids dead or gone.
A vagrant is a man without home or habitation - he has no future in life.
A
little while ago - almost twelve months now - I found myself put in the
streets
at 12 noon by bailiffs - my wife and son and me - we was treated callously
and
very unjustly. It was more or less the rich overidin' the poor. I nearly
packed up everything and took to the road. But then I sat sown and thought
sensibly that if I run away and give up hope everythin' would be lost
an' I
decided to put me back against the wall an' hit back with everythin' I
had.
After a week of terrible hardship, 'avin no proper meals an' no recognised
place
to sleep, I was eventually helped by the social welfare an' we was given
the
sanctuary of the old workhouse, St. Mary's, King Street. Another reason
I
didn't give up, I 'ave a very sick wife who has got heart trouble an'
if I 'ad
become a vagrant it would 'ave been very a selfish act, an' I would only
'ave
been thinkin' about meself.
2. No.
3. Because I 'ave a recognised place of 'abitation. I 'ave my son an'
wife an'
me dog an' I 'ave a regular job which I built up - as a window cleaner.
Everybody knows an' trusts me.
4. I think it's a major problem.
5. Because a lot of people don't want to be 'elped - they just want to
carry on
in their own crazy way of livin' an' it is impossible to 'elp a person
that will
not make an effort to 'elp themselves.
There should be no such word as vagrancy 'cause in this day and age if
you're
willin' to work you can become a first class citizen an' you can get a
regular
place to sleep - an' be somebody.
The majority want the drink, they are content to carry on with the drink
an'
stay wherever they can. They've got no outlook on life.
You must make an effort to establish an' help yourself before you can
expect
other people to help you. There is no need for vagrancy today 'cause there
are
enough jobs for any man.
This is not 1925 - in the days of the old work'ouses - the tramps an'
the soup
kitchens.
ALBERT ERNEST FISHER Born: Belper, Derbyshire. 20.01.1920.
Known as: The Bishop or Lord Nelson.
1. Apart from the vicissitudes of fortune, I would say it's one of those
things
that comes to you automatically.
2. Yes.
3. I was a typical wayfarer and it was my ambition and desire to travel
to
those different places there and found it to be a very important and vital
thing.
4. Yes.
5. I don't think anyone can explain it.
TERRY ALEXANDER GOLDSTONE Born: Lipson, Plymouth. 09.11.1938.
Known as: Terry.
1. We're all vagrants in the sense that we're not here to stay and in
that most
people are educated for the past and not for the present, which makes
them feel
that they don't entirely belong in this society.
2. As much as anyone.
3. From a legal point of view I am not a vagrant as I have property and
sound
relationships. I feel myself vagrant, however, because society is not
aware of
the individual and consequently does not educate the individual to play
a
meaningful role to the best of his natural abilities and talents. I don't
blame
anyone for dropping out; I've known destitution myself and almost regret
that I
was too sane at that time to retaliate more aggressively. As it is, I
didn't
find the courage to strike out blindly. I satisfied myself with philosophy
and
verbal fisticuffs and became a convinced Marxist.
4. Yes.
5. Because Plymouth, as much as any benighted bastion in this crumbling
empire,
is unaware if its own real problems. The quality of its government demonstrates
this. Many smaller cities have attempted to deal with their social problems
in
a more positive way, with some effect, despite the strangulating bumbling
of
Whitehall.
The City Fathers, in their anxiety to attract foreign industry, ignore
the
immense natural potential of such a large population. Education is neglected
-
whatever they say - the Dockyard continues its futile production. The
arts and
social services are a travesty in a city of this size. Only the dole queues
are
booming, despite Plymouth's subservience to foreign capital.
There will be many more of these vagrants outside the Labour Exchange
and only a
vagrant city would continue to sit around with its begging bowl extended.
JOHN DONALD HAYDON Born: Precincts of the Parish of the
Cathedral, Exeter. 08.05.1917.
Known as: Jack.
1. It's a term that could apply to anyone. I could be that way if I let
myself
go. The word is too severe. There's a lot in vagrancy: you're nervous
or
suffering from a complaint. There's alcoholism, could be your home life.
You
might have been upset in your home life, you might have been...
ANTHONY HEGGADON Born: Bristol. 20.03.1942.
Known as: Tony.
1. I'd say a man
that's got no money - down and out.
2. At the moment, yes.
3. Simple reason is that I've no money. The family don't want to know
me.
4. Definitely.
5. I don't know why, really. If they could get some money for some place
for
the likes of me to go it would be a good thing, I think. That's my opinion.
DAVID LOUIS HELINGOE Born: Looe, Cornwall. 20.07.1944.
1. A wanderer.
2. No.
3. Because I have definite kinds of accommodation, from hotels to rooms
to
hostels.
4. I don't know. A vagrant is a wanderer, a wanderer is a vagrant, nobody
can
stop them. Who can stop them? They put them into prison sometimes - they
used
to anyway. I don't think they do nowadays. It is a problem; bound to be
a
problem, isn't it?
5. A problem to who? A problem to society or a problem to the vagrant
himself?
I'm not sure what "problem" means.
Society wants to make a community and a vagrant wants to wander, don't
they?
CYRIL HOCKING Born: Penzance, Cornwall. 24.10.1914.
Known as: Cyril or Mephistopheles.
1. Somebody a bit off they 'ead.
2. No.
3. Cos oi'm not.
4. Yes.
5. Cos they want their brains examined.
LLEWELLYN WILLIAM JAMES HOWELLS Born: Tiverton, Devon. 26.06.1933.
Known as: Chris or Jim.
1. A person who's
sleeping rough, who has no money, who has no help.
2. Yes.
3. It's a most peculiar thing; I'm a vagrant because of my own fault.
I love
my mother, but I'm an alcoholic so therefore it puts me down as a vagrant.
Being an alcoholic, I am unable to stay in lodgings. I need people who
will
understand me, which I've never found.
My shaking of the hands, and absolutely peculiar looks when I've not had
a
drink, makes me conspicuous.
4. Yes.
5. All vagrants want someone to love them. A man would not be a vagrant
if he
had someone to trust him.
MAURICE HUSTLER Born: Manchester. 12.12.1934.
Known as: Rose.
1. Poor people, penniless people.
2. Not quite.
3. Part time work sometimes comes. Umemployment pay comes each week.
4. No.
5. Plymouth is a fairly high-class city. The environment is well above
average.
WILLIAM JOHN HUXLEY Born: Worcester. 23.03.1919.
Known as: Bill.
1. Well, trampin', drinkin', which is the biggest fault of the vagrant..
A
vagrant is just a tramp of the road; there's some cause that makes him
that way.
2. On and off, yes.
3. Everythin' went wrong after the war, you know? We come out of a farm
house
and we went into tied cottages and we had to come out of them just after
I come
out of the army. At that time, I'd come from a prisoner of war camp, I
had a
nervous disorder which an army doctor says to me many people would 'ave
for a
short spell. To cope with that nervousness that I 'ad I started drinkin'
and
after a time it did go away; the nervousness, that is, but it left the
problem
of the drink. Then we got evicted from the tied cottage through a court
order.
At that time there were no 'ouses goin' up after the war. Any lodgings
an'
things, that time, was full of refugees. My parents at that time couldn't
get
no other accommodation. My aunt took my parents in, my other brother managed
somehow to get into lodge and I kept to the road.
4. Yes.
5. Vagrancy is a problem of society; they're more or less away from society,
ain't they? Myself, I think that somethin' should be done outright to
get men
off the road. It's not just Plymouth; it's all over, isn't it?
FRANCIS JACKSON Born: Garston, Liverpool. 10.08.1928.
Known as: Scouse or Jacko.
1. A man that's in need.
2. Sometimes I'm not sure.
3. I'm capable of working and earning my own living, if given the chance.
4. It is the most minute problem and yet an overbearing problem.
5. Because it's been created by society. A government, and when I say
government I mean N.A.B. (National Assistance Board). If a man has no
fixed
abode, whatever nationality, he has no call or demand upon any of Her
Majesty's
royalties. Before a man can be given assistance he has to find a home.
JAMES JOHNSTONE Born: Belfast, N. Ireland. 17.03.1938.
Known as: Momo.
1. There's no definition really, is there? Alcoholics - you're used to
the
scrumpy; the only thing you're lookin' for is your drink, isn't it?
2. Yes.
3. Too fond of alcohol. All my money goes on alcohol.
4. Definitely.
5. There's no accommodation. If you come into the Salvation Army a bit
drunk
and all that, they won't even let you book in. That's the reason for most
vagrancy in Plymouth.
Plymouth's only got two hostels: there's nothing else, so you go skipperin'.
VICTOR JONSON, ALIAS JAMES HOWARD Born: St. Pancras, London. 12.08.1905.
Known as: The Scarlet Pimpernel,
Sturmwaffer or Cockney Jim.
1. A man who has outlived his usefulness to society and is a society drop-out.
2. Yes.
3. Before World War II I was on the road because there was no other alternative
- mass unemployment - and I had at least my freedom from commercialisation.
4. Yes.
5. They wander from place to place in order to get away from capitalism
and all
that applies to it.
ROBERT CHARLES WILLIAM LEE Born: St. Austell, Cornwall. 26.09.1930.
Known as: Rob.
1. You can be down and out and then come up again, and keep up, if you
can.
You can get marching orders from any job and that takes you down again,
don't
it?
2. Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.
3.
4. With some, yes.
5. You get some people that are given jobs but don't go to them, then
they
start to wonder why they get their dole money stopped. It's a waste of
time
stopping it 'cause they then go to the Social Security. If they didn't
have
that they'd have to get work.
EDWIN JAMES MACKENZIE Born: Camelshead, Plymouth. 30.03.1912.
Known as: Mac, Gabby, Ed, Steptoe, Jim,
Lofty, Diogenes, Blackie.
1. I'm not much of a scholar.
2. Yes.
3. Cos I'm in every bugger's way.
4. In some cases it is, in some it isn't.
5. Cos you'm making yourself a bloody nuisance, not only to yourself,
but to
everybody else. Some can control theyselves, some cain't.
HENRY JOSEPH MCDONALD Born: Guyana, South America. 31.01.1938.
Known as: Henry.
1. It is not necessarily true that a man who wanders around and has no
money is
a vagrant. It could be that he's a sick person suffering from an incurable
illness and society just neglects him. Whether the injury was a natural
injury
or it was inflicted by someone does not matter.
If a person walks around all day and he has no employment, you still can't
call
him a vagrant: for you to call him a vagrant you'd have to prove to him
that
he's done something wrong, you know what I mean?
2. If I'm a vagrant person, people wouldn't like to say, "Yes, I
consider
myself a vagrant". I would term myself a person who walks about all
day and
don't have no employment; I would refer to the first statement I made.
I don't
think I have an injury but I "feel" I have an injury that has
been inflicted on
me that caused me to walk all day on the street, to have no job, without
any
money.
3..
4. I don't know how much about Plymouth, really. I am just here a few
days
wandering around, you know? Sometimes I get 65 pence a day and sometimes
I goes
around people for 10 pence, to have a sandwich or some cigarettes.
As far as I see, I haven't seen anyone - if I see someone stealing I would
get a
hundred pounds for it, wouldn't I? I would willingly give information.
But I
haven't seen anyone, you know? I don't have any clue of what really goes
on you
see.
You ask some people for a bit of money to save you from dying, you know?
A bit
of money, perhaps 10 pence or somethin' for a cup a tea, 'cause you is
hungry.
I was working in the Dockyard about seven years ago. Someone inflicted
an
injury on my eyes, so it is not easy for me to identify anyone now. Someone
put
on a torch light when I was walking in the dark, you see; it affected
my eyes,
it just did, see?
An injury has been afflicted on me in the Dockyard in January 1964 aboard
the
surveying ship, the Hecla. It's an injury which after I look at it for
a few
years is absolutely incurable, you see. It leads to... it leads to...
to... the
statement I made in question one.
ALAN PUL-WRECE Born: St. Judes, Plymouth. 01.10.1925.
Known as: Lofty.
1. Vagrancy is a symptom of a society that's gone wrong, a society that
does
not cater for the needs of the individual. A vagrant is someone who thinks
he's
escaping to somethin' when in actual fact he's escaping from somethin'.
2. Not yet. Time will tell.
3. Because I'm not sufficiently disenchanted with the world yet, I'm still
trying to make a go of things. I'm optimistic enough to think that things
will
change, it's just not good enough to stick an old fella in a doss 'ouse
when
he's got a drink problem and just wait for him to die. This is not the
answer,
it just isn't.
4. Yes.
5. 'Cos there's somethin' definitely wrong and no one's interested enough
to
find a real solution. They'd rather sweep it under the carpet. The problem's
not just with the vagrant but with the whole community. A community is
a group
of people living together, not a framework for some people to go up and
for some
to die in the gutter. It's criminal to see some people with cars and two
houses
when there's others starvin'. Not that the answer's to give them a doss
'ouse,
but to give them dignity.
And that would be just the starting point. These people haven't just got
nowhere to live, there's a real psychological problem and they're rejected.
I
think that they can see that society lacks in many ways, they just can't
adjust
to that.
Some of us will wait for a change to take place and some can't stand it
and drop
out. The thing to remember is that they're human bein's an' not things
that get
drunk and piss themselves. People reckon we're useless but we helped this
artist with his stupid survey.
MAXIMS, APHORISMS AND OPINIONS
"THE BISHOP"
I go to bed and I think, "What's it going to be tonight, Albert?
A dream? A
nightmare? An hallucination?"
What few brains I've got, I'm destroying them! What few brains I've got,
I'd
best keep them.
I've been called to higher service about two years ago: I've not gone
yet
though!
I'm not a gangster, I'm a lunatic. The slightest thing gives you away.
I'm glad I'm poor. If I'd been rich, I'd have been dead years ago.
Why should it be so? And yet it is so!
What you see is nothing; the head manufactures the world.
Wally: My favourite actor was George Sanders
Albert: Well there, Wally, I'll tell you my favourite actor.
Wally: Who's that, Albert?
Albert: My bloody self there!
I'm saying my prayers to the hidden powers. Don't tell me I'm dying.
Talk is cheap, but never let imagination run away with you; it can't see
where
it's going.
Always keep the creases in your trousers. But don't shit 'em; that will
take
the creases out.
You're like horseshit Albert; you're all over the place.
There's quite a lot of Fisher's around; there's quite a lot in the sea,
too.
I'm like a piece of newspaper blowing here and there in the gutter; it
all
depends on the wind.
Seemingly there are better things to do than what I'm doing.
This is what they call reality... but I'm beginning to find one thing
out there,
one great thing there; there is something further afield that what there
is
here.
The mind builds fear... and lots of other things besides.
When you go to sleep at night times or early morning there, you seem to
pay
visitations to other planets there. Of course, that may be the drunken
man's
talk - I know a fool can talk.
I'm not worried about opening time. All I'm worried about is closing time.
The ash goes on the carpet: where are you going?
