Authors Electric

I posted about writing some poems for my sister's exhibition a couple of months ago and I thought you might like to know that the exhibition is currently on show in the Manning gallery in NSW The paintings are spectacular, luminous and mysterious and I am in awe of Laura's achievement. I only wish I could see them in the flesh. Am I embarrassed by my poems? A little. They are journeymen work and I am very aware of it. The exhibition called 'Flux' is about 'moments of transition, often uncomfortable moments between states and worlds. The recurrent motif of the waterfall, symbolising in its perpetual motion life and renewal, is juxtaposed with human figures, finite, and vulnerable. The narrative nature of these works hints at our fragile relationship with the natural world, with which we are often at odds.' Ekphrastic poems are difficult things and I suppose what I was trying to avoid was any description of the work on the basis that you don't tell and...

  The Domestic Revolution by Ruth Goodman Courtesy Paul Harrison, Wikimedia Here's a quiz for you. All the questions have the same answer. These days most of us sleep on a bed that's raised up on legs, instead of a mattress on the floor. Why? And why do we sit on chairs with long legs rather than on the floor or on a low bench or stool? The first houses, no matter where they were built, had much the same plan: a large room where everyone worked, chatted, cooked, ate and slept around a central fire. This form of dwelling lasted for thousands of years. Then, fairly recently, houses were divided up into many small rooms. Why did this change happen? And why are many people now returning to 'open-plan living' with large, undivided spaces combining kitchen and living-room? Consider your cooking pots. Why are they made of iron instead of copper or brass and why do they have flat bottoms? Why don't they stand up on their own little legs any more, or hang from a hook, and...