olya
salimova
Life has been married to language so long that you
might think the two could finish or begin each other's
somersaults and sentences. They don't. It only seems
as if they do. Why? Life if Being discovering
speech. Which is to say Being discovering being.
Is language Being discovering life? It might
be so. Which does not mean that speech
and being are the same.
Robert Bringhurst, Life Poem
stropha sexta
earth
performance with Jacob Artillery, 22 min
Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, IL
how does it feel to be alive on this planet? what does it mean to be a human in a mysterious world among other creatures in the nature, spirits, stars and planets, myths and stories we tell ourselves that are always both true and made up? not having answers, i know with astonishment i am just a grain of sand in a sprawling network of the relationships between nature and art, words and images, sounds and materials, time and space. and because my voice alone is faint and distant i am donning the griot's clothes to speak many voices overheard in books, songs, and other creviced spaces
all photographs by Lillian Heredia
sufficiently layered the materials and experiences form a time capsule, a foundation of memory, a propagation, an anlage. the bee produces and layers propolis to seal the hive off from wind, cold and predators. if a mouse makes her way into the hive she is stung to death by hundreds of bees and then swathed in the propolis, sarcophagus-like, because like the limestone used by the ancients for making coffins the propolis is a "flesh-eater" that decomposes the body of the mouse quickly. this is the way i like to think about it. this preservation of the flesh is also a preservation of time, a generative and abundant process.