There is no death. The so-called death is only transition and that is
a major
factor.
I never asked to come into this world and yet I'm here. And now that I
know
what it's like, if I had been asked I would have said NO! I would have
stopped
where I came from. But the hidden powers said one thing there, "Give
it a
trial".
A bigger liar than Jeremiah, but I like his rubbish, I do.
Watch the action there! What's seen and unseen there!
Full stops, question marks and commas, there!
I have a gift. Maybe it's flowing away. But then, that gift never flows
away.
Seagulls don't need blankets and sheets, all they need is rocks.
Let it remain stationary.
Sometimes I get afraid of myself there.
It's just as well to look a fool as not to be one.
I'm what they call the unwanted guest and that's the way I'm always going
to be.
There are tributaries and estuaries and they go into the great deep sea
there to
be obliterated.
It takes a lunatic to find out what is really going on. You are now talking
to
a lunatic, sir! A lunatic is someone who takes an interest in something
no one
else takes an interest in. For the rest there is no escape.
"THE SINGER"
After a few years you don't want to hear or listen to guys and their troubles
'cause our troubles are nothin'.
Most of us people have been around and can't live with stupid people with
their
wristwatches and rings and all that sort of business. Sure we're not worried
about all that any more.
This man with his wristwatch, his emblem for life - ah, 'tis rubbish!
If you're goin' to prepare yourself for life, why not prepare yourself
for
death? College may prepare you for a bit of life, but what about death?
Retrospective thinking is bad news.
I'm goin' to die with the roses. I've only one lung, so I'm out of the
game,
you know. I'll not die in hospital.
Why shouldn't a man prepare his own death? I'll go out gracefully with
the
flowers. I'll even clip my toenails for the pathologist so that he can't
look
at me and say, "The dirty bastard!"
Now you've got a long distance talker and you've got a quiet talker; indeed,
you've got all kinds of talkers. Now this is the quiet talking champion
of the
world and this is the loud talking champion of the world; and this is
such and
such a talker and that is so and so a talker, and we get to meet them
at the
Olympic Games place or somewhere so they can battle their brains out,
just
talking. You see, my friend, the world will go on anyway, the world forgets
everything. Now these talkers will all be wearing uniforms and they'll
have a
big mouth emblazoned on the pocket of their jackets in bright colours.
An'
they'll yackety yack for the rest of their lives. I think such people
are
called politicians.
Without suffering, I'm lost: I wouldn't know what to do without suffering.
You know them aviary designers in high places? Well, Lord Snowdon designs
aviaries for birds; Mountbatten designs aviaries for humans.
Sure they like to go to church, and why not; they can't go into a pub
and sing,
you know, they haven't got the nerve, so they just go to the church instead.
They go there and they sing, just like some South American tribe, you
know. The
organist thinks he's Mozart and the man in the pulpit thinks he's Christ
and
yacks on.
Them Salvation Army people, they can busk away and collect money; as much
as
they like. But if I get out there and do it, there'll be a policeman rushin'
me
off in five minutes
Now I live in a church as well, you know, God's church, the only real
one there
is, not an architects' one, a proper one. No painted stars on my ceiling,
but
real ones; none of them silly statues, but trees and bushes.
Some time back now I knocked on the door of this vicar an' I asked him
for some
food; do you know I could see him thinkin' twice on the matter. I says
to him,
"Do you believe in God?" "Of course I do!" he shouts.
"Well then," I says,
"come on the road with me. I believe in him implicitly. Go lock up
your car
an' come with me." Well, he nearly cut my head off with the slammin'
of his
door.
"BLACK SAM"
I went to Moorhaven once - injections, pills and all that. I realised
it was a
load of rubbish. I sees this psychiatrist bloke, only a young 'un. I was
weighing him up. He was like me; he knew nothing.
We're all searching for something, aren't we?
All right professor, I'll tell ya somethin' now: what's gone wrong is
this -
greed; that's God, that's God today. Nothin's friendly today. The young
are
vicious.
A tinker give me this dog. I went to the north of Scotland with him; I
loved
that dog. He lay on me 'ead in any barn. He died, though. It didn't make
any
sense.
A handshake can judge you.
With experience you can write a book, but no one would believe it.
You try to probe into somethin', but suddenly it's full stop.
We're all strange people; we're all escapin'; we're al fanatics.
You searchin' for somethin', but what? If I could have had one spark,
just one
spark. There's some force that governs. Some gigantic force, but what
does it
govern?
I can't explain it; when I drink I seems to get some Dutch courage. And
when I
get it, I want more and I'll get it any way I can, includin' if it hurts
people.
Then you're worse than before, but that's self pity. Someone says somethin'
to
you and you're in trouble. You're too much of a coward to drown yourself.
Then
the drink wears off and you're in hell!
You tell a person straight to his face, they don't like it. They say,
"You
bastard!" See? Who likes the truth?
Is there a God? That's what they say. Bah! Nature's the god. Force, that's
all, force and more force. The birds know it; that's why they sing.
I've seen everythin' an' I'm out of control.
I can like and dislike - even hate - instantly: that's a gift, ain't it?
All the bums, the tramps, the misfits, the lot - I knows 'em. I'm a misfit,
I
knows that; I admits it anyways. I've got these ideas in my mush. I've
been
punched a few times. I had a fight with Johnny King in Liverpool - lasted
one
round.
They go to the NAB and balls around with them people for a few bob. By
the time
they gets it they're so fed up they buys cider. It's not always sunshine,
you
know; sometimes it pisses down with rain.
The likes of me, when you're down, they keep yer down. Ya go to the NAB
and
they keeps yer waiting for hours. I seen it in Manchester, Birmingham,
all over
the place. I've seen really starvin' sick men wait four hours for ten
bob.
I get as far north as possible; maybe I'll get some crofter's cottage.
The more
barren the better. Escape: no noise, nothin'; just seagulls an' gannets.
The
chains will drop off me if I can get up there. I'm an "alky"
but I don't drink
much up there. Now, I'm a wreck.
I have actually seen somethin', honest - peace, quiet. My ears are so
full of
nerves.
When I look at yer pictures of the lads, I feel like I'm in a mortuary.
"DIOGENES"
I knows I'm a bloody fool and there's some bloody fools don't know it.
Live while you may,
And live in clover.
When you'm dead,
You'm dead all over.
If anybody looks ahead, nine times out of ten, they snuffs it.
A man says "See you in the morning" to me. I says "Never
say 'see you' to me,
always say 'goodbye' - you'm safer that way."
You'm longer dead than you'm alive.
My landlord don't worry about rent.
You can look backwards but you can't look forwards.
You can hurry up an' take yer time.
There was this man out o' work and he said on this sunny day, "If
oi were
workin' I'd take the day orf."
Ah! It's six o'clock; I'm orf to see the parson in the church where they've
got
bibles with handles on 'em.
The word "if" has only got two letters but it's got an 'eck
of a meanin'.
If anybody understands simple things, they can understand other things.
Always a true word spoken in a joke.
We're goin' on strike down the Labour Exchange tomorrow. Our shop steward
says
if they don't get them cranes down there quick to lift the pencils up
for us,
we're packin' in.
"HARMONICA JIM"
Good atoms know their own, in this world of atoms.
If we make them into muck we become flies.
Somehow an atom can become a proper human being.
If you want to know what's on this earth, then be careful what comes out
of your
mouth. There's beauty on the world and you can get beauty out of it. The
little voice is stupid; if you let that control you, then heaven help
you.
Don't forget the atom people who won this world long before we came.
That little fly is very intelligent but on the cross I beat him.
You've got to make them understand you, not you them, otherwise they'll
soon
make shit out of you; they're very powerful people.
I get more from talking to myself than talking to most of the buggers
round
here.
At least I'm good for one thing - nothing.
You can walk through a graveyard and some of them that's buried there
could have
been you.
Come and visit me any time, the doors are always open, so are the windows.
There's no floors in my house, so watch it!
I come from sod all, so why worry if I go back to sod all? Little atoms
look
after their own.
Give us a bomb; I want to sit on it. I want to get home quick.
People bore me stiff; it's all fighting down here, all hating.
The bloody police have moved me again, I've got to find another derry.
Bloody
nuisance; they can't see through their own name, can they? 'Po' for house
and
'lice' for louse, see?
"COCKNEY JIM"
I've kept away from women - which are the damaging process.
Before the war, when mass unemployment was in, you was too old at forty.
Then,
miraculously, the war turned up and even men of forty or fifty were pressed
into
service. Suddenly, these poor derelicts were put to work, even imbeciles
were
put into factories.
Everybody has got their liabilities and their disabilities.
Gather ye dollars while ye may.
I am a tea-totaller; that is, a total abstainer from tea.
In the old days, imprisonment was one in a cell. Now it's three dogs yapping
at
each other in one kennel.
I had a peculiar attraction towards jewellers' windows; it must have been
the
sparkle of the diamond rings. I got a craze for them, there must have
been an
old baroness in my family.
I was arrested, locked in the cells, court case and released. Twelve quid's
worth of expenses, all for what?
Birds sing in cages, but I'm not a bird.
Anybody that has seven children is entitled to a heart attack.
Prison Governor: What religion are you?
Cockney Jim: I am nonconformist.
Prison Governor: So what? We are the Orthodox British Church.Why are you
nonconformist?
Cockney Jim: I do not conform to conformity.
Prison Governor: We will soon alter that.
Before I'm lowered into the grave, I'll always have the knowledge that
I've had
my own back on society in many ways.
He goes around the world to tell you what I could tell you walking up
the High
Street.
Project 1a: Vagrancy.
In 1996 or thereabouts, Robert exhibited the following paintings at The
Annexe
and associated them with the Vagrancy Project of 1973.
However, several features of the exhibition lead one to conclude that
most of
the paintings were of far newer vintage. Firstly, the images show the
thin paint
and very purple pallette seen in the artist's later work rather than the
thick
paint and sombre blues and greens of 'genuine' vagrancy work. There is
also the
proponderance of images of Les Ryder, looking his age in 1996 rather than
1973!
It is no coincidence that Mr Ryder was the only surviving vagrant still
available to sit for paintings.
The condition of the older canvases suggest that much of the work consisted
of
extensive restoration of old canvases - often to the point of complete
repainting.
‘The Bishop’ and the Painter dance to Mahler in ‘Jacob’s
Ladder’.
‘King Ryder’.
Crying man in Wells St Skipper.
Double study for ‘Plymouth Mourning over its Unfortunates’
(This painting can
be viewed at the main studio.)
Les Ryder just out of prison (Available as a Limited Edition print.)
‘Diogenes’ in the window studio at night.
Albert Edward Ernest Fisher (‘The Bishop’) startled.
Les Ryder sleeping in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.
‘The Singer’ asleep in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.
‘The Lynch’ asleep in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ (The
Cardboard Box man).
Les Ryder in blanket.
‘Box-car Riley’ Isolation Study.
‘Box-car Riley’ Rear View Isolation Study.
‘The Bishop’ explaining to ‘Diogenes’ why the
sky was falling down. ‘Diogenes’
did not want to listen, but I did.
‘Black Mac’ crying - The Man with big hands.
‘Diogenes’ Double study.
Les Ryder judging the world in his sleep.
‘The Bishop’ talking to the fox in Stoke Damerel Churchyard.
‘Diogenes’ reading the newspaper.
‘The Bishop’, ‘Diogenes’ and Les Ryder asleep
in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.
Study for ‘Plymouth Mourning over its Unfortunates’. See No.
4.
‘The Bishop’ asleep on red chair.
‘The Bishop’ and ‘Diogenes’ naked.
Project 2: Death and the Maiden
The Death and the Maiden Project was exhibited twice, first in Plymouth
and then
in Coventry:
1) Date: 20 July - 1 Nov, 1974.
Venue: The Fool, 7 Clifton Street, Plymouth.
2) Date: c. 10 Nov – mid Dec, 1974.
Venue: Wilmas Galleries, 163 Spon St., Coventry.
There were 72 paintings shown at The Fool. Less than 20 sold. All paintings
plus
an additional four were included in the show at Wilmas Galleries. Wilmas’
price
list names the buyers of the sold works, and for the others the prices
were
raised 75% on average.
Lenkiewicz produced a booklet, ‘Notes on Death and the Maiden’,
that was sold at
the exhibitions. The booklet is 37 pp, plus a page explaining the front
cover
illustration. Most unusual for Robert, this illustration, which is also
used on
the exhibition poster, is not his own but redrawn from a German 19th century
book. There are also two extra plates, clearly late additions.
In 1997, the following brief explanation of the Project was contained
in the
booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work.
"All union of sexes is
a sign of (coming) of death; and we could not know
'love' were we to live indefinitely." Anatole France.
In 1974 Lenkiewicz produced a small book titled: Notes on Death and the
Maiden.
This ran parallel with the Exhibition of the same title at his premises
on the
corner of Clifton Street. The book was an abbreviated version of a large
book of
notes on cultural attitudes towards death, corruption and decay. Page
10 of
these notes introduces ideas that linked the fear of hell with the fear
of
decay. The notes proceed to develop the idea frequently suggested by
art-historians, that the allegory of Death and the Maiden expresses not
only the
fear of death but fear of the female. Lenkiewicz felt this was an unsatisfactory
interpretation, and that the issue was complex, with shadows cast from
unexpected areas.
He noted the curious attention in Medieval Danse Macabre images given
to the
corpses. Striking woodcuts of decaying representations of Death dance
before
their victims on the edges of graves. What seized his attention however
in these
ghastly images were the flailing viscera from open abdomens - a parody
of
pregnancy:
"...this decomposing woman was designed to bear children, but the
contents of
her stomach reveal only the destiny of birth. "
Many of Lenkiewicz's studies for this project considered the cycle of
birth and
death. 'Death' presenting his intestines to the Maiden was explored along
with
the formula of the Three Magi and their Gifts. The decay of the body is
frightening. It is this same body, however, that is bound up with our
personal
sex lives. Fear may stimulate eroticism and death takes on unexpected
possibilities. Desire and decomposition interrelate. Putrefaction need
not smell
the decay of 'love' has its own immediately recognisabie odour. Illusions
rot
and fragment, and as the body filters into the earth, so the memories
of 'loves'
vaporise and die. In the decomposition of our 'loves' we unwittingly attend
our
own funeral. Death and the Maiden echoes the mortality of our affections,
and
encourages us to consider them more carefully.
The formula ‘Death and the Maiden’ finds its origins in antiquity.
To the
knowledge of the painter no literary studies of this theme exist. The
relationship between ‘death’ and the ‘feminine’
is frequently echoed throughout
the iconography of the Eastern and Western worlds. It is echoed also,
in what
may be termed the ‘love experience’.
No sooner has one become interested and preoccupied with another person,
then
one commences the normal gamut of ‘time/possessive’ fears,
e.g. ‘How long will
it last?’ ‘What authority do I hold in this situation?’
‘Upon what can I rely on
if I compromise?’
An intense aesthetic/personality interest in another person seems always
to
carry with it the inevitability of change.
