'Heide is an epic poem about history, painting, painters, patrons and the people who made art happen in Australia — from Louis Buvelot to Edith Rowan, Tom Roberts and Robert Streeton to Vassilief, Nolan, Tucker, Joy Hester, the Boyds, Mirka Mora, and Albert Namatjira, with a particular focus on the artists gathered around Sunday and John Reed at Heide in Melbourne.
'It is a poem that explores the influence of art and poetry on the psyche, and the influence of social class on both, from the upper echelons and industrialists of Melbourne, to the struggle of the working class through such artists as Alisa O’Connor, Noel Counihan and Yosl Bergner. It begins with the foundation of Melbourne, and in its epic scope traverses an encyclopaedic range of subjects, assembled from facts, quotations, proverbs, definitions, historical documents, newspaper accounts and the author’s own reminiscences.
'Heide is about the poets and artists who put their lives on the line, the Australian preoccupation with landscape, the dominance of a masculinist aesthetic, the sidelining and denigration of Indigenous art, the struggle of women artists to assert their influence and presence, and the impact of migration on Australian culture.
'It is a long poem made up of almost 300 poems, each bringing to life characters and incidents that are fleshed out in vivid detail and with a dramatic intensity unique in Australian poetry.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
(Introduction)
'The third instalment in Melbourne poet Π.O’s trilogy is a playful journey through Australian art history.'
Live Recording : PiO on Heide
Ivor Indyk
(interviewer),
2020
23473912
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Award-winning poet PiO chats with Giramondo publisher Ivor Indyk about poetry, on and off the page. This is a live recording of an online event hosted via Zoom during the Covid-19 crisis.' (Production summary)
(Introduction)
'The figures of the Heide circle have attained the status of myth and legend, and as such they are available for reimagining, just as Ned Kelly was for Sidney Nolan. That is one of the implicit claims, and achievements, of this extremely ambitious work of social and art history as poetry. Heide is a long, composite work made up of 219 separate poems, many of which are themselves series of poems. It is also the final volume of what is now revealed to be a trilogy, one that adds up to just over 2000 pages (and weighs in at a challenging 2.5kg).' (Introduction)
'Trying unsuccessfully to write this review in June, I ride alongside the Eastern Freeway to Bulleen. The gallery is closed but I visit the bees, the bare trees, the corrugated cows. Plaques along the path by the river gloss over the Wurundjeri history of Bolin (‘lyrebird’, later Anglicised to Bulleen) and the process by which Indigenous custodians of the land were ‘driven out’ of the area throughout the 1850s, while documenting with painstaking detail the white settler casualties of severe floods in the following decades. That night I google the scar-tree, a red gum towering over the entrance to the kitchen garden, and learn its Woiwurrung name: Yingabeal, or ‘song tree’. Yingabeal is also a marker tree, situated at the convergence of five song lines and estimated to be between 600 and 700 years old.' (Introduction)
'Australian poet TT.O. has been working on his latest epic poem, Heide, for about eight years. Heide the spiritual heart of Australian modernism in both poetry and art circles. The work marries times — past, present, and futures. It shows connections between art, politics, history, anarchism, poetry, struggles, the military, and his earlier works. It ranges across numerous biographies, and stands back to locate the whole in its epic grandeur; from the building of Melbourne as a city, to the establishment of its politics, art practice, poetry, and psychology. All the parts fit together, even when they fly off in different directions. It contains world history in both its writing and references. It takes off from where the Ern Malley Hoax bludgeoned Australian poetry into submission.' (Introduction)
Live Recording : PiO on Heide
Ivor Indyk
(interviewer),
2020
23473912
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Award-winning poet PiO chats with Giramondo publisher Ivor Indyk about poetry, on and off the page. This is a live recording of an online event hosted via Zoom during the Covid-19 crisis.' (Production summary)
