A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Image source Audible

Read via Audible (Narrated by John Sackville)

Reading Reflection Written August, 2022

I often feel as if I'm at war with time. When I’m in the trenches of completing an artwork, if I don't use an alarm on my phone, I'd completely lose track of time. If I worked on each artwork without limiting time, everything I created would be overworked and I would never be satisfied. I need time-restraints in my artist-tool-kit. I seem to gravitate more towards the rhetoric in this book on: light, symmetry, asymmetry, wavelengths and temperature. The timelines of religious institutions and their relationships with scientists throughout history is such a juicy topic, I have to take another bite of this in the future and look out for more books on this.

For me to truly think of the universe as multidimensional and without boundaries is a new exercise. My brain cannot compute even the most rudimentary physics terms in this book, let alone the distances discussed; ‘a million million kilometres times 60’, what a special kind of mindfuckery it is to think of these types of distances. Special numbers and imaginary numbers, now there’s something I might like to explore further when I have the headspace; there’s something sexy about this. Reading this book is the mental equivalent of arriving at the peak of a rollercoaster and feeling momentarily weightless followed by an intense gravitational force. 

Read this book when you want an aggressively rough massage for your mind. Read again and again when you feel your life and world are closing in on you and you’re curious about the bigger and smaller picture.

Every Mother’s Son is Guilty by Chris Owen

Image source UWA Publishing

Reading Reflections written January 2022

How can the garden of national identity flourish when its soil is poisoned?

Every Mother’s Son is Guilty is life-changing; it uncovers the shockwaves of British imperialism. This book is a step-by-step recipe for how people in power facilitated unqualified authority-figures to impose draconian laws (and worse, undocumented dishonourable practices). Chris tells the story of the infancy of evil where silence and turning a blind eye is the catalyst for national cancer. Like a paedophile looking at the dark web through an incognito window, the systems and prejudices that stemmed from this period are an ever festering petri dish for dehumanisation.

Reading this is the unwrapping of an unwanted present containing historiographical accounts of: idealistic dreams, escapism, monetary gain, unaccountability, pacification and violence all wrapped up with an altruistic bow of solving a supposed problem. I wonder if the current Prime Minister of Australia has read this. I doubt it, which brings me to the question of, what do they read over there when being 'inducted' to the most prestigious role in the country? I'd love to see their ‘training/ introductory slides’. I’d love to know the material they are ‘required’ to look at (not to mention the material they read by their own will). What do the libraries of the most powerful people on the planet contain? I'd love to know how many Aboriginal sources (written by Aboriginal people) call home to these libraries. 

When I drive past the Parliament building (with its obnoxiously oversized flag holder- holding one flag), I'm struck by the realisation that it's obvious that the majority of Australia’s national representatives don’t care about Aboriginal people. If they did, then the national anthem, the national flag and the national education system would consistently reflect joint cultures. 

I still can’t believe how long it took me to read this book, over three years. I had to stop myself at times, spending weeks slowly (sometimes a page at time) reflecting on what was unfolding. There’s such a sinister connection between the silenced accounts of men taking (and being ‘given') Aboriginal girls and women to be raped and sold for prostitution, all the while these same men are raping gold and pearls from the earth. (I must remember to investigate this line of inquiry for an art series, something along the lines of ‘all that shines is not golden’ / ‘The true price of natural resources’ / ‘taking what's not yours', give more thought to this and revisit in the future).  

How would my family and friends feel celebrating with a public holiday and feast to celebrate the date Germany invaded Poland, the seed of WWII? I’m certain no-one I know and love with a beating heart and conscious mind would ever enjoy a BBQ feast and parade union jack flags to celebrate the the 26th of January (so called 'Australia Day'), if they truly understood that this day doesn't represent discovery, it so fittingly represents what happened as a result of this date, the denied-annihilation of human lives valued less than others. This book makes me feel anxious for Australia's future because our foundations are not honest. 

Read this book when you care about truth and justice. Read again and again when you are ready to explore; If words can be daggers, what can silence be?

The Story of Human Language

Image source Audible

Read via Audible

Reading Reflection written January 2022

Without comprehension, rhythm reigns. When I hear people speaking and when I’m unable to comprehend exactly what they are saying, dialogue inadvertently transitions into melody.