In this change we witness the death of love and the decay of our interest.
The
undermining influence of this experience, hints at the contact between
‘Death
and the Maiden’
— between ‘Love and Tragedy’ — between life and
us.
NOTE
THE FOOL is a converted house designed to exhibit — on a large and
consistent
scale —the work of R.O. Lenkiewicz.
Running parallel with the exhibitions will be a variety of socio/educational
activities connected with local schools and other group classes.
It is hoped that liaisons may be formed with schools in Plymouth, and
that the
published results of class-skills are widely seminated through these schools.
It is further hoped that more buildings of this kind will develop, and
that the
present organisors will be given more assistance (non-financial) to do
this.
R. O. Lenkiewicz
Annie Hill-Smith
An exhibition opens on the 21st of November. Theme: “PAINTINGS DESIGNED
SOLELY
TO MAKE MONEY”. (with accompanying booklet)
Project 3: Mental Handicap
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"Some people has brains and don't use 'em. I'd give most things for
my kids to
'ave 'em. There you are, it's a funny old world." Parent.
n 1976 Lenkiewicz produced a small book titled: Mental Handicap/Survey
Plymouth.
He asked several hundred families for permission to paint children and
adults,
representing a variety of mentally disadvantaged conditions.
The Exhibition was presented in the same derelict warehouse that had housed
the
Vagrancy project on the Barbican. Massive though the project was, it fell
on
deaf ears. Though some degree of social insight had developed and it had
been a
long time coming - it was still far from satisfactory at the time of this
project. Today, complacency is fast replacing ignorance. At the end of
her
contribution to Lenkiewicz's published survey, Baroness Vickers of Devonport
and
Life President of the Plymouth Society for Mental Handicap, noted:
five hundred parents of those depicted (in Project 3) have had great courage
in allowing these portraits to be shown because they realised that this
Exhibition may make a major change in the whole of the general public
to the
mentally retarded in Britain."
Lenkiewicz's somewhat harsh preface to the Mental Handicap Survey observed
that:
"A handicapped child
means a handicapped parent...complaint has produced most
of our art and literature, and most of our social and educational patterns.
We
say "Why me? I did not deliberately inflict this problem upon myself.
" And
here is where we miss the point, for we assume that we do anything, anything
at all deliberately... Over the last eight months, four hundred persons
and
myself have been engaged upon an act of complaint. "
Lenkiewicz proceeds with the observation that 'parents' versus 'society'
has
always operated upon a basis of certain rules, and that this ritual of
maudlin
altruism is unproductive.
"The paradox consists of two kinds of brain damage running parallel;
the
mentally handicapped child/adult and the 'normal ' member of Society.
"
A thread runs through even the earliest projects, linking the two issues
of
ethics and aesthetics, and they certainly surface in both Project 1 and
Project
3.
Mental Handicap Project notes and price list
[Poster's Note: in the prices for items nos. 21-37 I had some difficulty
making
out the final digit in the copy of the list I have. When in doubt I have
made
the last digit a '5' by default. .
PAINTINGS: R. O. LENKIEWICZ
MENTAL HANDICAP
A. This person is “NORMAL”. He/She is not mentally handicapped.
£Very
expensive but always available at a price.
B. This person is BLIND. She is not mentally handicapped, £50
C. This person considers himself mentally ill. He is not mentally handicapped.
£45
D, This person is DEAF. He is not mentally handicapped. £30
E. This person is physically handicapped, He Is not mentally handicapped.
£35
P. This person is not:
BLIND:
DEAF:
PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED:
NOT MENTALLY ILL:
NOT “NORMAL”
He is mentally handicapped. £30
(Aproximately
134 paintings & drawings accompanied the 'Mental Handicap' exhibition).
Project 4: Love and Romance
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"How nicely does doggish lust beg for a piece of spirit when a piece
of flesh
is denied it." Nietzche.
In 1975 Lenkiewicz produced a booklet titled: Love and Romance: A Note.
This ran
parallel with an Exhibition on the theme of Love and Romance. Lenkiewicz
held
the view that the traditional 'love' experience involved some kind of
selective
procedure; and that this selectivity was not conscious or deliberate.
This
worldwide human commonplace has been aggrandised and raised on pedestals
of all
kinds. Poetry and Literature has exemplified this physiological phenomenon
from
ancient times. He thought it interesting that other 'transcendent' or
'theological' experiences seemed to be made out of similar ingredients
and that
unexpected deprivation - grief, jealousy - revealed physiological trauma
similar
or identical to that experienced by the alcoholic or heroin-addict.
He felt that it might be possible to aesthetically 'measure' the degree
of
addiction and the degree of withdrawals. He commenced a series of 'Aesthetic
Notes' which attempted to record physiological sensation by means of certain
colours and certain shapes. These notes are rarely seen but are voluminous.
This
line of enquiry has involved using himself as a guinea-pig and is an ongoing
activity. A number of the paintings in Project 4 were elaborate constructions
associating with theological artefacts and often gilded with ornate emblems.
A
large number of ironic devices were constructed in order to draw attention
to
the mythic undertones that people (usually young) associate with the poetic
notion of 'two' becoming 'one'. Lenkiewicz held the view that these behaviours
indicated an obsessive, pathological ruthlessness involving patterns that
were
not unlike those found in political persuasions and fascism. They characterised
human emotional development, or rather the lack of it.
Andre Breton once wrote:
"Before I knew you - look, the words are meaningless. You know very
well that,
when I saw you for the first time, I recognised you at once. "
Lenkiewicz noted in his research that one of the primary claims made by
the
'lover' was that of 'union'. A unique twosome leading to a single unit.
This did
not seem to be so much a philosophical belief as a physiological need.
If one
were touched aesthetically at a deep enough level then 'ideology', 'fanaticism',
'love', would emerge. These observations were to lead to a careful investigation
of physiological behaviour under crisis. The following projects were an
expression of these. Imagery centring around The New Testament characterised
sections of this project - Lenkiewicz's notes record:
"We are told of two thieves who hang by the side of a crucified man,
(in
romantic love, there are two thieves constantly stealing from each other,
who
finally crucify each other). We are further told of the Deposition, when
the
dead man is brought down from the cross and mourned. (In romantic love,
one
partner grieves after the lost affections of the other). We are finally
told
that the dead man resurrected. (In romantic Love, the 'loser' in the
attachment replaces the addiction with a new companion.)"
I can love both fairs and browne,
Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betraies,
Her who loves lonenesse best, and her who maskes and plaies,
Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town,
Her who believes, and her who tries,
Her who still weepes with spungie eyes,
And her who is dry corke, and never cries;
I can love her, and her, and you and you
“I'm afraid I'm an
agnostic in art. I just don't believe in it with all the
mystical trimmings. As a drug it's probably very useful for a number of
people,
very sedative, but as a religion it's not even as good as God.”
M. DUCHAMP.
“I just wanted turn
identities, that's all. It was a sort of readymadeish
action. I first wanted to get a Jewish name, but I didn't find one. Then
the
idea jumped at me, why not a female name? Marvellous! Much better than
to
change religion would be to change sex. Rose was the most corny name for
a girl
at that time in French, and Selavy of course, was 'C'est la vie’.
My name is
Rose Selavy.”
M. DUCHAMP.
Project 5: Love and Mediocrity.
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"The promises have been kept, nevertheless, I have been swindled."
Simone de
Beauvoir.
This project surveyed a wide range of assumptions and expectations about
human
relationships. Lenkiewicz viewed many of these expectations as foolish
and
unkind. In these ironic explorations, he attempted to demonstrate that
rituals
between couples were not based on reliable precepts: indeed, he attempted
to
demonstrate that there were no precepts. 'Fidelity' was a theme that ran
through
many of the images. It cut across a whole range of irrational expectations
in
human relationships. In the notes on Love and Mediocrity, he writes:
"The experience of 'betrayal' is abrupt, sudden. The sense of shock,
of being
thrown back against a wall; of being reminded, of remembering something
almost
primeval. One is not just remembering the 'last time' or the 'time before
that'. One is remembering something characteristic of being what one is,
characteristic of all that one forgets. The sense of betrayal is to have
forgotten that one has forgotten. The inherited isolation which tradition
tells us to be happy about, raises it's head (or rather we sink ours into
it)
every time one has 'forgotten'. The shock is in no way connected with
the
'other' person, for they could never be the cause. Oneself and the mirrored
image of oneself - disguised as the other person - play this trick time
and
again. "
Images of 'Lovers kissing each other in front of all their past and future
lovers', of 'Man chasing woman chasing man chasing woman chasing man....'
Images
of Man and Woman tied into a knot. Images of 'Man looking at a woman from
a
distance - with whom he has just copulated'. Of elderly couples with memories,
of isolated individuals involved in a variety of auto-erotic activities.
All
these and more investigated the thesis that by and large the major part
of a
relationship's 'meaning' or 'value' passes entirely unnoticed by both
partners.
'Addiction Ladders' were considered:
"The memory of an incident halves in intensity each time it is thought
about
until it becomes as finite as forgetting allows. "
Eccentric links were formed between time ratios for addictions, the aesthetic
experience that brought them about, and arithmetical and geometric formulas.
Lenkiewicz notes:
"The experimental lover finds that a constant sequence of breakdowns
in
relationships is supported by the softened edges of previous 'reflections
and
'refractions'. Each time the mirror is employed the memory re-situates
or
'refracts' the experience through the image of the following one. The
recent
lover has to thank all the previous 'refractions' of his lover - through
other
mirrors - for his present obsession. Their previous activities have created
the 'refractions' to which his previous taste responded. He has 'fallen
in
love' therefore, with an infinite sequence of 'refractions ' through the
mirror - lover - he now stares into . . . It is a startling thought that
as we
suffer so deeply from the withdrawals of the 'present' scenario, the next
situation is heading inexorably towards us from the future; and it too
will be
replaced by a sequel. Indeed, most readers of this text can anticipate
significant relationships with people who have not yet been born. "
Project 6: Paintings Designed to Make Money
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"It is curious to note to what an extent memory is unfaithful, even
for the
most important periods of one's life. It is this indeed, that explains
the
delightful fantasy of history." Marcel Duchamp.
This collection parodied some attitudes towards 'Art'. The 'Diogenes Con
Show'
displayed 35 studies of 'Diogenes' all of which were titled: This study
took 27
minutes, This study took 43 minutes etc. From early portrayals of St.
Jerome to
today's Father Christmas Cards, the be-whiskered, harmless philosopher-rogue
has
always been a money-spinner. Even Rembrandt painted such images for Russian
and
European collectors as a sure income.
'Diogenes' was a well known tramp who lived in a barrel at Chelson Meadow.
Lenkiewicz wrote that one clear distinction between the 'image' of
'Diogenes'/philosopher-rogue and 'Diogenes'/Edwin Mackenzie in the real
world,
is that the 'image' of him is far more acceptable in the average household,
than
the man himself. Ethics and aesthetics was an issue again.
The second part of Project 6, called 'The Masterpiece Museum', considered
another aspect of salesmanship/art. Lenkiewicz wrote:
"The innuendo of the 'masterpiece' is that it's creator has transcended
both
himself and Society; that it is in some sense, prophecy. If the item has
been
purchased, then we are reminded of a slave-trader wily enough to buy 'good
stock'. Such images develop like institutions or minor religions imbued
with
qualities that we conspire with. The 'masterpiece' can be seen as an
abstracted extension of the 'hero', and its function in Society operates
as an
amulet or talisman. "
The Exhibition was presented as though the painter had been dead for some
years.
Lenkiewicz wrote:
"There are many similar personalities in the colourful pageant of
(provincial)
'art-heroes'. Few share the distinction of achieving so complete an obscurity
in so short a space of time."
A cabinet containing various artefacts of the 'deceased' painter stood
by the
entrance. Of special interest was the article 'The Uses of Bad Art ' by
Geoffrey
Grigson, with the note: "It is said that the painter died with this
paper
clutched to his heart."
Diogenes Con Show & the Masterpiece Museum notes
This project was exhibited both at 'The Fool' in Clifton Street, Plymouth
and
then at Blenheim Gallery in 1975. Originally entitled 'Paintings Designed
Solely
to Make Money'. it was scheduled for November 1974 but was first shown
in
January 1975.
The Con Show section consists of rapidly worked studies of the vagrant
Diogenes
(Edward Mackenzie).
The Notes
R.O. LENKIEWICZ
PAINTINGS
May 6 to June 20 1975
Blenheim Gallery 21 Cork Street W1
NOTE: Amusing or not, the present exhibition is a joke. It is hoped that
those
who profess an interest will take the trouble to read the leaflets that
accompany the collection.
1. The Red Chair* £500 (* This has been submitted to the Royal Academy.)
2. Painter and female associate. NFS
3. Painter and female associate. £100
4. Painter and female associate. £110
5. Painter and female associate. £100
6. Painter and female associate. £120
6a. Painter and female associate. £90
6b. Painter and female associate. £100
6c. Painter and female associate. £90
7. The Painter aged 92. £100 (Completed shortly before he died)
8. The Painter with Courbet’s Self-portrait. £140
8a. The Painter with Van Gogh’s Self-portrait. £140
8b. The Painter with Rembrandt’s Self-portrait. £140
9. The Painter aged 32. £100
10. The Painter aged 32. £110
11. The Painter aged 17. NFS (Painted at the age of 17)
12. The Painter aged 16. NFS (Five studies painted at the age of 16)
13. The Painter aged 32. £90
14. The Painter aged 32. £85
15. The Painter aged 32. £115
16. The Painter at 32. £115
Miscellaneous
17. a. Roger and Roger standing on the Barbican at 12 noon
b. Barbican Boys
c. Two vagabonds of Spain. £115
18. Roger with cap. £65
19. Roger with cap. £60
20. The Painter’s right boot. £110<
21. Part of the Painter’s antiquarian erotica collection. £110
22. Apple and Grapefruit. £85 (It may be of special interest to
note that the
painter ate both these items on completion of the study)
23. Tomato and Onion. £50
24. Banana. £50
25. 26 of the Painter’s signatures (On an old palette). £60
THE DIOGENES CON SHOW
Effective posters of this man’s head are available from the desk:
price £2
26. This study took 39 minutes. £90
27. This study took 41 minutes. £90
28. This study took 37 minutes. £90
29. This study took 27 minutes. £90
30. This study took 30 minutes. £90
31. This study took 39 minutes. £90
32. This study took 1 hour 18 minutes. £100
33. This study took 34 minutes. £75
34. This study took 23 minutes. £55
35. This study took 35 minutes. £75
36. This study took 41 minutes. £90
37. This study took 43 minutes. £90
38. This study took 27 minutes. £60
39. This study took 17 minutes. £60
40. This study took 22 minutes. £60
41. This study took 27 minutes. £60
42. This study took 29 minutes. £60
43. This study took 37 minutes. £100
44. This study took 1 hour 11 minutes. £75
45. This study took 8 minutes. £40 (Diogenes’ hand clutching
American tourist’s
50 pence piece)
46. This study took 14 minutes. £45 (Diogenes’ hand holding
Painter’s pound
note)
47. This study took 11 minutes. £35
48. This study took 9 minutes. £35
49. This study took 14 minutes. £35
50. This study took 12 minutes. £35
51. This study took 10 minutes. £35
52. These studies took 38 minutes right-hand head, 44 minutes left-hand
head.
