Yesterday was the opening to “Fleeting Captivities”. A two
artist show being exhibited at Space 4 Art. Asmita Duranjaya, the owner of the
Space, had invited Lilia Artis and myself to do an installation together.
Asmita asked us to build in two of her domed galleries. Each gallery’s walls
were decorated in the bright palette of our hostess, and that gave me the
incentive to try to fit within her parameters of color and glow. That was fun,
and a new stretch to use so much of it. There was an extra challenge: to
complete the whole exhibit within a 50 prim limit each. Lilia and I actually
used fewer to our surprise. This means giving prim generator a good shake, and
filling in detail with textures. The two of us gave our photoshop programs quite
a workout. The opening was thrilling to me, because one of the qualities I cherish
about Lilia is her wonderful story telling voice. She read the fable we wrote
together in both English, and then German.
Thirza Ember wrote a very
cool article about the exhibit in
her blog “Arts Parks”. She took some photos that reveal the saturation of the
colors. Lilia’s dome contains her marine environment for the octopuses, and my
dome shows the enclosure of the monkeys in an urban setting.
The Fable:
Fleeting Captivities
On that most unfortunate day when the day and the night
collided, both falling backwards into the opposite time zone, there arose for
certain diurnal and nocturnal animals a bit of a shock. The octopuses must now
hunt in the light, and the monkeys straining to find food in near darkness,
collect bananas by moon light. Both creatures’ existences perturbed in such a
manner, they wish to get back to where they once were. A passage spans the
distance between night and day, and it can be traversed, however a greater
problem ensues. There has never been accord between monkeys and octopuses.
Their rivalry is bitter. In order for the monkeys to arrive in the day, and the
octopuses into the night, they would need to pass each other on the expansive
sky bridge. Facing each other at the half way mark on the structure, one monkey
and one octopus met. Neither would let the other pass. The monkey found this
most annoying since he knew that octopuses can fly very much like a helicopter
when they spin their many arms around. “Octopus, why can’t you just fly over to
the night, so we monkeys can walk on the bridge?” The octopus responded that
the bridge is equally for the octopuses, and for this reason, the monkeys
cannot take sole possession of it. Very angered by this, the monkey yelled
“stupid octopus! Take this!” and the creature bit one of the octopus’s arms.
Shrieking, the octopus snapped one of his other arms to whip the monkey’s
behind which resulted in a scream of pain. They both hurried back to their
camps to tell their own inflated versions of the story. And so, war became
inevitable. But the monkeys always felt so tired by the constant night, and the
octopuses were exhausted by the ever present daytime. No one had the energy for
war. So they both waited a very long time. No one used the span that linked
night and day. Of course one day it had to happen, all architectural
constructions need maintenance, and this one received none. So, the ropes
started weakening, plats loosened, and some of them tumbled down through the
infinite space below. Both monkeys and octopuses realized that soon, with the
bridge gone, neither would be able to visit their days and nights. And so it
was, the days rolled on for the octopuses, and the nights rolled on for the
monkeys.
The yearning
grew. One monkey braved the bridge. He recognized the importance of diplomacy
and walked cautiously along the creaking structure. On reaching the other side,
he extended a friendly upturned hand, and let it come gently to the ground in a
gesture for an octopus to rest upon it. One octopus swam forward, aware of the
mammal’s humble gesture, and lay in the monkey’s hand. “I will carry you to the
night” he said. He brought her up into his arms, and turned to walk back across
the bridge. Everyone on both sides of the bridge watched in awe, as the two
ambassadors negotiated the dangerous bridge. It swayed, it creaked, and lost
pieces of wood. The broken fragments fell so far, they were soon invisible, and
one never heard a crash to ground, for there was none. Both octopus and monkey
hearts beat quickly. And still, more wood fell, the rope less sure each moment.
