#grrece

Andros, Greece

watching ships passing by

A simurgh - a monstrous mythical bird with the power of reasoning and speech. The “Simurg” or “Angha,” is a sacred bird found in Persian, Greek, and Chinese fables, and known in the West as the Phoenix.

Image: Augustus Octavius ca 1CE via ganymedesrocks.tumblr.com

July’s postings hung heavy with sadness over the death in custody of the Chinese intellectual and dissident, Liu Xiaobo. It was a senseless killing of a non-violent dissident orchestrated by the Xi government.

After this, August’s postings called for improvisation and catharsis.

Augustus and Classical Meanings

Threading quietly through the month was its namesake, Augustus Octavius. This, Theme 1, reminded us that the histories of Euro-American societies remain saturated with Graeco-Roman references and substantive legacies. Until the 1980s, these recurring, constantly reworked traditions were still part of the cultural horizons of students in the Anglo-American sphere.

Interestingly, imperial ideologies included garden and fresco art works at the villa of Augustus’ wife, Livia Drusilla.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164328932848/italianartsociety-by-rachel-hiser-remmes-the

But reversing the ‘gaze’ somewhat, the blog also considered how dislocated and jumbled and relativised the meaning-rich statuary of the Graeco-Roman worlds seems today with old ‘European’ verities increasingly seen as products of specific times and places.Truths are plural, improvised, provisional - and often unclear.

A brilliant installation by Jannis Kounellis triggered this ‘gaze’

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164287755853/bschwartz-untitled-jannis-kounellis-1980

Human-Nature Connection

Theme 2 saw further focus on the human-nature connection that also marked July’s offering but more by way of personal responses. For instance, the persistence of a cold, enduring winter in the temperate zone of the southern hemisphere. And, more importantly, understanding forest ecologies within which trees are embedded.

As one blogger put it: A woodland is an entire ecosystem of which trees are a keystone species, but a long, long way from the whole picture.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/163751028233/friendly-reminder

 The threat to the environment, other species, and the rising tide of plastic globally also loomed large.

Australia’s ‘Red Flag News’ reported that: Much of the plastic in the ocean is ground into tiny fragments. These fragments are eaten by fish, which are then eaten by us. A study by researchers in Belgium found that regular eaters of seafood consume as many as 11,000 plastic fragments a year.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/163900478973/red-flag-news-every-year-enough-plastic-is

 The pleasures of personal gardening, of organic gardening, and of reappraising and using overlooked plant species such as weeds were also highlighted including a reference to Mary Bell’s writing.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/163982091533/of-weeds-and-grasses-it-is-to-one-of-these

Australian contributions to the so-called ‘Doomsday Vault’ were highlighted. Details were set out of a donation of 28,000 seeds, some extinct in the wild, from The Australian Pastures Genebank in Adelaide which hosts Australia’s entire collection of pastures and forage species.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/163860810938/australia-prepares-seeds-for-doomsday-vault

 Places

Theme 3 focused on the idea of ‘places’; ie ‘spaces’ freighted with contingent, changeable cultural meanings in the spirit of ‘place studies’. The latter has emerged as a specialism in the contemporary humanities. As one group of writers commented: “The language of place enables a conversation between the grounded physical reality of…scientific research and the metaphysical space of representation, the realm of the arts and story-telling” (Somerville et al 2009: 6).

Moreover: “[P]laces make us: As occupants of particular places with particular attributes, our identity and our possibilities are shaped” (Somerville et al 2009: 7).

In this spirit, one blogger highlighted how ocean dwellers or those contiguous with the sea might come to see life differently quoting Maxine Hong Kingston:

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/163750908378/ocean-people-are-different-from-land-people-the

The same blogger extracted a comment on how the meanings of places change for us as we journey in the world, and in our interiors/subjectivities:

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164018590348/we-lack-we-need-a-term-for-those-places-where

Dance

Theme 4 explored dance, bodies in motion, and gestural languages.