£130
53. This study took 49 minutes. £95
54. This study took 54 minutes. £80
55. This study took 43 minutes. £100
56. This study took 38 minutes (Monochrome Gouache). £65
57. This study took 34 minutes. £90
58. This study took 25 minutes. £45
59. This study took 7 minutes £20
60. The putrefaction of Diogenes. Not for sale
THE MASTERPIECE MUSEUM
The gallery has experimented with a small display of the work of a now
forgotten
painter. Please take leaflet to the left of the entrance.
61.Old man beaten up during fit of the D.T.’s. £75
62. Eddie Fagin; Notes. £45
63. Study of Albert in front of a study of Albert. £135
64. Study of Albert. £30
65. Albert falling asleep. £120
66. View of the Barbican with human interpolation. £100
67. Cyril. £80
68. Cyril (Two studies). £90
69. Cyril. £35
70. Cyril. £45
71. Harry asleep (Two studies). £90
72. Diogenes asleep. £35
73. Albert asleep; five studies. £85
74. Albert asleep. £85
75. Albert with clown doll. £90
76. The Masterpiece; or, ‘Plymouth mourning over it’s unfortunates’
Value?
Priceless.
This complex work conceals a large amount of allegorical symbol; suffice
it to
say that what is known of it’s underlying meaning covers the following
associations:
THE SEVEN SLEEPERS OF EPHESUS: THE STUDIO, BY GUSTAVE COURBET: SOCIAL
ART AT
IT’S WORST: THE MYTHOLOGY OF SLEEP, etc.
77. Dave Hocking asleep. £90
78. Mac. £100
79. Mac. £110
80. Barbican night scene with human interpolations. £130
81. Study for redundant ‘Masterpiece’ pilgrim. £95
82. Cowboy’s Holiday Inn; study. £40
83. Study of Diogenes’ piss-pot and dishevelled beds. £45
84. Tinker Jo. £40
85. Harry and Diogenes asleep. £50
86. Les Ryder. £50
87. The Singer. £65
88. The Singer and Diogenes. £100
89. Studies of Albert. £90
90. Dave Hocking. Studies. £50
91. Studies of Albert asleep £75
92. Diogenes at the Barbican Fair. £75
Some attention should be drawn towards the manuscript cabinet which contains
a
few very rare examples of the painter’s numberless sketch-books.
We are grateful to the Plymouth Archives for the loan of these items.
The
remainder were unfortunately stolen from the museum by an irresponsible
art
student some years ago. An added attraction is the collection of miscellaneous
pieces in the tall cabinet near the entrance. Of special interest is the
article
on ‘The Uses of Bad Art’ by Geoffrey Grigson. It is said that
the painter died
with this paper clutched to his heart.
There are no ‘last words’ recorded of this strange man: though
it is significant
that an envelope filled with cuttings and quotations of famous last words,
was
after found beneath his pillow. In the cabinet can be seen a feeble scrawl
on
blue paper (one of many in the envelope) which says:
‘I have as my guarantee the hatred I bear towards men and towards
our society,
which will last as long as I live.’
Courbet to Bruyas, 1854
This blue scrap was underlined and on the floor; it would not be
over-imaginative to speculate that this indeed was the intended ‘last
word’ of
our hero.
SOME BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Robert Lenkiewicz - Born 1942 - Attended Saint Martin’s School of
Art in London
and the Royal Academy. His Grandfather had been Court Painter to Ludwig
of
Bavaria, and although Lenkiewicz shrugs off this distinguished ancestor
as an
average painter, he presumably inherited something of his skill. Lenkiewicz
is
responsible for painting the now famous Barbican Mural in Plymouth. This
massive
work covers 3,000 sq. ft. and is in the Elizabethan period, with complex
reference to alchemy, Mysticism and Metaphysical thought.
End of Notes
Project 7: Gossip on The Barbican
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"The gossip, man... the gossip!" Hume to Boswell.
This project replaced the painter's intention of proceeding with the two
more
projects 'Love and Humour' and 'Love and Tragedy', which indeed were never
to
come to fruition. Project 7 localised his enquiry into the notion that
'Gossip
was the glue that stuck Society together'. Gossip, Lenkiewicz thought,
was an
entirely aesthetic activity. Indiscretion came second in the race towards
feeling significant in one's immediate environment. But what exactly it
was that
came first was not so easily identified. In a sense this project was a
hint and
precursor to Project 10 on the theme of Self-Portrait.
large number of individuals in the Barbican area, from Community Policeman
to
window-cleaner, sat for Lenkiewicz. The exhibits were coupled with a text,
a
personal view of The Barbican and it's occupants written by each of the
sitters.
Project 7 was the first to be exhibited in the premises now holding his
Libraries.
Project 8: Jealousy
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"..... how can we move a finger to preserve ourselves from death,
in a world
in which love is provoked only by falsehood, and consists merely in our
need
to see our sufferings appeased by the person who has made us suffer?..."
Marcel Proust.
In 1978 Lenkiewicz exhibited his eighth project in the 'Relationships
Series' on
the theme of Jealousy. The original notes were stolen during a lecture
that he
gave, and have never surfaced. His thesis generally, was that Jealousy
takes
three, envy takes two. That 'Jealousy' was a natural disorder brought
about by
aesthetic withdrawal. If the original addiction measured 5% then the withdrawal
would be 5%. If it measured 90% then the withdrawal was 90%.
High level withdrawals, particularly for the young, were very difficult
to deal
with. Lenkiewicz also noted that the vagrant alcoholics he had become
involved
with, had a term that they employed for the third or fourth time they
had
withdrawn from alcohol. They called it a "shit and a shave".
It appeared to be
easier to withdraw as repetition went on. Lenkiewicz wrote,
"Perhaps the 'lover' operated with a similar physiology. The visceral
sensations experienced by the jealous lover, torment and isolate with
remarkable clarity. "
Lenkiewicz did not subscribe to the notion that some people were more
susceptible to jealousy than others, any more than he subscribed to the
notion
that some starving people were more hungry than others. He saw the process
as
purely physiological, and that the loss of certain aesthetic 'packages'
can
create severe, even lethal deprivations. The idea that jealousy is a reaction
to
trespass on property was an inadequate notion. Certain jealousies call
forth
sympathy and others, ridicule.
Clearly jealousy arises when there is a challenge to a special relationship.
But
it becomes clear that the relationship need not be 'special' at all. Entirely
unexpected areas of 'aesthetic addiction' can be called up in an atmosphere
of
loss. The 'Woman walking away' series gave expression to the 'to love
is to live
in fear of loss' thesis. Further enquiries into the bits/sections/parts
of a
partner that elicited passions, clarified the possibility that the partner
was
relevant only in so far as he/she 'sparked off' the long tunnel of aesthetic
addictions the lover has entered. Above all, it seemed to Lenkiewicz that
the
claim that the 'lover' makes on behalf of their partner, viz: that they
are
concerned for their welfare independently of the 'lover's' own needs is
irrationally eccentric.
Images like 'Woman Walking Away', 'Man and Woman Screaming at Memories
in the
Dark', 'Man holding Woman's Dress Watching her Walk Away', 'Her previous
lover
disguised as a curtain, watching her with the new one', ... indicate that
human
viscera has an independent intelligence in these matters. Jealousy was
a study
of physiology in which the power of aesthetics came fully into focus.
Jealousy Project: notes and price list
JEALOUSY
THE FOOL, 7 CLIFTON ST
This is number eight of sixteen sections on the theme: RELATIONSHIPS –
ATTITUDES
TOWARDS LOVE.
Notes on the theme of Jealousy are available at the desk. These will help
clarify ideas and images that are otherwise easily misunderstood.
‘I shall leave the bed as she left it, unmade and disrupted, with
the sheets
tangled, so that the form of her body will remain imprinted beside mine.
Until
tomorrow, I shall not go to the bath, I shall wear no garments and I shall
not
comb my hair lest I efface her caresses. I shall not eat this morning,
nor
this evening, and on my lips I shall put neither rouge nor powder, so
that her
kiss will remain. I shall leave the shutters closed and I shall not open
the
door, lest the lingering memory be carried away by the wind.’
(Chansons de Bilitis, ‘Le passe qui survit’).
Pierre Louys.
... how can we move a finger to preserve ourselves from death, in a world
in
which love is provoked only by falsehood, and consists merely in our need
to
see our sufferings appeased by the person who has made us suffer?
Remembrance of Things Past; The Captive; part one, p. 120.
Marcel Proust.
Love for any one thing is barbaric, for it is exercised at the expense
of
everything else. This includes the love of God.
Aphorism 67. 4th article.
Beyond Good and Evil.
Friedrich Nietzsche.
(Aproximately 76 paintings/drawings accompanied the above project/exhibition)
Project 9: Orgasm
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"Inter faeces et urinam nascimur." (We are born between faeces
and urine.) St.
Augustine.
This project involved a number of cross-referential ideas. Orgasm, sometimes
referred to as 'The Little Death', crosses boundaries without a heart.
The
sexual channels are also the body's sewers. There are unmistakable links
between
excreta, decay and sexuality. Life can be seen as instability and disequilibrium
exhausting it's own resources. It proceeds on one condition; the extravagant
procedure of things given life, making room for fresh cycles.
Lenkiewicz notes:
"...that excitement is death-like, the feeling of losing control,
being swept
off one's feet, the swoon, 'I die because I cannot die', says St. Theresa.
"
In earlier cultures than our own the horror of carrion or decomposition
linked
in a Faustian style with punishment for pleasure. Decomposition was a
sign of
failure, the underlying meaning of the macabre. Baroque Theatre staged
its love
scenes in tombs. The sexual act, like death, could be seen as a transgression
separating us from daily life, from rational society, work, etc.; plunging
us
into a violent otherness. A dictatorship controls the body. The genitalia
acts
on behalf of the whole organism. Orgasm as the release of tension is a
revolution, anarchic and dangerous to the order of the body politic. What
we
desire to possess we fear to lose. The body is never static, it is an
energy
system whose 'reality' does not consist of substances but of events. These
events are aesthetic in their nature. Whatever attraction directs our
energy is
strangely cannibalistic. What we desire is incorporated- seeing is eating.
"This needful, never spent, And nursing element; My more than meat
and drink,
My meal at every wink."
When the Aranda Tribe ask each other: "Have you eaten?" they
mean, "Have you had
intercourse?". The very corpse through which we derive our pleasure
is slowly
consumed, "eaten", by time, sorrow, sickness and death. "You
look good enough to
eat", is autophagy, aesthetic cannibalism. At the risk of stretching
the
metaphor too far, orgasm is the result of 'the vagina' eating 'the penis'.
The
vagina has a boundary, the penis has it's boundary, orgasm dissolves these
boundaries. Only the exaggerations feel true. St. Theresa's remark describes
orgasm far more effectively than Bernini's Vatican statue. Orgasm places
some
part of our consciousness on a tangent to the rest of it; like a moebius
strip,
the circle appears to have two sides, but in fact it only has one. It
is said
that we 'love' in order to defend ourselves from beauty. We cannot escape
our
private aesthetic so we drown in it."
These observations and many others litter Lenkiewicz's notebook on this
theme.
Project 10: Self Portrait
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"The mirror, above all - the mirror is our teacher." Leonardo
da Vinci.
"The things you experience when you are alone are far stronger and
fresher."
Journal, 31 March 1824. Eugene Delacroix.
"They say - and I am very willing to believe it - that it is difficult
to know
yourself - but it isn't easy to paint yourself either." Letter 604
to Theo,
St. Remy. 1889. Vincent Van Gough.
"Every day in the mirror I see death at work." Francis Bacon.
Lenkiewicz has always painted his image in the mirror. In 1978 he noted:
"All paintings are 'self ' portraits, only I do not believe in a
'self '. We
identify an individual by the boundary their body forms, but that is nothing
to do with 'self'. 'Self', like 'Justice', 'Truth', 'Beauty', is poetry."
A large painting titled: The Dead Painter Surrounded by his Children and
Companions, relates a number of formulas to the single theme of ET IN
ARCADIA
EGO. 'I death, am in Arcadia also'. Amongst these formulas are the 'Deposition',
the 'Pieta'; and a number of 'Anatomy Lessons'. The self-portrait in this
picture is a parody of the death of his own mother and a drawing by Andre
Slom
of Courbet on his deathbed. There were further thoughts in relation to
Munch's
Chamber of Death 1892, Daumier's 'We can set that one free, He's no longer
dangerous'. Lenkiewicz wrote:
"They surround me, while I live they will always 'set me free'. It
is
unnecessary to wait for my death, I am given leave to 'die' -within them
-
long before. Dispensability is death. I shall always be dispensable. For
as
long as I 'live' I 'die'."
Lenkiewicz also associated this image with Delacroix's 'The Death of
Sardanapalus' 1827, and Rembrandt's 'Anatomy Lessons' of Tulp and Deyman.
It was
Joseph Wright of Derby's painting, 'A Philosopher giving a Lecture on
the
Orrery' however, that struck Lenkiewicz as an appropriate metaphor. He
had been
taken by Nietzsche's remark from Beyond Good & Evil:
"There are countless dark bodies which must be inferred to lie near
the sun;
we shall never be able to see them. Among ourselves that is a parable;
a moral
psychologist needs the whole language of the stars as only an allegorical
and
symbolic language. Many things can be kept dark with it."
Lenkiewicz's notes continue:
"... Dead but lit by attending candles from my orbit. Each their
own sun,
awaiting their extinguished moment... child-philosophers stare in passionless
silence at my passing."
He quotes Edward Young in 1759:
"Born originals how comes it to pass that we die copies?"
Project 11: Old Age
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"Dying while young, is a boon in old age." Yiddish proverb.
In the late 70's Lenkiewicz was invited by Plymouth Age Concern to give
a talk
on ageing.In order to make his point clearer he had himself disguised
as an
elderly professor. An assistant apologised for Lenkiewicz's absence and
brought
on with wheelchair and bath-rug Professor Jeremy Jacobson from a London
University hospital. Tottering onto the stage (and genuinely unrecognised)
Jacobson/Lenkiewicz delivered a commentary on 'Geriatrics versus Gerontology'.
He ended the talk with a vitriolic rush of quotations from saints and
sages of
western culture, illustrating that there was no such thing as a 'green
old age'.
"We harden in some places
and rot in others; we never a ripen." Sainte-Beauve.
