It is Vienna's golden age, Franz Joseph marks his diamond year.
The Great exhibition shrouds the underbelly, the hate and fear.
Klimt's shimmering "Kiss" marks the embrace of art and politic.
Look again, that is no kiss, it is forced attention, painfully graphic.

Elsa glides in, attracts attention, welcome to the Café Central.
Full of academic frustration, these times, for women, it's natural.
This cornucopia of creation draws her in, entices and excites her.
She does not know it yet, but she is the object of three voyeurs.

To Sigmund she is a subject, he meticulously records her action.
His grasp of psychology drives theorem, prompts reaction.
His published "Oedipus Theory" delves deep, as does his conceit.
Is she another Little Hans? Surely it cannot be that neat?

A nervous Austrian artist sits quietly reading print media.
Adolf admires the racism of Karl Lueger the Mayor of Vienna.
He spies Elsa Jerusalem gliding from the corner of his eye.
All he hates about Jews he focuses, for him, she personifies.

And then there is Lev Bronstein, a Jewish, Ukrainian dissident
Imprisoned, expelled, on revenge through "Pravda" he is intent.
He sees a kindred being, repressed, but so strong in spirit.
The future Leon Trotsky foresees the world about to pivot.

Art mirrors life, child prodigy Egon Schiele's limbless self portrait.
Schoenberg's string quartet screeches discordantly in complaint.
The clean lines of the Loos Haus, rejecting "Ornament and Crime".
The lust and violence of Kokoschka's Dreaming Boys is not mime.

Elsa's mind is turning, she's ambivalent to the attention she draws.
An epoch shot through with torment, peoples' plight, she abhors.
She steals herself to comment, to record, to publicise and address.
Prostitution her target, this wicked embrace, Vienna must confess.

So the Red House is born, a work depicting women's' degradation.
The inheritance of service, from mother to daughter, a violation.
Vienna acknowledges its fatal neurosis, led by the story of a girl.
And from this moment forth it is an end to the Viennese Whirl.

Lorraine Ansell

One Small Step

1908 – A Dark Austrian Fairy Tale. Or is it?

Societal reboot

20 years and lovin' it

TEA time

Leaving

Emotion

All work is complete

To the top (reading 1)

Shabby Shite (reading 1)

Man on train (reading 1)

The Jabbercock (reading 1)

The supefluous manager

2030

Tell you a Story

The “Monte Carlo” Gamble

The Amazing Shit Fairy

The Hill

The Londoner’s Prayer

The Moulsecoomb Miracle

The Way of the World

This Morning

Train Fodder

When does it stop?

Leaving do

Life and work with Bi-polar

Light at the end of the … bubble

Little steps turn into massive leaps

Locked in the building

Losing a Friend

Man Armour

Man of a certain age

Man…tarah (reading 1)

Missing and Inaction

Sensory deprivation

Opportunty

Passing Paper Judgement

Password

PhD (reading 2)

Picturesque

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