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| Yayoi Kusama’s Wax Figure |
I just finished reading Bri Lee's 'Eggshell Skull', a book I bought down in Byron Bay in a bookshop in Fletcher Street when I was staying in Byron Bay that weekend for a writers festival in 2018, which I wrote about here -
The War on Sleep?
I've already read Jimmy's first book, and that was a cracker of a read -
A Sign from a 'Working Class Man'?
How Prophetic Was Jonathan Livingston Seagull?
What are the Oscar-nominated "Best" Movies for 2020, the Year of the Rat?
You Tube below.
So, with all that in mind I start reading Bri Lee's 'Eggshell Skull' with the very much looking 'Silence of the Lambs' type front cover image, and Bri more or less starts and ends the book by walking past an artwork named 'Eyes Are Singing Out', by a Japanese artist named Yayoi Kusama.
Embarrassingly, I have to admit that I had never heard about or seen this artwork smack bang in the middle of the city I grew up in as a child and have lived on the outskirts of all my life.
Bri also starts off describing her tour of the law courts building on her first day at work as a judge's assistant in that building by going down into the holding cells in the basement and then up to the office she worked in on the 13th floor.
Bri also frequently mentions looking out down over the Roma Street Parkland from on high in that building and contemplating the crimes that have taken place in and around that parkland.
Which brings my mind back to the movie 'Parasite' and how the PARK family literally live the high life while the KIM family struggle down below.
Of course, every single living organism is a parasite to some degree ... that's life for you.
But some people do seem like parasites when it comes to turning a blind eye to justice just to suck the living cash out of you or somebody else.
We don't have all of those lawyer jokes just for fun, do we?-)
But we are all parasites, no matter how we want to paint the other person beside us as one and forget that we are one also.
History of Roma Street Parkland area
"Local Indigenous people used the area for thousands of years conducting meetings and ceremonies.
In 1825 the Roma Street Parkland area was part of the original Brisbane settlement.
In 1875 a railway terminal station in Roma Street was constructed as part of the Main Line railway linking Brisbane to Ipswich and Toowoomba.
The terminal grew to become a major goods yard for Brisbane and, between 1911 and 1934, the area was extensively redeveloped to support its increase in services.
In 1920 extensive excavation, removing 554,300 cubic meters of earth, permanently altered the steep terrain creating the current day artificial escarpment and the boundary of the former Albert Park. During World War II, the terminal was vital for transporting war materials and military personnel north.
Continuing to grow, the Roma Street railway station was redeveloped to service a metropolitan and long-distance train network.
Because of limitations of the site revealed through the increasing mechanization of freight handling and the use of containers, the facility was eventually relocated to Acacia Ridge in 1991.
In February 1995, State Premier Wayne Goss announced the railway goods yard would be redeveloped as parkland.
Construction began in 2000 with the parkland opened to the public in 2001.
The project won its first award before it had opened: a commendation in the Cement and Concrete Association of Australia Streetsmart awards for the innovative concrete finishes created by the use of coloured concrete and an apparently random pattern of rough cast concrete generated by the formworkers which makes the finish appear to change through the day depending on the angle of the sun and the length of shadows cast by the detailing on the walls.
The technique was created through a design and construction collaboration between project designers PARC managing contractor Abigroup and the Queensland Department of Public Works."
Draw Your Weapons ... Again?
Kind of synchromystically ironic that the writer/director of 'Parasite' also wrote 'Snowpiercer', considering that the Roma Street Parkland was made by reclaiming the old railyards.
'Eggshell Skull' certainly was an eye opening and rather 'Blue Velvet' type read for me, as Bri took me (the reader) on a tour through her eyes in and around the city I grew up in.
There were a lot of personal synchronicties for me while reading her book, like the place she mentions her brother buying a home to live in was the last town my favourite aunt lived and died in, and she was a survivor of a rather bad childhood sexual assault.
Bri mentions jogging around the Gympie cemetery were a few relatives of mine are buried.
And having served on a jury only once myself, it was a rape case, with a verdict of not guilty.
And I'm sure if I told all the details of that trial here (which I'm not going to) you would probably see for yourself that we reached the right conclusion as a jury, "beyond reasonable doubt", as they say in the Queensland court system.
And while I don't always agree with what Bri writes in the book, it is worth a read I think, to provoke some thinking about life in general, and just how parasitic it is on all levels (pardon the court building pun there).
I couldn't believe it when Bri mentions having black ants sprinkled over her dinner in a fancy restaurant in Brisbane, as I hadn't heard of people doing that before.
But it did remind me of seeing the black ant crawling past me when I was in what I thought was a fancy restaurant eating snails and which I wrote about in this old post -
A Crow, Six Snails and an Ant
Ironically, after reading in 'Eggshell Skull' that most sexual assaults that go through the courts are usually involving stepdads, or the boyfriends of mothers attacking their daughters, I was listening to a current 'The Garret' podcast featuring Bri talking about wanting to write for 'The New Yorker' magazine.