"So you managed then, you got by somehow or other? Let somebody else
do as
much without breaking his neck." Goethe. "I am a disgusting
object; the flies,
oh these flies, they smell a corpse." Renoir. "The strange thing
about growing
old is that the intimate identification with the here and now is slowly
lost;
alone, no hope, no fear, only observation." Einstein. "An armour
of
insensitivity is slowly forming around me; I observe it, I do not complain
of
it. It is a natural evolution, a way of beginning to become inorganic.
It is
what I believe they call 'the detachment proper to old age.' I still cannot
get used to the grief and afflictions of old age, and I look forward with
longing to the journey into the void." Freud. "In the 'monuments
to the dead'
that stud my history, it is I who am buried." Simone de Beauvoir.
"My diseases
are an asthma and a dropsy, and what is less curable, 75 years."
Dr. Johnson.
"You have my acutest sympathy for what you delicately call the 'nuisance
of
growing old'. A train has to stop at some station or other I only wish
it
wasn't such a ugly and lonesome place, don't you?" Rudyard Kipling.
"An old
man's memories are like ants whose ant-hill has been destroyed, one's
eyes
cannot follow any single one of them for long." Mauriac. "There
is only one
irreparable and cruel evil in life - old age. Life is unbearable and the
void
is all I hunger and thirst for." Anatole France. "My past escapes
me. I tug at
one end, I tug at the other, and all that stays in my hand is a rotten
scrap
of fraying cloth. Everything turns into a ghost or a lie." Emmanuel
Berl.
"Life is like a play, acted at first by live actors and then finished
by
automata wearing the same costumes." Schopenhauer. "The heart
does not grow
old, but it is sad to dwell among ruins." Voltaire.
In conclusion, Lenkiewicz removed his make-up, put aside his walking stick
and
stood up straight, to find himself the most unpopular lecturer Plymouth
Age
Concern had ever invited. The project consisted of a large number of ironic
images as well as many studies of centenarians, ranging from 100 to 113
years
old. McVities decided as a mark of respect, to give to the 113 year old
lady, a
packet of biscuits for every day that she remained alive. She was dead
in a
fortnight. Lenkiewicz was brought up in an old age home and thought it
a moving
and salutary experience. It would however, be difficult to dissuade him
from the
notion that ageing is poor coinage compared with youth and middle age.
Project 12: Suicide
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"Everywhere there were people living out their lives using aspects
of suicide
against themselves. They did not even have the authenticity of the final
act
to speak for them. Suicide is, in short, the one continuous, everyday,
ever-persistent problem of living. It is a question of degree. I' seen
the all
in varying stages of development and despair. the failed lawyer, the cynical
doctor, the depressed housewife, the angry teenager... all of mankind
engaged
in the massive conspiracy against their own lives that is their daily
activity. The meaning of suicide, the true meaning, had yet to be defined,
had
yet to be created in the broad dimensions it deserved." Daniel Stern.
The room on 'Death' in Lenkiewicz's Library has a large section devoted
to the
subject of Suicide. He had studied this material for some time, and subscribed
more or less entirely to views like those of Daniel Stern. Lenkiewicz
found the
whole issue the most compelling of subjects. Viewing life as a tragedy
on the
grand scale, and well aware that people can suffer, he explored this theme
with
the intention that he might re-explore it every ten years or so. Suicide
raises
such harrowing ironies both for the perpetrator as well as the witness,
that
even the casual observer is haunted to the quick by it.
Some social activities immensely popular in a wide range of cultures,
eg.
marriage and the family are viewed by Lenkiewicz as suicide techniques.
He feels
strongly about this and a number of the images in this project relate
to the
misery people inflict upon each other in short or long term relationships.
Depression locks its sufferer into a cage through which one can neither
see out
of nor in to. It is, in a sense, the psychic equivalent of black holes
in space.
Great pain leads to silence. Except for suicide, silence is the most extreme
form of revolt. As Kierkegaard has observed, whether one does or does
not think
about despair one musters:
". . . everything to re-explain and explain away entrance and exit,
simply
lost in the interval between the birth-cry... and the death struggle."
What interested Lenkiewicz in this project was the notion that suicide
was
murder through mistaken identity; that the suicide may not be motivated
towards
his personal extinction but rather, he wishes to annihilate the world.
Psychology has a great deal to say about this; but how interesting it
is that we
live so irrationally and insist that suicide cannot be rational. The complex
issue of euthanasia will raise its head again and again until it is no
longer
unlawful. When that day comes, suicide as a whole will become far more
acceptable.
Suicide Project: notes
Everywhere there were people living out their lives using aspects of suicide
against themselves. They did not even have the authenticity of the final
act to
speak for them. Suicide is, in short, the one continuous, everyday, ever-present
problem of living. It is a question of degree. I’d seen them in
all varying
stages of development and despair. The failed lawyer, the cynical doctor,
the
depressed housewife, the angry teenager... all of mankind engaged in the
massive
conspiracy against their own lives that is their daily activity. The meaning
of
suicide, the true meaning, had yet to be defined, had yet to be created
in the
broad dimensions it deserved.
DANIEL STERN
Project 13: Still Lives
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
This was a smaller project, and like a number of other projects not all
the work
was completed or exhibited. Lenkiewicz wrote:
"The inert, the inanimate, is a metaphor for silence. It began with
empty
chairs, presence and absence. Paintings are still-lives."
He continued:
"Children vitalise the inanimate in a thousand ways; that pullover
dark
against the back of the door, the door handle, yes it is moving, that
lightbulb, that shadow. This remains with us; anything stared at long
enough
springs to life."
Project 14: The Painter With Mary
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"In all great deceivers a remarkable process is at work, to which
they owe
their power. In the very act of deception with all its preparations, the
dreadful voice and face and gestures, amid the whole effective scenario
they
are overcome by their belief in themselves which then speaks so miraculously,
so persuasively, to their audience... For men believe in the truth of
all that
is seen to be firmly believed." Nietzsche.
This project involved an unusually intense relationship between the painter
and
'another person'. More accurately, this project involved an unusually
intense
relationship between the painter and himself. More accurately still, this
project involved an unusually intense relationship between the painter
and some
aspect of 'aesthetic fascism'.
Lenkiewicz would meet Mary like clockwork at the Coop cafe. He would run
back to
the studio and immediately record with eccentric subjectivity a series
of notes,
written and visual, attempting to illustrate as incisively as he could
the
precise sensation, physiologically, of what had characterised the meeting.
A
sense of distance, an erotic innuendo - or was it? A twinge of jealousy,
the
closeness of the wall to the left of his head contrasting with the great
space
to his right. The sound of her voice, the way he felt he could balance
on one
leg on the end part of her laugh, the movements of her mouth, the flow
of blouse
against the curve of breast. Her running down the stairs with a black
flapping
coat, the rain outside, the fatigue of the waitress.... and on and on
it went.
Every transitory trivia, page after page, attempting to trap moments with
the
old familiar visceral smile.
All this led to a decision to present a complete project on The Painter
with
Mary. What became clear to Lenkiewicz was that it had nothing to do with
Mary;
she was to remain a mystery, as all 'others' are mysteries. What did become
clear was that the painters' relationship with his own aesthetic vulnerability
-
known as Mary - was more likely to be a pot pourri of earlier memories
kicked
into touch by the sighting of 'a person'; with full mouth, blond hair,
tall,
slender, long-waisted, and entirely indifferent to him. An unrequited
energy is
the life-blood of creativity. Transcribing these impulses became a sacrificial
act, a clear crisp methodology for imposing himself upon himself. It was
like a
'scientific discovery', it could haunt the mind for its own sake, nothing
to do
with the 'other'. The notes were not shown or shared, at least, rarely
so.
Lenkiewicz found an 'idea' like a 'person' cannot be fixed, he could record
only
the passing by of things, and that rather poorly. The situation indicated
that
absorption, fanaticism, obsessive behaviour, lead to the same futility
as
ideological convictions. Indeed the project became a crossroad in Lenkiewicz's
work, with the understanding that relationships do not solve the problem
of
existence.
(Aproximately 72 paintings/drawings accompanied the 'Painter with Mary'
exhibition)
NOTE
The next project is on the theme of Death. If there is anyone you know
who is
dying and would be willing to pose for a study please in form the painter.
The
exhibition will be opened in July 1982.
Project 15: Death
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"We must either outlive our friends, or our friends must outlive
us, and I see
few men who would hesitate about the choice." Dr. Johnson.
On Thursday February 11th 1982, an article by Lenkiewicz titled 'The Changing
Pattern of Dying' was published in The Western Evening Herald. It was
a survey
of Western attitudes towards dying from the 12th Century to the present.
The
observations were, to a large degree, based on ideas presented by Professor
Edwin Shneidman and Dr. Phillipe Aries. The article concluded with a request
that any dying reader might offer themselves as a sitter for Project 15.
A
number of 'for and against' letters were published in the following days,
in the
same newspaper, giving some indication of the climate of views on this
subject.
Individuals who were dying did agree to sit for Lenkiewicz with startling
and
varied attitudes. Parallel with these works were paintings of Doctors
and
Surgeons; "I tend to deal with survival rather than death; but I
daresay I've
killed a few in my time... regrettable." "Doctor, doctor must
I die? Yes my dear
and so must I" A number of Clergy, Priests, Bishops; "You would
embarrass me
greatly if you pursued this matter." (Clergyman's response to request
for
displaying painting in Project 15.)
Funeral and Burial representatives. Above all, however, the individual
sitters
who were dying; " I don't know, tell me dear, is it three or four
months that I
have to live?", "I'm not sure dear, I think it's three."
(Husband and wife in
conversation.)
Their unsentimental acceptance of what had inevitably arrived became the
basis
for fascinating and humane conversation. Lenkiewicz noted:
"One may anticipate, but never fully experience death; it is in the
nature of
this anxiety that it can never be stimulated by a 'fully rounded' danger,
as
it is unlikely that there will be opportunity for 'postreflection'."
Throughout this project Lenkiewicz had done a great deal of reading on
this
theme and was frequently reminded of Walter Kaufmann's thesis that:
"Freedom from fear is a pipe dream as long as one fears death. "
Project 16: Sexual Behaviour
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
In 1983 Lenkiewicz exhibited Project 16. This project attempted to survey
as
wide a range as possible of human activities relating to sexual behaviour.
He
attempted to do this seriously without attention to the law. As the show
was
presented he was asked by the Council and the Police to warn visitors,
"Local
Authority regard this project as unsuitable for those under eighteen,
this is
not the painter's opinion". It seemed extraordinary to Lenkiewicz
that sexual
proclivities active all day and all night in the private lives of the
complainees should become an issue in law. The policeman who removed a
painting
on masturbation admitted that he masturbated. The Council representative
who
restricted imagery connected with prostitution was friendly with the
prostitutes. Heterosexual behaviour, homosexual behaviour, auto-erotic
behaviour, bestiality, even necrophilia are commonplace in our society
and most
societies, and characterise more than 50% of all human entertainments.
It is
interesting that when the authorities visited the Exhibition to consider
closure, the paedophilia section went entirely unnoticed. The local reaction
to
the project was of far greater interest and stimulation in Lenkiewicz's
view
than the project itself and much more revelatory.
The project attempted to demonstrate that there was no end to human creativity,
that loneliness combined with human passion could animate a hoover to
far more
gratifying potentials than one's wife. The project seemed to indicate
that all
sexual behaviour was auto-erotic, from marriage partners to strangers'
underwear. It seemed an inherent and terrible isolation lay just under
the
surface of some of the most powerful desires to consult with and connect
to the
world around us. Auto-erotic activity finds itself its own reward, such
as it
is. It has little to do with the subtler aspects of human relationships
and
claims for the credibility of 'the other'.
Project 17: Observations on Local Education
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"When we try to examine the mirror in itself we eventually detect
nothing but
the thing reflected by it. When we wish to grasp the things reflected,
we
touch nothing but the mirror. This is the general history of knowledge."
The
Dawn of Day; fourth book, 243. Nietzsche.
In 1988 Lenkiewicz exhibited 150 paintings on the theme of Education.
There were
over 500 sitters ranging from the Chief Education Officer to lavatory
attendants. He edited two large volumes where each of the sitters wrote
1000
words or more on their feelings about education. These books were introduced
by
a series of observations written by Michael Duane, Headmaster of Rising
Hill
School in London. Duane was one of the few sitters with a deeply child-centred
instinct. In different ways other sitters that Lenkiewicz had the privilege
to
work with; Dr. Reuven Feuerstein, Dora Russell, Colin Wilson, Ivor D.
Eliot,
shared this quality but it was rare. Lenkiewicz wrote:
"Education, as we experience it in 'civilised' societies, is primarily
concerned with the linking of human behaviour to commercial enterprise
... the
conscription character of schooling, the effects of isolation amongst
large
numbers of other people, examinations, and destructive forms of competition,
are patterns of control. Sensuality, energy and amoral curiosity frighten
the
adult, and the adult will fear the child."
Some of the canvasses were huge; The Blind Leading the Blind, Caritas
Romanus,
Staff at The Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Straitjacketed Girls-
former
pupils, Public High for Girls, Ivor D. Eliot with a group of children
at
Ilfracombe School working with 'Philosophy for Children', Triptych: The
Massacre
of the Innocents (the left and right panels depicting Saint Vocation and
Saint
Myopia). One of the largest, The Deposition- The Burial of Education,
based on
Mahler's Songs on The Death of Children, shows the painter wrapped in
a union
jack, lowering a dying child in the format of E1 Greco's Burial of Count
Orgaz.
Lenkiewicz noted a conversation with an explorer who asked a young boy
in the
Amazon to point out his father from among the tribes people, the boy slapped
the
man's face and with offended passion said, "I belong to no-one, at
this moment
you are my father." Lenkiewicz writes,
"The young persons sensitivity to example is immeasurable. A parent
or mentor
whose creative life is passionless, dulled and uninspired, will have great
difficulty in valuing themselves... We do not value another person by
feeling
superior or inferior to them. That is the straight road to fascism. That
we
may mean the young harm is a very unattractive thought, but refutation
is
tenuous when we observe our schooling procedures. "
He concluded his remarks in the catalogue to the Exhibition with the observation
that:
"I barely recollect a moments depression in my life and I am certainly
of an
optimistic nature. The projects that I work on are academic surveys of
aspects
of human behaviour. They attempt to assimilate information impartially.
Of the
17 large projects I have worked on in recent years, this one on the theme
of
Education has been the least salutary and the most sinister and depressing."
Observations on Local Education: project list
JOHN D WOODFIELD. Former Headteacher, Carbeile County
Primary school , Torpoint, Cornwall,Present violin and bow maker and
Musical Director of the Rame Peninsula Male Voice Choir.
Dr P.A.H. SEYMOUR Principal lecturer in Astronomy and Director of the
William
Day Planetarium.
‘PIGGY-BACK FIGHT’.
MARK PIERCE Former pupil, Manor Junior School Ivybridge.
ANNE WOODCOCK Former Senior District Health Education Officer, Plymouth.
Presently at Scarborough.
