Ai Weiwei

"An artwork unable to make people feel uncomfortable or to feel different is not one worth creating."

http://aiweiwei.com/ 

Rembrandt

'Rembrandt adopted this chiaroscuro technique early in his career, and for the rest of his life it was to be the main expressive vehicle of his work. He recognised in this shadowy light - in the deep well of a darkened interior or in a flickering mark of half-tones and reflections - the power of suggestion, of metaphor, the ability to create mood and to suggest realms of thought and feeling beyond the concrete surfaces of the material world. By cloaking his figures in a veil of shadows and half-lights, he created a shift of attention from the tangible world of perceived objects to the intangible one of spirit and feeling.'

from 'The History and Techniques of the Great Masters - Rembrandt' by Andrew Morrall, 1987, Chartwell Books.

from Robert Adamson, introduction to 'The Best Australian Poems 2009'. Black Inc.

' ... someone who has managed to come up with a voice that has a trace of the authentic about it. Not such an easy thing: it takes courage to be yourself, to write a poem about what you actually believe. This has to involve the ability to craft the language of the heart and soul into the right form.'

http://www.robertadamson.com/ 


https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/category/robert-adamson

Roland Barthes (translated by Richard Howard), 'The Semiotic Challenge', University of California Press, 1994

'The Kitchen of Meaning'

'A garment, an automobile, a dish of cooked food, a gesture, a film, a piece of music, an advertising image, a piece of furniture, a newspaper headline - these indeed appear to be heterogeneous objects.
     
What might they have in common? This at least: all are signs. When I walk down the streets - or through life - and encounter these objects, I apply to all of them, if need be without realising it, one and the same activity, which is that of a certain reading; modern man, urban man, spends his time reading. He reads, first of all and above all, images, gestures, behaviours ... Even with regard to written text, we are constantly given a second message to read between the lines of the first ...'

'To decipher the world's signs always means to struggle with a certain innocence of objects.' 

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/04/roland-barthes-myths-we-dont-outgrow.html 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/mar/26/roland-barthes-camera-lucida-rereading 

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/29/the-art-of-poetry-no-86-richard-howard