The beauty of hands and the opening of arms in open-hearted ways was highlighted. For example:

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/163787194533/a-gesture-of-energy-flow-of-giving-of-openess

And the art of Pina Bausch featured (“I loved to dance because I was scared to speak. When I was moving, I could feel.”):

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/163752794943/inneroptics-i-loved-to-dance-because-i-was

Susan Sontag’s commentary on the contest between the over-influential, talented, individual dancer, and the later arrival of choreographers such as George Balanchine and their specific conceptions of dance and the narratives they make possible was noteworthy:

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164397991768/lincoln-kirstein-the-finest-historian-of-dance

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164397989233/george-balanchine-dancer-and-choreographer

And there were a few specifically Australian references re: the Australian Ballet’s 50th anniversary in 2012, and to one of the early international stars of the Australian Ballet, Robert Helpmann.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164445118918/the-stars-of-the-australian-ballets-50th

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164476602888/mudwerks-portrait-of-sir-robert-helpmann-as

And yet movement, dance, are universal forms. In Russia dance, arguably, remains transgressive? Russia’s laws against ‘promoting’ the homosexual lifestyle can barely tolerate the ambiguities of movement, or art, or indeed life!

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164396455278/exguyparis-dmitry-dorokhov-igor-tsvirko-and

Image: Bolshoi ballet dancers.

Queer Folks, Queer Issues

Central to any ‘queered’ blog is the politics of inclusion and exclusion for queer folks. This is Theme 6.

In Australia, the conservative bloc in the ruling national Coalition government proposed a ‘voluntary’ postal survey of same-sex marriage equality for those on the electoral roll. This was a farcical delaying tactic, and the survey result will be non-binding on elected representatives. However, the ruling party decided to proceed with the ‘survey’ over late 2017. Although campaigning is underway, and youth electoral enrolments surged, the national courts still have to rule on the ‘survey’s’ doubtful constitutional validity, and with any luck, this will kill the half-baked idea of a survey.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164708207468/sleepymccoy-great-job-fam

The underlying shamefulness of conservative politics in Australia remains whether in relation to the issues of refugees, asylum-seekers, poverty and economic inequality, domestic violence and the like.

As David Marr noted in The Guardian on August 9:

If only Christians fought like this for refugees. Imagine if the Coalition’s big men of faith threatened to tear down their own government unless it brings home the wretches we’ve imprisoned in the Pacific. Surely there couldn’t be a greater service for Christ? Or what about crossing the floor for the poor, the homeless, for battered wives and illiterate Aboriginal kids. No. What excites these Christian warriors is beating up on gays. I’ve watched it all my life.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164019017083/abbotts-obstruction-of-gay-marriage-is-a-defence

Raising the issue of marriage equality also created an opportunity to check-in on a whole range of queer community matters globally and history.

Images of Michel Foucault, Jean Genet, Virginia Wolff and Susan Sontag graced the blog.

A historical chronology of queer issues in Germany was posted as was a valuable check-in on the plight of queer Chenchens fleeing state-sponsored terror into Russia and beyond via the so-called Rainbow Railroad

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164084128733/the-gay-men-who-fled-chechnyas-purge

Theme 7: Trump and Proto-Fascism

Donald Trump and his administration continue to pose the most difficult issues for not only US publics, but associated governments and electorates everywhere.

Glenn Greenwald at ‘The Intercept’ posed the darkest questions about how a soft military-led coup is, within and without the administration, aiming to ‘contain’ Trump even as the Mueller investigation considers apace.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164126415328/whats-worse-trumps-campaign-agenda-or

Given Trump’s now notorious sympathies for the white supremacist right in the US – astonishing and incendiary in equal measure - it was valuable to include footage of James Baldwin speaking in a documentary about how such stances seemed to him to represent moral monsters in the US polity.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164089301618/artfilmfan-i-am-not-your-negro-raoul-peck

Finally, again, the proto-fascism of Trump’s administration, and Trump’s personal affinity and sympathy for the Putin government and that style of personal and oligarchic rule never ceases to trouble.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164088975343/combative-trump-pulls-his-punches-for-one-man

Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo

Finally, Theme 8 - where we began – the personal tragedy of Li Xiaobo’s family. The blog included a news story on the plight, whether accurately portrayed or not, of his wife, Lu Xia, and hoped the best for her.

https://dialogue-queered.tumblr.com/post/164362111483/liu-xia-appears-for-first-time-since-husband-liu

An image for Liu Xia: ‘Timeless Spring’

kefalonia caves