COMMITTEE
MEMBERS OF THE PLYMOUTH BRANCH WORKERS EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. Right
to left: foreground JILL WARD Former secretary for W.E.A. Present
student; Exeter University, Law and Society. Mrs P. McCARTHY GEORGE
HATHERLY Former Chairman FRANK McLEAN West Devon Tutor Organiser
CHRISTINE MANGER Former Deputy Head TOM WATSON Current Chairman. Left
to right: back row KEN CLARK Hon. Treasurer JOHN WOOD Electronic
Engineer-Marine Biology TESSA THOMAS ANDREW NELSON Mr PASKINS Dr PERCY
SEYMOUR Principal Lecturer in Astronomy.
REV. Brother C.J. SREENAN Former Headmaster St Boniface School.
MARIANNE
TIERNEY Former Assistant Teacher; Department of English. Southway
School. Present Deputy Manager for long-term unemployed RACHELTIERNEY
Former pupil Southway School. Present Chief Assistant , Hoopers Turf
Accountants Head Office.
JUDY SPIERS with GUS HONEYBUN Television Presenter and entertainer.
ANNE CLIEFE Supply Teacher.
DIANE COLLINSON Faculty of Arts; The Open University.
SUZANNE CALEY Parent - working with Young Offenders and Training Schemes.
KAY JARDINE Student, B.A. (Hons) Social Policy and Administration and
Diploma
in Community Work.
AUDREY CLAYTON Former Headmistress Devonport High School for Girls.
MARGARET
ROGERS Former Head Of Education Maria Grey College. Former Chair: Devon
Education Committee. Present Alliance Spokesperson for Education.
MARK VAUGHAN Founder of: Centre for Studies on
Integration in Education (CSIE) Former worker, Advisory Centre for
Education (ACE) Former Deputy News Editor. Times Educational
Supplement.
JOSLYN OWEN C.B.E. Chief Education Officer.
LESLIE
PAUL Former member of the Plymouth Education Committee for 30 years,
and Chairman for its final eight years. Senior Past Lord Mayor; Hon
Freeman of the City.
TED PINNEY O.B.E. Former Chairman of the Education Committee; Present
Leader
of the Conservative Group, Devon County Council.
COMMITTEE
MEMBERS OF THE PLYMOUTH NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS. Left to right:-
AGNES ROGERS Headteacher Hyde Park Infants VAL TINDALL Deputy Head
Burleigh Secondary SUE LEONARD Senior Mistress Longcause School JOHN
LEONARD Headteacher Bane Barton Primary School PAUL MATHEWS
Instrumental and String Teacher West Devon. LYN HESELTON Teacher, Laira
Green Primary. Former President Plymouth N.U.T. ANNE ROCHESTER Teacher,
Hyde Park Infants. IVAN JEFFERSON Former Assistant Master, Plympton
Grammar School. Present Hele’s School Plympton. MARGARET BATE Head
Teacher Salisbury Road Infant. Former Devon County President, N.U.T.
TUTORS AND STAFF OF THE PLYMOUTH BRANCH OPEN UNIVERSITY
RAY MORGAN Staff Tutor-- Technology Prof; J.E.PHYTHIAN Staff Tutor
Mathematics ROGER B. BECK Staff Tutor - Science MAGGIE OVENDEN Chief
Clerk LAN GOODFELLOW Senior Councellor DIANE COLLINSON Staff Tutor -
Faculty of Arts Dr RUDI DALLOS Staff Tutor- Psychology Dr A.THOMAS
Staff Tutor- School of Education VERA N.BAILEY Secretary to the Senior
Counsellor.
MAURICE HOLT. M.A. M.ed.Ph.D. Writer and Lecturer on Education; College
of St
Mark and St John.
JOHN WRIGHT. M.A. Area Education Officer West Devon.
PHILIP TILDEN Pupil , Plymouth College.
SYD Sniffing Glue.
COUNCILLOR
RALPH VERNON MORRELL Chairman of Governors College of Further Education
Chairman of Governors College of Art and Design Chairman of Board of
Directors, Theatre Royal.
JACQUI CARREL Supply Teacher.
ZELDA HILL
Former pupil , Devonport County Secondary School; Wells Cathedral
School; Devonport High School for Girls. Dartington College. Present
accepted Exhibition Scholar undergraduate Royal Academy of Music. Aged
Sixteen.
MARGARET DONCASTER Former Principal Lecturer (Education, Children with
Special
Needs).College of St Mark and St John.
Dr MICHAEL ROBBINS. C.B.E. Director. Plymouth Polytechnic.
W.B.FOSTER. Principal. College of Further Education.
DAVID OWEN County Advisor for Primary Mathematics.
Dr GEORGE CHRYSSIDES Senior Lecturer in Philosophy. Plymouth Polytechnic.
MIKE BRINDLEY Principal of the Plymouth College of Art and Design.
DEREK CLOKE Warden. Plymouth Teachers’ Centre.
Dr ADRIAN THATCHER Head of Religious Studies and Philosophy. College of
St
Mark and St John.
ROY LEVACK Senior Lecturer in Mechanical and Production Engineering. College
of Further Education.
DAVID STANBURY. M.A. Chairman, West Devon Area Education Advisory Committee.
Social Democratic Party Education Spokesman.
PREBENDARY NORMAN DAVEY Director of Education of the Diocese of Exeter.
BELLE PECORINI and HAYYAM on the moor.
TOMMY VOSPER HANGED Former pupil, Devonport High School for Boys.
ADRIAN ROMILLY.B,Sc.M. Senior Lecturer, Department of Mathematics and
Statistics.
ALAN PHILLIPS Senior Lecturer; School of Architecture.
STAFF
OF PILGRIM PRIMARY SCHOOL. Left to right:- DAVE HORN Community Worker
AVA SHANNON Pupil RUTH HARVEY Pupil JUDITH DAWSON Special needs
co-ordinator SHJELA STEVENS Co-ordinator of infants department and
school resources KIETH LOZE Deputy Head; Environmental Studies SOPHIE
SHANNON Pupil JEAN HOLSEN Infant Assistant JOHN PUGH Former Headmaster
MARJORIE WATSON Teacher, Science Development at infant level DAVID HILL
Teacher with responsibilities for language development, computer
studies and in-service organisation ROBIN HOLWILL Pupil P.C. RICHARD
HOILE Community Policeman Mrs KNOTT Cook in Charge ANNE DEMERANVLLLE
Former Chairperson School Governors.
YVONNE BLUMENKHAL, NATASHA and ASHLEY.
WENDY CLAY Community Development Worker, Devonport Plymouth Community
Development Association. The DART Project. Devonport.
GORDON WALLACE Former Deputy Head, Tavistock School.
ROSALYN AND DAVID NEWNS with NICHOLAS and ALLISON.
MALCOLM BALDWIN Former student, College of Further Education.
HEAD
TEACHERS OF PRIMARY AND JUNIOR SCHOOLS, PLYMOUTH AREA. Standing; left
to right; MANFRED KEMNER St. George’s C.E. Primary A.S. School,
Stonehouse Seated; left to right: J.O.WHITNALL Leigham County Infants
School BRENDA JONES Victoria Road Infants School K. EDMONDS Goosewell
Junior School A. MULLAN Plympton St. Maurice Junior School NORMAN WATTS
Montpelier Junior School ANTHONY G.A.WATES Tavistock County Primary
School R.A.PERRY Woodfield Primary School W.R.PRIDIE Compton C of E
Primary School VALERIE HARMAN Chaddlewood Junior School.
STAFF AND PUPILS OF NOTRE DAME COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL.
Left to right: JAMIE GRECO Former Pupil , St.Boniface School. Present
Student,College of Further Education. COLIN WOODMAN. Teacher of
History. LYDIA LIBBY. Pupil. EMMA BOLANGARO. Pupil. SIMON LOBB. Lydia’s
male associate. KATHLEEN HARLAND. Former Teacher, History and English.
SISTER MARIE NUGENT. Former Sister Superior of Notre Dame Convent.
SISTER KATHLEEN BULLEY Headteacher. LAURI LIBBY. Former Head Girl.
SARAH CONNOLLY. Former Deputy Head Girl. Present Display Team Leader
for Woolworth. ESTHER TILLS. Pupil. INGRES LOUISA LIBBY. Former Pupil.
B.A. in HUMANITIES; RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY. GROUP.
COLLEGE OF ST. MARK and St. JOHN. Left to right:- LUCY HANNAN Student.
MARIA JOHNSON Student. ANDREW MICHAEL LUCAS ‘LUKE’. Student.
SUSAN
AVENT. Student. Dr JIM LITTLE. Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and
Philosophy. MARIE DOWNES. Student. ELIZABETH K. FREDERICK. Student.
LORRI BEIN. U.S. exchange Student. MARJORIE KYLE PALLA. U.S. exchange
Student. PETER KNOWLES South relawney Primary School ANTHONY LUSCOMBE
Widewell Primary School KIETH RICHARDSON Mount Wise Primary School.
KAREN CIAMBRIELLO with MERCEDES, BIANCA, JOE and the painter.
ZELDA
HILL WITH TEACHERS AND ADVISORS. Standing: left to right: KIETH SMITH.
Director of Music, Plymouth College Preparatory School. JOHN FORSTER.
Senior Area Music Tutor. DENISE BOWDEN. Viola Tutor with Devon County
Council. IAN WESTON. Former Music Teacher, Devonport Secondary; Present
Music Teacher, Mount Tamar Special School.St. Budeaux. Seated:- ZELDA
HILL. Former Pupil, Devonport County Secondary School; Wells Cathedral
School; Devonport High School for Girls; Dartington College. Present
accepted Exhibition Scholar undergraduate Royal Academy of Music. Aged
sixteen. H.W.WORRALL. Headmaster, Devonport County Secondary.
ROBBOBPISSITUPJIMROLLUPSCRAPMETALHEAD WITH TINS OF GLUE.
B.A.
RECREATION AND COMMUNITY STUDIES GROUP; COLLEGE OF St. MARK and
St.JOHN. Left to right: MANDY CURRY. Student. PAUL HOLROYD. Student.
ANTHEA EVENS. Student. SANDRA GINN. Student. TAMSIN ALSTON. Student
GARTH ALLEN. Head of Applied Social Sciences. ALAN ‘TAFF’
THOMAS.
Student. FRANCES IMBERT TERRY. Student.
M.E.CADDY. Headteacher; Eggbuckland School.
DAVID GRIBBLE. Former teacher, Dartington School. Present Head, The Sands
School, Totnes.
JEFF STRATTON. Headteacher, Barne Barton Secondary School.
ERNEST GODDARD. Headmaster, Southway School.
W.I.HARRIS. O.B.E. Headmaster, Coombe Dean School.
DORA
RUSSELL; Campaigner for Peace, Womens’ Rights; Authoress and Traveller.
Founder of Beacon Hill School with Bertrand Russell.
MICHAEL DUANE WITH HIS GRANDCHILDREN. Former Headteacher; Risinghill School.
“Pragmatic Anarchist”.
COLIN
WILSON AND MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY. Writer. Standing; left to right:-
DAMON, SALLY, RODERICK. Seated:- BARRY, ROWAN, ‘HATTIE’, JOY,
and
COLIN.
IAN GALLACHER. Dip.Ed. Headmaster; Honicknowle County Secondary School.
Now
working as a free-lance writer.
RON
GODFREY. Former Headteacher; Prince Rock Secondary. Present Senior
Master, General Management Committee, and Maths Teacher; Lipson School.
ROGER DESBOROUGH. Headmaster ;Kings Tamerton School. (Soon to be called
Tamar
Side).
JOHN LIGHT. Former Head, Ford School. Present Head of Hackney Free and
Parochial Secondary School.
BRIAN HALL. Former Teacher in Charge of Commercial Studies; Southway School.
ANTHONY M.JOYCE. Headmaster; Plymouth College.
JOHN ANDERSON. Principal of the College of St.Mark and St. John.
ANTHONY LOOSMORE. Headmaster; Estover School.
JACK
JONES. Deputy Head; Plym View Primary School.Deputy Leader of the
Labour Group, Plymouth City Council. Plymouth City Councillor, West
Devon Education Committee; Governor Southway School, Tamerton Vale
Primary, Langley Infant School and Langley Junior School.
ROGER TILBURY. Former Joint-Headmaster; Dartington Hall School.
RICHARD ALLMAN. Warden; Swarthmore Adult Education Centre.
GRAHAM THOMAS. Former Co-ordinator for Personal and Social Education,
Southway
School. Present Senior Teacher, Estover School.
R.T.CLEMENT. County Advisor for Art and Design.
ANTHONY R. LB FLEMING. County Music Advisor for Devon. Free-lance Composer,
Conductor and Pianist.
CLIFF
HARRIS. Head of Year; Southway School. Researching into Records of
Achievement, Bath University; formerly, Teacher of Social Education.
Professor B.C. WRAGG. Director of School of Education,
Exeter University. Chairman, Educational Broadcasting Council for the
UK, 1987-88.
EDWARD FRY. Dip.Ed. (Remedial and Special Education).
Headmaster; Hillside Secondary School for Pupils with Moderate Learning
Difficulties. Former Member of the National Committee of the National
Council for Special Education.
C.D.MURPHY. M.Sc. Psychologist.
BILL
DUFTON. Former Head of Environmental Science, Sothway School; and
School Governor. Former Officer, Devon National Union of Teachers.
MARK COUCHMAN. Head of Computer Studies; Widey High.
Dr LUDMILLA RICK WOOD. Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology,
Plymouth Polytechnic.
Dr PHILIP STOKES. Senior Lecturer at the Department of Visual Communication;
Trent Polytechnic.
DAVID KING. Former Deputy Head; Montpelier Junior School, and Warden of
Plymouth Teachers’ Centre.
JOHN COLLINS. County Advisor for Secondary Mathematics.
CYRIL MEEK. County Advisor for Physical Education.
PETER LOVE. Principal Educational Psychologist. Senior Advisor (Special
Education).
JOHN MEAD. M.A. Former Headteacher; Laira Green Secondary School. Present
Advisory Teacher for History, for Devon County.
ANDREW
BEBB. M.Th. Former Head of the Department of Religion and Philosophy;
College of St. Mark and St. John. Present Head of Divinity at the
Liverpool Institute of Higher Education.
WALTER ALLEN. Teacher of English, The Ridgeway School, Plympton. Musician.
MICHAEL E. HYLAND, Ph.D. Psychologist.
E.C. JAMES. Educational Psychologist.
LIZ WITH HER SON PAUL.
DONNA AND ANDREA EDWARDS. Former Pupils, Montpelier Primary School.
B.T.HALL. BSc. Headmaster; Hele’s School.
JOHN POPPLESTONE. Former Headmaster; Ernesettle Secondary School.
NICHOLAS
MILES KIRKE, with Badger the Dog ALEXIS JOHN KIRKE. Pupil Plymouth
College NICHOLAS JAROFLAV KIRKE Pupil Plymouth College.
PETER BARTON, WIFE AND CHILDREN.
ROY STICKLAND. Former Headmaster; Charles C of B Secondary School.