Suddenly, over half way across, there came a terrible snapping sound. The rope
on one side of the bridge had strummed itself like a broken string on an
instrument of gigantic proportion. The bridge swayed violently, throwing large
amounts of planks into oblivion. The other ropes could no longer tolerate this
jarring, and they too gave way, snapping in painful whips against the two
defenseless beasts. All observers watched in horror, as this long expanse of
bridge took an elegant twisted dive in slow motion. Its enormous body turned in
graceful hair-like descent thru the air; a work of calligraphy, becoming ever
smaller and fine with distance, while the monkey and octopus were merely dots
fading quickly from the sky’s blank page.
Each creature watched in silent shock. Not a sound. All was
empty. All was lost. Then, from far below, they saw a new shape rising. It was
the monkey riding on the back of the straining octopus, swimming higher and
higher in the air regardless of three of her wounded arms. She swam everywhere
carrying her simian passenger, from night to day, and day to night. The air was
filled with howls and bubbly marine enthusiasm. As if a gun had signaled the
beginning of a race, the octopuses unanimously swam to the monkeys’ night, but
not to relish in the darkness, rather, to offer the monkeys a ride on their
backs to the daytime. It was a most beautiful flock that swam across the sky,
thick with populace like migrating birds, and charged in newfound
companionship. The octopuses and monkeys
never rebuilt the bridge, for they came to cherish their partnership.
But it’s not the way of Nature to settle in one place for
long, no matter how well balanced it may be. There is in the animal kingdom, a
creature capable of great cruelty. A descendant of the monkey, this being
called human, has histories brimming with enslavement and avarice. And so it
was, that a band of humans came into the forest to capture hundreds of monkeys,
and deep into the sea to capture hundreds of octopuses. The tension between
octopuses and monkeys was popular folklore. And though it was no longer based
on truth, legends have no intention of dying. The organizers arranged for this
circus, having placed the marine creatures in a giant aquarium within view of a
large enclosure of the monkeys. What a violent spectacle it would create, so
they thought. It was an unwelcome outcome, as the captives showed not a trace
of animosity toward the other, so the humans tried to incite them by tapping
the aquarium glass in torturous rhythms, and scaring the monkeys by throwing
rocks in their direction. While the creatures reacted to the stress, their
animosity was directed toward the humans, not toward their fellow prisoners.
The authorities had built large drains to the sewer lines in
order to keep the circus clean, for as all humans know, animals are filthy. The
circus staff refused to enter the enclosures to clean, since it appeared to
them that the creatures were dangerous and unpredictable. So, in both cases,
huge amounts of water were dumped onto the enclosures to simply wash all
surfaces with a flush. They knew the monkeys would never venture down into the
sewer since they can’t swim, and the octopuses would never get too close to the
drains for fear of washing away. This practice continued for some time, before
a daring octopus allowed herself to wash down the drain. She swam in many
directions, and nearly became lost in the maze of huge pipes extending all
through the city. But having an excellent sense of space, she found her way
around, and returned to tell the other octopuses what she had discovered. They
were ecstatic, and began dancing for joy. The human observers misinterpreted
this, and believed the thousands of waving arms to be a sign of hostility. An
authority said “Finally, a good show of anger toward the monkeys! Let’s put on
a spectacle tonight by dumping some of those dirty primates into the aquarium
and watch them fight it out. We can charge triple the entry fee for such a
show!” While the humans began
arrangements, the octopus swam back down the sewer pipes to the drain opening
of the monkey prison, and whispered to one of them who was nearby and above the
drain. She told him that she had swum via the sewerage, and believed that the
water must eventually empty into the sea. “Tell the other monkeys that tonight
we flee, that all monkeys shall ride on our backs to the coast”. The octopus only hoped there might be an
issue to the sea.
A crowd of people began to gather for the big night event.
Tickets were sold out. Before opening the doors to the park, the authorities
decided to wash the animals’ compartments prior to the show for a sparkling presentation.
Flooding both the aquarium and the monkey enclosure with extra large doses of
water, the animals this time allowed their bodies to flow with the water
without any resistance, and down they went, every one of them, through the
drain into the open sewerage. The octopuses lost not a second in swimming to
find each monkey, and support them so that their heads were above the quick
twirling currents in the pipes. Around they went in dizzying paths, but at a liberating
distance from their prison. Unsure where the waters would carry them, each
creature hoped for the sea.
XXX