And in my post about the author of the book 'Lolita' I wrote about him getting a short story published in that magazine by Katharine Sergeant Angell White, who would die in 1977, along with Nabokov and Chaplin -
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita and Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood?
And I'm sure that I don't have to go into Chaplin's murky infamous romances to show you the irony there regarding 'Lolita'.
I like how Bri Lee writes with an eye on her own life and how she sees it through her own eyes, which takes guts in my book.
Not that I'll be reading 'Beauty' anytime soon, unless the "book angel" smashes me over the head with it.
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| Eyes are Singing Out, Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law, by Yayoi Kusama |
Which brings my mind back to the movie 'Parasite' and how the PARK family literally live the high life while the KIM family struggle down below.
Of course, every single living organism is a parasite to some degree ... that's life for you.
But some people do seem like parasites when it comes to turning a blind eye to justice just to suck the living cash out of you or somebody else.
We don't have all of those lawyer jokes just for fun, do we?-)
But we are all parasites, no matter how we want to paint the other person beside us as one and forget that we are one also.
"Local Indigenous people used the area for thousands of years conducting meetings and ceremonies.
In 1825 the Roma Street Parkland area was part of the original Brisbane settlement.
In 1875 a railway terminal station in Roma Street was constructed as part of the Main Line railway linking Brisbane to Ipswich and Toowoomba.
The terminal grew to become a major goods yard for Brisbane and, between 1911 and 1934, the area was extensively redeveloped to support its increase in services.
In 1920 extensive excavation, removing 554,300 cubic meters of earth, permanently altered the steep terrain creating the current day artificial escarpment and the boundary of the former Albert Park. During World War II, the terminal was vital for transporting war materials and military personnel north.
Continuing to grow, the Roma Street railway station was redeveloped to service a metropolitan and long-distance train network.
Because of limitations of the site revealed through the increasing mechanization of freight handling and the use of containers, the facility was eventually relocated to Acacia Ridge in 1991.
In February 1995, State Premier Wayne Goss announced the railway goods yard would be redeveloped as parkland.
Construction began in 2000 with the parkland opened to the public in 2001.
The project won its first award before it had opened: a commendation in the Cement and Concrete Association of Australia Streetsmart awards for the innovative concrete finishes created by the use of coloured concrete and an apparently random pattern of rough cast concrete generated by the formworkers which makes the finish appear to change through the day depending on the angle of the sun and the length of shadows cast by the detailing on the walls.
The technique was created through a design and construction collaboration between project designers PARC managing contractor Abigroup and the Queensland Department of Public Works."
Draw Your Weapons ... Again?
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| Eyes Growing on Trees, 1989 |
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| Yayoi Kusama at GOMA |
There were a lot of personal synchronicties for me while reading her book, like the place she mentions her brother buying a home to live in was the last town my favourite aunt lived and died in, and she was a survivor of a rather bad childhood sexual assault.
Bri mentions jogging around the Gympie cemetery were a few relatives of mine are buried.
And having served on a jury only once myself, it was a rape case, with a verdict of not guilty.
And I'm sure if I told all the details of that trial here (which I'm not going to) you would probably see for yourself that we reached the right conclusion as a jury, "beyond reasonable doubt", as they say in the Queensland court system.
I couldn't believe it when Bri mentions having black ants sprinkled over her dinner in a fancy restaurant in Brisbane, as I hadn't heard of people doing that before.
But it did remind me of seeing the black ant crawling past me when I was in what I thought was a fancy restaurant eating snails and which I wrote about in this old post -
A Crow, Six Snails and an Ant
 |
| 'The Garret' podcast featuring Bri |
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita and Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood?
 |
| Yayoi Kusama Children’s Book Tells the Story of Her Legendary, Polka-Dotted Life |
Not that I'll be reading 'Beauty' anytime soon, unless the "book angel" smashes me over the head with it.
'Eggshell Skull' is a good read.
Probably not a book I would have picked up to read if I hadn't have crossed paths with Bri many times at book talks.
Out of the Forest and Back into the Jungle?
I only really read 'Eggshell Skull' because Bri kept popping up as MC, or on panels at talks I would attend to hear other authors speak ... or just to look at nostalgic landmarks from my childhood visits to West End to see my Nan all those years ago.
So, it was all just coincidence, really -
Synchronicity, 42 and Owls?
The Dance of Chance for an Avid Reader?
UPDATE: January 20th, 2020
Probably not a book I would have picked up to read if I hadn't have crossed paths with Bri many times at book talks.
Out of the Forest and Back into the Jungle?
So, it was all just coincidence, really -
Synchronicity, 42 and Owls?
UPDATE: January 20th, 2020
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