HUGH JORY. Former Teacher.
G.
LARBALESTIER. Senior Lecturer in Genetics, Plymouth Polytechnic. JILL
LARBALESTIER. Practice Nurse. MICHAEL LARBALESTIER. Student. ANDREW
LARBALESTIER. Former Pupil, Devonport High School for Boys.
LEE CHRISTOPHER JOSEPH ARKINS. Pupil Eggbuckland School.
KELLY LOUISE ANNE ARKINS. Former Pupil, Austin Farm Primary. Present
Pupil, Eggbuckland School.
TRIPTYCH. THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS. Right-hand panel depicts St.
Vocation. Left-hand panel depicts St. Myopia.
Dr
REUVEN FEUERSTEIN. Psychologist. Formulator of theories and remedial
techniques – collectively called Instrumental Enrichment, (IE).
IVOR D.ELLIOTT WITH A GROUP OF CHILDREN AT ILFRACOMBE SCHOOL WORKING WITH
‘PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN’.
WEST
DEVON AREA EDUCATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE. Left to right: COUNCILLOR
M.G.HUGHES. Former Plymouth Councilor on the Education Committee and
Community Education Committee; present Chairman of East Plymouth
Community Education Team Management Committee. COUNCILLOR REG CURRY.
Former Leader of the Devon County Council Labour Group; Principal
Spokesman on Education for the Devon County Council Labour Party Group.
Now City Alderman. Dr VERNON WILLIAMS. B.A.(Ed.) B.Sc.; Ph.D.; F.R.G.S.
Deputy Principal, College of St. Mark and St. John. Former Chairman of
the West Devon Area Advisory Committee. COUNCILLOR STEPHEN HOLE. Devon
County Councilor. Member of Education Committee and associated
Committees. COUNCILLOR CONNIE PASCOE. Vice Chairman Youth and Community
Education Sub-Committee, Devon County Council. City Council
Representative on Western Area Advisory Committee. Conservative
Spokesman for Education Matters. COUNCILLOR DAVID KNOTT. Labour Devon
County Councilor, and Plymouth Labour Member of Devon Education
Committee. COUNCILLOR JOHN ARNAUD. Former Devon County Councilor and
Member of Plymouth Advisory Education Committee. (This painting is
related to The sampling officials of the drapers’ guild, known as
THE
SYNDICS; painted by Rembrandt in 1661-62. The painting depicts the
syndics who held office from Good Friday to Good Friday. The function
of the syndics was to view cloth hung for inspection. These five cloth
wardens, (staalmeesters; sample-masters), regulated the quality of the
cloth sold in the city, and the book in front of the chairman is
probably the sample book against which the cloth to be inspected was
checked. It is known that Rembrandt had drawn upon compositional
elements of Leonardo’s Last Supper for his painting, which now hangs
in
the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.)
MEMBERS OF THE PLYMOUTH ARTS CENTRE COMMITTEE AND STAFF
Left to right: PETER RICHES. Head of Creative Studies Faculty;
Eggbuckland School. MICHAEL ROSE. Former Film Co-ordinator. COLIN DAMP.
Former Publicity Officer. PATRICIA AVERY. Visitor. DONALD KING. Former
Hon. Treasurer. Head of Business Studies; Plymouth Polytechnic. ANNE
GILL. Volunteer. JILL WARD. Former Secretary; Plymouth Arts Centre
Committee. ALISON TORAFTER. Volunteer. JANE MELVIN. Former Book-Keeper.
DOUGLAS COLTON. Founder Member, Plymouth Arts Centre, liaising between
the Unions and the Arts. LORRAINE PEARCE. Volunteer. SUE HOR WOOD.
Volunteer. Foreground:- BERNARD SAMUELS. Director: Plymouth Arts
Centre.
CARITAS ROMANA. The painter
with Janine Pecorini. The
strange legend which Renaissance Humanists called Caritas Romana, tells
the story of a Roman General, who though honourable, was a political
inconvenience. He was imprisoned for a false crime, and left to die of
starvation. The goalers were unable to understand his survival until
they came upon him being breast-fed by his visiting daughter. Moved by
this example of filial virtue they released the General. Post
Krafft-Ebing and Freud Western psychology however casts quite a
different aura on the image of a young person breast feeding an older
person. Incestuous desire to gerontophilia; infantile oral sexuality to
sado-masochism, are common interpretations of what was once a Classical
high-minded and edifying drama. This painting has also in mind the
striking illustration found in a remarkable alchemical book of emblems
by Michael Maier (a seventeenth century court physician to Emperor
Rudolph II), called Atalanta Fugiens. Emblem II :“Nutrix eius Terra
est”, - Its Nurse is the Earth - depicts a globe-woman suckling
a
child. By her side Romulus is nursed by a wolf, and Jupiter by a goat.
The Epigram closes with the observation:- If an insignificant animal
nursed such great heroes, Shall he not be great, who has the
Terrestrial Globe as a nurse. These two formulas refer to the idea that
knowledge/milk, can be drawn out/educare, by people of all ages.
STAFF AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RUDOLPH STEINER
SCHOOLS; PLYMOUTH/TOTNES. Left to right:- CHRISTOPHER COOPER. Modern
Language Lecturer, Rudolph Steiner School. NORA THOMAS. Co-Founder,
Plymouth Rudolph Steiner Kindergarten. State trained teacher. Former
Headteacher; Stoke Dameral Infants. JEAN HATHERLEY. Hon-Secretary and
FounderMember of Plymouth Rudolph Steiner Kindergarten. MARGOT COOPER.
Eurythmist and painter. STEVEN LINTELL. Aged three and a half. JOHN
BENIONS. Fifty years a Steiner Teacher. One of the Founder Members of
Wynstones, Gloucester. ELIZABETH GOOD. Aged four yeas.
ANTONIAMELVYN. Former Plymouth Welfare Information Project Co-ordinator.
D.V.G.WILLIAMS. Former Teacher, Design and Technology. Metalwork and
Techdrawing.
ROY VICARY. Chairman, Plymouth and District Branch of Conservation Society.
FORMER
SUPPORTERS OF MILITANT/SOCIALIST IDEAS: PLYMOUTH. Left to right:- DEAN
RYLAND. RACHEL HARRIS. Now in North America promoting Socialist ideas.
WILLIAM ANTHONY HARVEY. KEN. CAROLINE LEYSHAM. EVE BE VAN. SIMON
LANGDON. DANNY MORRIS. LINDSY. SUE INCH Foreground:- LIZ MORRIS with
ZUSKA.
CON MURPHY. Former Headteacher; Crownhill Secondary
School; 1975-1983. Co-ordinator, the Ten Schools Professional
Programme; 1983-1987.
KIETH and LYNDA WILLIAMS with JUSTIN.
CHRIS
KELLY. Former pupil; Devonport High School for Boys. Present student,
B.A. Film, Video and Photographic Arts, Polytechnic, Central London.
DAVID S. COUSENS. Teacher of Craft, Design and Technology. Estover School.
BARBARA GEDDES. Headteacher; Lipson School.
ROBIN LORAN. B.Sc. M.Phil. Senior Lecturer in Mathematics; Plymouth
Polytechnic.
JOHN KALER. Senior Lecturer, Humanities, Plymouth Polytechnic.
THE FIGHT.
MANAGING
DIRECTORS - PLYMOUTH. Left to right:- EDDIE BELK. Former Manager;
Midland Bank. Former Chairman; Young Enterprise. DAVID JOHNSTON. Former
Managing Director; Devonport Dockyard. PETER SELDEN. Managing Director;
Interlube Systems Ltd. LORNA SEWELL. Managing Director. Louis F. Paul
Ltd.Wholesale Newspaper Distributors. NORMAN PROCTOR. Former Managing
Director of a Tecalemit Group Company. Governor, College of Further
Education. Management Consultant. PETER NELSON WOOD. Former Director,
Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and Industry; 1980-87. Former Secretary to
the Area Board: Young Enterprise. 1980- 87. Present Member of Plymouth
City Council. Governor; College of Further Education. Governor; Kings
Tamerton School (to become Tamar Side School). ANTHONY JOHNSON. Public
Relations Manager; British Telecom, Plymouth.
LIZ TARR. Headteacher; Thornbury County Primary School.
PAUL DAVID ASHTON, HEIDI JANE ASHTON. Holy Cross R.C. School.
BRENDA McNICHOLLS. Former Headteacher; Crownhill Secondary School.
KEN STOYLE. Headteacher; Penlee School.
TERRY JONES. County Advisor for Drama and Dance.
DAVID BALL. Social Worker. Left to right: LYNNE COLLIHOLE. JACKY BANNISTER.
DAVID BALL. LISA FROST. JOHN DAVIS.
STRAIGHT-JACKETED
GIRLS FORMER PUPILS, PUBLIC HIGH FOR GIRLS. Left to right:SAMANTHA
BOULTER. SANDRA CHURCHWARD. HELEN POINTON. JOANNE STIDWELL. ALISON
NORTHCOTT.
RICK. Ex-troublemaker.
Dr STEPHEN HUGGETT. Senior Lecturer in Mathematics; Plymouth Polytechnic.
GOVERNORS
OF SOUTHWAY SCHOOL. Left to right: COUNCILLOR W.E.EVANS. I.S.M.
Chairman. Former Chairman of Devon County Council. R.BILLINGS. B.Com.
Governor. M.J.SHEPPARD. Former Parent-governor. J. ANDERSON.
Vice-Chairman. Senior Lecturer; College of St.Mark and St. John. JUDY
BARNACLE. Former Governor. COLIN WHITBY. Governor. PRICILLA GRIGGS.
Former Governor. G.A.STEVENSON. Former Governor. M.DOBIE. Former
Teacher-Governor; Head of Home Economics. J. TRELOAR. Former Governor.
IVOR TEMPLE-SMITH. Former Governor and President of the National
Association of Head Teachers; Council Member for Devon and Cornwall.
JACK JONES. Governor. Deputy Leader of the Labour Group, Plymouth City
Council; Deputy Head Plym View Primary School. Plymouth City
Councillor, West Devon Education Committee; Governor ; Tamerton Vale
Primary, Langley Infant School and Langley Junior School. MARY
STRATTON. Former Parent-Governor. Ancillary worker at another school.
Married to a Headteacher. C.H.OSTERMEYER. Former Governor. Kneeling:-
JOHN CHIVERS. Senior Caretaker. The kneeling figure holds a compass
whilst directing his gaze towards a crumpled drawing of Sir Isaac
Newton by William Blake. The coloured monotype, in the Tate Gallery -
for which this drawing is a reversed sketch - indicates that Newton is
sitting at the bottom of the sea.
STAFF AT THE PLYMOUTH CITY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY. Top
of Stairs:- IRENE RYAN. Attendant. Seated on stairs:- The painter.
Standing at base of stairs; left to right:- GEORGE WOODFINE. Museum
Charge-Hand. COLIN HEAD. Former Museum Attendant. EVE STROUD.
Volunteer. JOHN EVANS. Former Museum Foreman. Dr ROBERT KNIGHT. Curator
Park Pharmacy Trust Dr JAN KNIGHT. Secretary Park Pharmacy Trust Back
row:- MARTIN EDWARD BAKER Former Attendant. PATSY JONES. Former
Attendant. JOHN VENN CONDUCT. Attendant. TERRY GORMAN. Attendant. JEAN
GRAHAM. Former Administration Officer. CYNTHIA GASKELL BROWN. Keeper of
Archeology and Local History. IAN O’RIORDAN. Former Assistant Keeper
of
Art. JOYCE SEARLE. B.A. Head of History; Devonport High School for
Girls. Middle row:- ERIC DUNN. Cabinet Maker and Restorer. WYN SCUTT
Assistant Keeper of Archeology and Local History. DEBBIE COLEMAN.
Former Keeper of Conservation. JAMES BARBER. Senior Keeper. Front row:-
RACHEL COUTER. Pupil; Devonport High School for Girls. MAUREEN ATTRILL.
Art Department Keeper. DAVID CURRY. Keeper of Natural History.
COUNCILLOR PRUDENCE HOCKEN. Chairman of the Museum Sub-Committee.
MURIAL GLANFIELD. Domestic Cleaner and Attendant.
THE DEPOSITION - THE BURIAL OF EDUCATION. This study,
structured loosely on The Burial of Count Orgaz by El Greco, relates in
atmosphere and design to KINDERTOTENLIEDER (Songs on the Deaths of
Children) a cycle of five orchestral songs (1901-4), by Gustav Mahler.
The metaphor of the soul of the dead child
rising to ‘heaven’ is of great significance to this project
on
education. This painting may be seen as the heart in the body of this
collection.
THE PAINTER WITH MEGAN ‘Expulsion from the garden of Eden theme’.
THE PAINTER WITH DAVINA. ‘Expulsion from the Garden of Eden theme’.
Dr LYN BLACKSHAW. Former Headmaster of Dartington School with his wife
BETH
and children.
SUSAN
SKINNER WITH A MUSIC GROUP. Left to right:- SUSAN SKINNER. Head of
Music; The Ridgeway School. TRACI COLEMAN Former Pupil ;The Ridgeway
School MICHELLE GROVE. Pupil; The Ridgeway School. KEVIN WILES. Former
Pupil; The Ridgeway School. Present working musician and songwriter.
WALTER ALLEN. Teacher of English; The Ridgeway school.
GROUP OF DEAF AND DISADVANTAGED. Left to right:- back
row. SARAH TATE, LES SAXON. Teacher of the Deaf and Disadvantaged, Mime
and Drama. Next row:- HELEN MITCHELL, GAVIN KELLY, SHANE STADDON, ANDI
HIGGINSON. Teacher of the Deaf and Disadvantaged, Mime and Drama.
DAVID BROWN. Former Student, B.Sc. Biology. Plymouth Polytechnic.
BOB HOOPER, B.A., A.T.D. Head of Art and Design, Tavistock School.
KEVIN GASSON. Mentally disadvantaged.
Dr BRIAN POLLARD His wife JANE, their two children JAMES and PATRICK.
THE PAINTER WITH TWO OF HIS SONS WOLFE AND RUEBEN. In the Studio Street
Window.
JOAN DEBENHAM. Deputy Head of Devonport High School for Girls.
RON
MOORE (Former Headmaster of Mill Ford School) WITH REPRESENTATIVES FOR
THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED; PLYMOUTH. (This study is selected from three
hundred paintings on the theme of Mental Handicap; Section Three of the
Relationship Series.)
DORA RUSSELL. (Smaller Study).
Project 18: The Painter With Women
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"Reflection does not concern itself with objects themselves with
a view to
deriving concepts from them directly, but it is the state of mind in which
we
first set ourselves to discover the subjective conditions under which
we are
able to arrive at concepts." Kant.
"In every relationship there are a minimum of six people... you;
the person
talking to you; the person you think you are; the person you think they
are;
the person they think they are and the person they think you are."
Voltaire.
