Stephen J. Williams

Tag: Sigmund Freud

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  • Would-be oligarch falls to death from sky

    “If only things had turned out differently, 
    this time,” he thinks, undone now by flying.
    His mind’s archives change to melody. They 
    scream a vapid, sentimental song of 
    mayhem in the air that, from down here,
    is just a smudge and smoky curlicue. 
    The old, Austrian seer foretold that death 
    is the subjunctive of our very being. 
    Our birdman, he grasps it now and succumbs 
    to that truth’s sting—his personal pain. 
    In chapels spanning every longitude 
    of its vast motherland, his public hear 
    the solemn knell that tolls his passing hour. 

    Peasants, scholars, drivers on the roads begin 
    to capture his descent on mobile phones. 
    They see it for what it is … proof of life,
    descending earthward, flames. They take a pause.
    The savage boar and all his clan are dead.
    These simple folk believe this life’s no more 
    than a trip to a zoo, where animals 
    root in the dirt and fling their shit about. 
    They thought there was no end to their decline, 
    no respite. Then, a man falls from the sky
    into his grave, and proves the zoo is ours 
    to leave. And governments, disasters, wars, 
    simply, but sometimes by chance, always end.

    Firefighters in Russia (watercolor and acrylic on paper, 20230414) Stephen J. Williams
    Firefighters in Russia (watercolor and acrylic on paper, 20230414) Stephen J. Williams

  • Sacred monster of our time [20180301 drawing, 1000x1000mm]

    Sacred Monster Of Our Time [20180301 drawing, 1000x1000mm]
    Sacred Monster Of Our Time [20180301 drawing, 1000x1000mm]
    Note:

    Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time

  • Mystic writing pad

    Mystic writing pad

    Note:  Sigmund Freud, ‘A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925)
    Kazamazov (pencil and ink, 20240312) Stephen J. Williams
    Mystic writing-pad 11 (ink, pencil and acrylic on paper, 260 x 180mm, 20230329) Stephen J. Williams
    Mystic writing pad 10 (graphite and oil pastel, 178mm x 254mm, 20220415) Stephen J. Williams
    Anti-portrait [20190105 drawing, 1000x1000mm]
    Mystic writing pad 1 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Since Jerusalem’ by Stephen J. Williams.
    Mystic writing pad 2 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Since Jerusalem’ by Stephen J. Williams.
    Mystic writing pad 3 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Since Jerusalem’ by Stephen J. Williams.
    Mystic writing pad 4 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Since Jerusalem’ by Stephen J. Williams; and Sigmund Freud’s ‘A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925).
    Mystic writing pad 5 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates [most there is just this] and ‘Sr Pessoa’, both poems by Stephen J. Williams; and Sigmund Freud’s ‘A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925). Published in Pink Cover Zine No.3, November 2018.
    Mystic writing pad 6 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates Sigmund Freud’s ‘A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925); ‘Uncle Stranger’ by Stephen J. Williams (which is a version of a diary kept by Trevor Williams); and [There lies Peter Clutterbuck now], a poem by Stephen J. Williams.
    Mystic writing pad 7 [20171212 drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates excerpts of a diary by Trevor Williams; and ‘Transposition in the words of James Baldwin’ by Stephen J. Williams, which is a transposition in words spoken by James Baldwin. This drawing was published in Rabbit Poetry—a journal for non-fiction poetry (RMIT University, April 2018).
    Mystic writing pad 8 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Uncle Stranger’ by Stephen J. Williams (which is a version of a diary kept by Trevor Williams); and a version of another drawing, ‘Detail of Decay’ (a study of an Adolf von Hildebrand statue, by Stephen J. Williams.
    Mystic writing pad 1–5
    Mystic writing pad 9 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Uncle Stranger’ by Stephen J. Williams (which is a version of a diary kept by Trevor Williams); and ‘Exposed’, a poem by Stephen J. Williams.
    This work takes its title from the 1925 essay by Sigmund Freud, ‘A note upon the mystic writing-pad’, in which he posits that the system of perception and consciousness appears to be strikingly similar to a graphic arts toy called a ‘mystic writing-pad’. The ongoing work exploits this metaphorical understanding of consciousness in a still-growing series of ‘drawings-as-writing’ or ‘writing-as-drawing’. The images reproduce key texts of personal writing, relevant influential authors and ‘voices’ from the past… diaries, biographical essays, Freud, James Baldwin and others. This work uses writing and imagery to interrogate ideas of a fictionalised self that is subject to the influence of culture.