Gavin Malone Visual Artist & Cultural Geographer

As You Are
(a body of work, 1997)

We Who are Men 1997 (RiverRed Gum, Australian 1952 pennies, military medals)

we who are men
from the ancient caves of Gaul bear witness to the horror of battlefields
the cesspool of the Somme, the putrid haze of Borneo and Vietnam
the stinking drama of war, of futility
of death

 we bear silent witness, contain
not allowing the horror to rest with the blessed and immortal fallen
they lie composed, composted, at peace
their lives lost, too many in vain

others live, wholly or partially
the physical and emotional wounds
bleed like unhealing sores, weep, seep like the insidious mustard gas
to contaminate the soul and soil, the ethos of a way of being

what is this for me, the son of a son of a son of a son
men, fathers, husbands, partners, brothers lost so much
their gentle selves, buried in the trenches and jungles of war

where now, how does the Eucalypt absorb this horror
they too lost their lives to the settlement of war
the conquering of land, migration, industrial expansion
populate or perish, white Australia

but now, the twelfth day of the seventh month
a Greenwich point in endless time
where are the emotions of the sons of sons
and their sons

once girdled, lain prostrate before the gods of war
serving the citizens of false economy
are they denizens of false dogma, do they still carry the scars
bear witness to the slaughter of more than good men and trees
felled in the cause of the barons of war

no greater love they say

Honour 1997 (River Red gum, granite, paper)

Honour,
honour thy father as thyself
the man of granite, the island, separate
connected by a tenuous thread, vulnerable
at the mercy of forces beyond his control

the river Inman
how apt, quaint, flowing from denuded hills
into the plundered, polluted sea
but the Right whale now returns to calve and nurture unafraid
as time and instinct dictate

the river in each man
flows as in a subterranean cavern, hidden
surging powerfully, gushing and throbbing
in veins and arteries unseen

the light of a soft clear day
bathes, penetrates the husk
to free the soul, touch the heart
open the mind

let All Bulk Waste, ph 382 8618
be taken away, not to be dumped
not to be a snag in the river In man
not to be recycled but redefined, rebirthed

the sea of knowledge
both shallow and deep
welcomes the water from the river in man
as the moon tide laps gently on the sand
to honour eternal man

yes, honour the father
who has followed the grain, at times unknowing
but not uncaring

(Image to come)

Father 1997 (Australian 1952, military ribbons, name tags)

Father, oh father
crawling on the floor
alone, in the twilight of life
where once you crawled at dawn
learning, exploring, walking
but never alone

the nurturing of mother was there
to guide, protect, comfort
the hand of father
to steady and extol
when you fell to the floor

but what now
now the floor beckons
cruel
the weakness of the body old
the lost agility of the newly spawned
the gravity of the moment
cannot defy Newton’s law
or the laws eternal

yield gently
seek and accept the comfort of others
soften
share the timeless eroding
of the granite to sand
blown and scattered like the ash of ancient forests
the inferno of the four horsemen
reaps a toll that cannot be eluded

rest assured
rest with the spirits of the old ones
rest in the azure sea
but be not alone
when you join the dwellers of the deep

In Irish

A Athair, a Athair

ag lámhacán ar an urlár
id aonar
i gcapsholas do shaoil
áit a mbíteá tráth ag lámhacán le fáinne an lae,
ag foghlaim, ag iniúchadh, ag siúl,
ach ní id aonar ‘riamh

bhíodh do mháthair ann
ag tabhairt stiúir
cumhdach agus sólás duit
lámh thréan an athar ag tabhairt aire duit
nuair a thit tú go talamh

ach anois,
anois tá an t-urlár a’d mhealladh,
faraor gear
laige an choirp aosta
luath na mball ar lár
ní féidir le tromchúis an nóiméid
dlí Newton ná
an dlí síoraí
a shéanadh

géill dó go caoin
beir greim ar na lámha atá á síneadh chugat
bog do chroí
aontaigh leis na carraigeacha faoi thurraing na dtonn
scaipthe ar nós luatha na gcoillte ársa
bailíonn tine an cheathrar marcach
cíos nach féidir a shéanadh

glac do shuaimhneas
in éindí le hanamnacha do shinsear
sa mhuir ghormghlas
ach ná bí id aonar
ag imeacht leat ar shlí na fírinne

What Price 1997 (River Red gum, Australian 1952 pennies, military ribbons)

What price nationhood – Courage
What price manhood – Fidelity

Contaminated Site, 1996

Contaminated Site Gasworks Sculpture Park, Melbourne 1996

the surface world is a sea of tears
sourced in the bowels of the earth
once erupted
tears gush unhindered
ever upwards
their destiny
to flood the sky and blur the light
dulling the glow of our being

could it not be so?

but it is
the fault line
that vile being
who violated she so young
and vulnerable

the patriarchal state
once set in stone
does not stop the flow
of such destructive lava
the desecration of the labia

the flow must cease

that amorphous culture of state
all matter of being
igneous, Ignatius, plutonic, Platonic
must be reshaped
another world formed

protective, fertile and forgiving