Lenkiewicz agreed to show three introductory sketch shows between 1990-1992
at
two consecutive galleries managed by Francis Mallet on The Barbican. The
fuller
and articulated collection was presented at the International Convention
Centre
in Birmingham in 1994. The project received a great deal of attention,
little of
it intelligent. The three smaller exhibitions introduced some ideas paralleling
the theme of the 'mirror' with that of the 'companion'. Lenkiewicz notes:
"Philosophers have been fascinated by (the formula of the reflection)
for
centuries. After Descartes we move away from straight forward considerations
of objects towards the 'experience' in which objects are given.
Self-reflection marks the human beings' rise to the rank of a subject
. . .
Narcissus is the first artist/man transfixed by a reflection. This project
suggested that the 'other' is always oneself. Narcissus simply did not
know
that the watery reflection was his own; he wasted away in a reverie imagining
that the object of his desire was outside himself."
The Exhibition took as its starting point the metaphor of 'The Folly of
Wise
Men'. The first of the three formulas the story of Aristotle and Phyllis,
has
nothing to do with the historical Aristotle. It originated as a piece
of
Medieval libel, a misogynistic formula for Passion riding Reason. The
second of
the formulas used the theme of 'The Temptation of St. Antony'. The life
history
of St. Antony, the Abbot of the Desert so often waylaid by devils and
diabolical
visions, frequently warns against the 'power of women'. He is an example
of
incorruptibility, resisting the 'great dust cloud of argument' that the
enemy
raises in his mind.
These images deal with wisdom and folly. Lenkiewicz uses the formulae
as
metaphors for the absurdity of regarding relationships beyond their aesthetic
value. He writes:
"These formulae are so loaded and cross-referential that the visitor
also must
resist temptation. The work can be misunderstood. 'Patterns' of obsessive
behaviour are what interest me - the form not the content."
Lenkiewicz's contention is that our attraction to people, objects, ideas,
and
belief systems are rooted in a common physiological impulse stemming from
an
entire aesthetic matrix.
"The assumption that we are empathic/concerned about the welfare
of another
person independently of our own needs, is like St. Antony's visions,
hallucinatory."
The concept of the 'Double' is helpful here. Mirrors are abysses. As Lenkiewicz
has written in one of his note books:
"To paint oneself is to paint the portrait of a man who is going
to die.
Relationships are mirrors. The painter looks into the mirror to paint
himself;
the lover looks into his lover to love himself. She sits on my lap, a
reflection
of my aesthetic addictions; a reflection in a reflection. The painter
reflects
upon the reflection. The woman reflects upon the painter reflected. I
am
thinking of your partner, Priest, or your spouse, Art Historian, and you,
the
one holding this catalogue with good humour or with irritation. I am thinking
of
'that' person, you know the one. They could all be on my lap in these
paintings.
I am no longer young, less fit than I was and I still mean what I say.
It is not
me that annoys or threatens. It is the knowledge in the heads of my companions
(my companions in arms), my doubles. And if your smile of recognition,
your
smile of humane resignation is the smile I hope it is; then you are my
double
too."
Related Content:
Birmingham I IC Exhibition 1994:
Project 19: Landscape
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"Everything takes form, even infinity." Bachelard.
"A lake is the earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures
the depth
of his own nature." Thoreau.
In 1995 Lenkiewicz returned to an adolescent preoccupation - Landscape.
In early
youth he would stare out of the window from the bed he slept in, mesmerised
as
so many young people are, by the huge swathes of clouds mounted in the
sky like
a vast cathedral vault. It was difficult at that time to grasp that the
sky
ceiling was the largest dome on the planet, but one could certainly understand
why clouds were called 'the thrones of gods'. A small exhibition of his
at St.
Martin's School of Art comprised of 20 drawings of steam, recorded from
the
trains at Paddington Station. Only in recent years has Lenkiewicz returned
to
working in isolation in woods or by a lake, where he planned a large project
titled 'Landscape: The Painter as St. Jerome'. This project was intended
as an
enquiry into the relationship between natural forces and a single person.
Forty
of these paintings were shown at The Barbican Museum and Library Annexe.
He
wrote:
"In youth every window, every door opening framed the world outside.
There
were two kinds of space, the intimate space where I stood and the exterior
space that one could believe expanded consciousness. The larger the space
observed the more timeless, meditative, even exalted one could feel. Space
has
been termed a 'Psychological transcendent'. The larger the context in
which we
stand, the greater our solitude. Our eye eliminates boundaries, nothing
contradicts; distance shuts off moral codes."
In student days when Lenkiewicz visited The National Gallery, which was
frequently, he was struck by the images of St. Jerome, and in particular
a small
panel by Patinier. From the early 17th Century images of St. Jerome had
developed into theatrically lit excuses for recording sinewed, taut and
wasted
elderly men - almost an illustration for medical students studying anatomy,
of
cadaverous musculature. Before this phase however, St. Jerome would be
hard to
find, as he sat lost in a vast, stony and desolate landscape traversing
rivers,
forests and mountain peaks. The clear purpose of such imagery was existential;
man lost, missing, in a terrifying infinity. Man insignificant. Images
like
these are the stuff of tragedy; late Michelangelo, late Goya, late Rothko.
Lenkiewicz wrote:
"All human enterprise seems to evaporate into the vapours that we
inhale and
exhale by seeing. Seeing is eating, our visual mouth can swallow universes,
exhale the starry night. When we are moved we are filled. To be touched
by
things is to be made smaller, to be diminished. In one aesthetic mood
we ride
clouds and leapfrog oaks, in another we sleep beneath a leaf and nestle
with
insects. Space is a state of mind, agoraphobic and claustrophobic. We
are
strangely haunted by events that are innocent of themselves, we do not
cry
"Show off" to nature. We are silenced into meditative irony,
diminished and
expanded, an elastic perception of minutiae one moment and infinity the
next.
"
In future developments of this project Lenkiewicz intends to expand the
themes
of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
Project 20: Addictive Behaviour
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced
to
accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
In 1996 Lenkiewicz embarked on the largest of all his projects to date.
The
theme is Addictive Behaviour. This project is an attempt to define and
clarify
the basic tenets that have run through the 19 previous projects. It is
intended
that Project 20 should consolidate clearly and simply the common issues.
The
Addiction project will be divided into eight sections: Section one will
deal
with conventionally socially recognised addictive scenarios, alcohol,
drugs,
gambling and eating disorders. Section two will represent the largest
single
addictive scenario experienced by the human race, cross culturally and
at all
ages - falling in love. This section will be the hub of the wheel of addictions.
Section three will deal with theological persuasions. There are over 800
versions of Jesus culture in England alone, a considerable proportion
of them in
the South West. The fourth Section will deal with social and political
convictions "I've voted Tory/Labour all my life" etc. Section
five will look at
the concept of the family, " I Love my little Billy but he'd better
not play
with dirty Johnny down the road." Children as property etc. Section
six will
look at the vast and cross-referential eccentricities of addictions and
obsessive behaviours, from self-mutilation to collecting hosiery. Attitudes
towards cars, houses, gardens, and other 'collecting' behaviours. Section
seven
will deal with creativity in relation to addiction. "I'm a writer/
poet/
painter/ actor/ dancer" etc. Finally, Lenkiewicz will conclude with
section
eight on Bibliomania. This project it is hoped, will involve 800 sitters,
from
the widest possible range of life experience. Each of the sitters has
been asked
to write a minimum of 1000 words on their circumstances and on their opinion
as
to what addiction is. By means of this project Lenkiewicz hopes to get
closer to
the physiological essentials that may cause 'fanatical belief system'
behaviour
and to explain the impulse that many of us have to subjugate private thought
for
mass thought, private responsibility for mass responsibility. He does
not think
there is a more appropriate line of enquiry than to consider the reasons
why
individuals and groups of people experience such a high failure rate in
getting
on with each other.
Lydia Sylvette David
‘Lydia Corbett’ is a picture that R.O.L painted during his
‘Addictive
Behaviour’ project. Lydia put her name forward when R.O.L asked
for
famous subjects with addictions. Lydia’s addiction was her religion.
Lydia Sylvette David began her artistic life not as a painter, but as
a
model for Pablo Picasso. When she was seventeen years old, she was
living in the south of France with her English-born mother who was an
artist, her brother, and her boyfriend, Toby Jellinek, a maker of
avant-garde metal chairs. Picasso had set up a studio nearby and
noticed Jellinek’s unusual pieces. He asked him to deliver a couple
of
the chairs to his studio, and with him went Sylvette David. Shortly
after, Picasso presented a picture of her, drawn from memory, and
convinced David to model for him.
A shy girl, David was tall and had striking looks. She wore her hair in
a long, blond ponytail, a style like that which Brigitte Bardot would
later adopt. It was her hair and face that captivated Picasso, but
unlike many of his other models, their relationship was purely
platonic. In the months she sat for him in 1954, Picasso produced over
forty pieces based on her likeness (‘The Girl with the Ponytail’
series
of paintings and sculptures). Photos of Picasso and his model also
appeared in an issue of the widely read magazine Paris-Match.
David would relate that she began drawing to pass the time while she
sat for Picasso, often posed in a rocking chair. She later married and
moved to England with her husband, and not wanting to capitalize on her
fame as a painter’s muse, signed her work with her married name,
Lydia
Corbett. Eventually, she added a second signature to her paintings and
watercolors, that of Sylvette David. As her reputation as an artist
grew, she exhibited her work in England and France , including several
London exhibitions.
Photos of Lenkiewicz's painting of Lydia, shots of R.O.L painting
Lydia, and a photo of a recent meeting with Lydia where she signed the
piece, and a few of Picasso’s painting of her can be viewed here.
Project 21: Paintings Painted Blind - On
The Theme Of Tobit
Blind Tobit: Paintings Painted Blind was exhibited in 2000 at the The
Mission,
the New Street Gallery, and then found a home at The Annexe.
Undertaken as a small experimental theme inspired by the Biblical character
of
Tobit and Lenkiewicz's research on blindness as a metaphor, it was later
designated as Project 21. The paintings were done at a specially prepared
studio
in which the artist was able to paint blindfolded. The paint tins, brushes,
canvases, etc., were laid out in precise locations, and the canvases were
painted by 'feel' and 40 years of cunning painterly instinct. Robert claimed
never to have seen the finished results until they were unveiled before
the
public for the first time.
Paintings Painted Blind: project notes and list
A Note on Painting Blind:
“I have grown to believe that a really intelligent man makes an
indifferent
painter, for painting requires a certain blindness — a partial refusal
to be
aware of all the options.” Mrs Talmann, in THE DRAUGHTSMAN’S
CONTRACT
Peter Greenaway.
It is not doubted that the artist is prey to a proliferation of choices
from the
invisible, but is that enough to make him a blind man? The artist makes
his
first mark — just the point, the touch of the mark; the form, image,
the thing
is not yet drawn — it is invisible in those seconds. That dab, that
touch, the
image is not yet visible. The artist sees some bit, some section, but
it is not
on the paper: -
“What is it to draw?” asks Van Gogh. “How do we do it?
It is the act of
clearing a path for oneself through an invisible iron wall.”
The artist draws from memory — the image in the brain — fleeting,
fragmentary —
not from nature.
As the artist makes marks he begins to go blind.
“An artist,” says Baudelaire, “accustomed to rely on
his memory and
imagination will find himself at the mercy of a riot of detail clamouring
for
justice with the fury of the mob in love with equality. The more our artist
turns an impartial eye on detail, the greater the state of anarchy.”
Memory can be sighted — perception can be blind.
“I write without seeing. I came. I wanted to kiss your hand...This
is the
first time I have ever written in the dark, not knowing whether I am indeed
forming letters. Wherever there will be nothing, read that I love you.”
Diderot. Letter to Sophie Volland, June 10th, 1759.
It is as if seeing were forbidden in order to draw. The mark starts from
itself
by leaving itself. Working blind is not as sightless as it seems —
it is not a
conjuring trick. The skill of two-dimensional mark-making in order to
simulate
the three dimensional world is an ancient one.
Walking does it; breathing in and out makes a billion patterned vapours
invisible in the air. For most of us seeing is like the way we breathe,
we
inhale and exhale the visual event; but it goes deep into the lungs.
This skill is valued less and less nowadays, and probably rightly so.
There is a
sightless quality to any investigation. Inquiry has to makeshift and design
its
own road; building the road to an uncertain destination. Blindness is
inherent
in creative activity — so much more is left out than put in —
so much refusal to
see is involved in seeing.
R.O. Lenkiewicz
The Library at Lower Compton
June 2000
Project 21: Blind Tobit: Paintings Painted Blind
CORPSE ON A ROCK
TOBIT SLEEPING
BLIND TOBIT CRYING
BLIND TOBIT SHOUTING AT HIS WIFE
BLIND TOBIT WITH A BIRD
BLIND TOBIT CRYING WITH A BIRD
BLIND TOBIT MASTURBATING IN THE WIND
BLIND TOBIT FEELING HIS SON’S EYES
BLIND TOBIT LOOKING AT THE SUN
BLIND TOBIT LOOKING AT THE SUN
BLIND TOBIT AT PRAYER
BLIND TOBIT WAITING
BLIND TOBIT FALLING
BLIND TOBITRUNNING
BLIND TOBIT EMBRACES HIS SON
THE ANGEL SMILING AT BLIND TOBIT
BLIND TOBIT MEETS THE ANGEL
BLIND TOBIT AND ANGEL
BLIND TOBIT TOUCHING THE ANGEL’S WING
THE ANGEL BOWS
TOBIAH PUTS GALL INTO HIS FATHER’S EYES
TOBIT SEES A FLOCK OF BIRDS
TOBIT GIVES UP HIS SPIRIT
Self-portrait blindfolded in private studio (sighted painting).
Project 22: Still Lives II
It is understood that it was to be titled "Still Lives II".
It is unclear
whether any paintings were ever painted specifically for this Project.
Project 23: Time
It is understood that this Project was to be titled "Time".
It is unclear how
many paintings were painted specifically for this Project.
One known example is Man Swallowing Time, which has written on the reverse
-
"Project 23, painting no. ?12".
There is believed to be at least one other painting marked for this Project.
Project 24: The Harrowing of Hell
The Harrowing of Hell was never formally initiated as a Project. There
were,
however, various preparatory ideas and possibly some paintings.
Lenkiewicz began talking about his ideas for this project a few years
before his
death. It was apparently going to be a small project, one of a few that
Lenkiewcz intended to work on once Project 20 was completed.
The paintings were going to be chiefly grisailles.
It is believed that the first painting intended for this project may have
been
produced as early as 1993, It was a large tryptich featuring Lenkiewicz
sitting
cross-legged on the floor, painted in grisaille with swirling masses of
white
cloth above him which spread onto the left and right panels.
There were a small number of paintings found in a private studio after
Lenkiewicz's death which looked like they could have been part of this
theme.
It is possible that some of the preparatory thought and work for The Harrowing
of Hell might have informed the Blind Tobit Project.
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