Surely I can’t be the only one who secretly loves to drive along listening to radio stations in languages I cannot understand (foreignly familiar is a concept I must remember to explore through a series of paintings). There's an element of dorkiness in reading (or  listening to) a book like this, it brings out non conventional sounds we make with our mouths; I hastily stopped this book numerous times when loved ones unexpectedly walked into a room while I was listening to this on Audible. I'm not embarrassed, I just feel a sense of being alone in my appreciation for the sounds of languages. I love learning the scaffolding of other languages, finding connections and understanding etymologies. This series of lectures makes me feel as if I'm not alone in my obsession with languages/the sounds of translation. Just as when I’m blind contour drawing, reading this gives me that addictive thrill of surrendering to unlearning.

Read this book when you want the infant-like excitement of discovering new things. Read again and again when you're unconcerned with being cool and more focused on making connections.

Apollos Angels A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans

Image source Amazon

Read via physical book and Audible (Narrated on Audible by Kristen Potter)

Reading Reflection Written July, 2021

Now I truly appreciate ballet dancers as living masterpieces of memory and repetition.

Their dedication to their art is beyond admirable. I wonder if they ever slouch in private or their unapologetic perfection trickles throughout their entire being. Reading this feels as if I'm suspending time with such supernatural acrobatic grace as the dancers themselves. I somehow feel connected to these dancers, even though I could never do what they do; I’m truly inspired by their dedication. Listening to the intricacies of a performance is a storytelling format which arouses a new type of stimulation. The curtain is lifted highlighting why dancers have continued this painfully-pleasurable tradition for centuries. I crave to travel back to pantomime days to experience the theatrics of ancient performers. Just to fantasise about a world without mobile phones makes me smile, a time where creators and performers were free from social media and all the pressures that come with playing this game. There's something hopelessly romantic about the idea of rewinding through antiquity, to a time where raw-innovative entertainment was the screen-time equivalent. Revolutionary and ballet are not often heard in the same vein, yet how truly poetic that through the grace and wit of ballet, minorities have dissolved societal and political oppression; who ever heard of an abused group of people defeating injustice with performance as their main weapon. This book makes me realise how powerful the vehicle of ballet is and how persuasion comes in many forms.

Read this book when you feel as if your art has no voice. Read again and again when you need momentum.

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

Image source Audible

Narrated by the author on Audible

Reading Reflection written September 2020

I wish I had read this sooner. I wish this was one of my bedtime stories read to me when I was a little girl.

I wish that my exposure to the actual history of Australia, the physical land and Aboriginal Peoples that have called it home for thousands and thousands of years wasn’t white-washed. What a beautiful breath of fresh air to contrast the previous accounts of bloodshed I've found when learning about so-called ‘Aboriginal history’, more accurately Australia’s-European history/ the shock waves of colonialism. I feel as if I’ve been stopped in my tracks, at a roundabout of shock-disbelief-disgust-gratitude-sorrow. I’m grateful that Aboriginal agricultural methods are documented through this book, preserved for my son to read.

Dark Emu is written and spoken with such endearing-sophistication by Bruce, I wish to meet him and hear his warm voice in the flesh one day. Dark Emu evokes a gut wrenching sadness in me, the kind you feel when there’s an injustice so close to you and you feel helpless, like when someone in your family is physically and emotionally traumatised. I also feel frustrated that the imagery of Aboriginal people that I was presented with growing up, was not only gross misrepresentations, they were part of an intricate blanket of lies designed to suffocate those not in the decision making hierarchies. 

Read this book when you want to feel small, not in a way that you don’t matter, small as in young, as if you have been away from home too long and are being read a bedtime story. Read again and again when you wish that history was not filled with nightmares and you need to awaken rejuvenated.

Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Image source Audible

Read via hard copy and Audible

Reading Reflection written August 2020

Sapiens is the equivalent of that moment when you couldn't possibly eat another bite of a glorious Christmas banquet. Every time I indulge in Sapiens I feel so full bordering on gluttonous.

Whoever is interested in this book, I’m interested in them. I've never owned so many copies of the same book as I do Sapiens: pdf/ tangible, audible and illustrated version. Could I be addicted to Sapiens in an unhealthy way? If extraterrestrials had access to only one written resource from Earth, this would be more valuable than any ‘religious’ text. There's nothing more I want from a book. Sapiens makes me feel as if I'm onto humanity's secret recipe, what makes us, us.

Read this book when you must satisfy your cravings for what was. Read again and again when you want to binge history.