Ian Hamilton Finlay

SERPENTS AND
SKULLS

Zephyr INS 6
1975–6

Shepherd Lad KY 216
1975–6

Franz Brentano

The objects of sensory experience are deceptive ... We have no right ... to believe that the objects of so-called external perception really exist as they appear to us. Indeed, they demonstrably do not exist outside of us. In contrast to that which really and truly exists, they are mere phenomena.

William Carlos Williams

This is the trap — either what we seek is within the bounds of the understanding or beyond it. If outside it does not exist for us, much less for our imagination; if inside it is bounded by that and must be so deﬁned before it can be conceived — this precedes all further progress.

The Embodiment of Knowledge

Laconic, 1987

Sail/Waves 1 — postcard design

Let Perish the Money Tyrants
1982

Peace to the Cottages —
War to the Arts Council
1982

︎

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

Wallace Stevens
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird