Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

W-.) 0 0 0 Las 4.1.12 "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 9 FE6 1910 VU t? U Id VV VU V V V VV U U it THE ARTIST AND MUSIC IT'S often easier for people who are familiar with painting to understand certain kinds of experimental theatre and cinema than it is for the usual kind of theatre and cinemagoer. Indeed, cinema ("moving pictures") is so much closer to paint- ing than to theatre, that I think the theatre should stop meddling in cinema for a while. I wonder If experi- mental music, too, is more accessible to visual arts people? I find that music pie didn't care much or the performance of the "rock opera" Tom- my at the Elizabethan Theatre this week. Certainly the music in itself is a bit thin and commercial, which is why last Sunday I mentioned the link be t ween its composers (The Who) and the Australian painter G. W. Lambert, who was also a bit thin and commercial. It scarcely approaches the serious rock of groups like The Deep Purple or The Touch. Nor was the perform- ance in itself expert enough for music spe- cialists. Even I noticed that the 1174,u instru- ments weren't' being IfilaYed too well. Nor does the series of songs maintain a strong dramatic line - it falls apart at the end. But visual -arts people enjoyed it very much. Mainly, of course, for the film images by Michael Glasheen. For once there was. no tawdry psychedelia. The images of Tom- my's blind -deaf -and - dumbness were all sim- ple, direct, tender, real- istic. Tommy touching leaves and grass. Tom- my .soaking warmth from the sun. Tommy floating free, under- water. Tommy's face being explored by a kitten, or a butterfly. And then there was the continuous use of paired circles of mir- ror, Tommy's spectacles, for simultaneous mul- tiple images. As a minor visual pleasure there was the sight of the musicians, in spangled overalls, sitting among a mix- ture of real palms and cut-out cypresses. But what seemed to worry the music people and the theatre people most were the "break- downs". Perhaps there were some, but I was totally unaware of them. John Cage's name had been mentioned, so I was quite happy to accept spells of silence, darkness, shuffling and muttering, as elements in a John Cage type of musical event - music that incorporates sil- ence, chance noises, in- determinate structure. There is plenty of extreme art that wishes to aestheticise the entire environment, to claim that all life can be experienced as art. Theatre that sees fam- ily life as the ultimate theatre; painting that simply directs you to the splendors of a gro- cery shop; music that makes you hear a sym- phony all around you. For example, as I write this piece, I can hear snatches of sil- ence, traffic noise, clanking metal in a garage, water gurgling, scratchy words on TV sound, a transistor car- rying some pop music past the window, sad drunken singing in the corner pub, electric raga rock from the upstairs flat, Brahms on a real ART with Daniel Thomas live piano from the flat below. It adds up to a masterpiece of its kind. My contention is that an openness to random experiences is much more natural for visual arts than for literature, theatre or music. For music and theatre continuity and comple- teness are usual. It is usual to sit down, listen to the music or watch the play from beginning to end. Lit- erature, too, is usually read continuously from beginning to end. But a painting is not looked at for a defined length of time, and you don't have to start, say, at the top left corner, and proceed with an examination of every inch until you reach the bottom right. You can look as long as you like, choose which parts to look at, and in any order. You can look away- at another picture very often, for We uncom- mon to encounter a single work of art in a room. You can alter your distance from the work, look at it from different angles, and if It's a sculpture you can walk around it. Next Saturday!Sun- day don't miss dropping in on a 24 -hour avant- garde music event at the Waters Gallery - Satie from 50 years ago, La Monte Young from the present day.