>>Metaphor

The original intent of the first "fish" and this "fish" is based on the idea of how we perceive certain events and our feelings about those events in our lives. The idea came about through my various Youth Work experiences where I observed that people of all ages seemed to be able to extend themselves beyond their uncertainties when they were encouraged to assume a role or perform in masks. This understanding through role play is what "fish" represents at a very basic level - "fish" is like an exploratory mechanism by which the viewer can enter into the past, future and the present and investigate how they feel about these events or experiences.

Images and words are presented when interacting with the fish which swim around on the screen in both the past and the future, each fish is different, representing a new or differing framework by which we might view portions of our experiences. In the present words appear seemingly at random and when selected are consumed in a fireball - this represents the ideal of the "Zen funeral", a technique utilised where thoughts and feelings about issues are written down on a piece of paper and then incinerated. The writing of the words objectifies them, allowing us to actually see clearly how we feel; the incinerating allows us to release these thoughts and feelings back into the universe where they no longer have the power over us they may have had previously.

"fish" isn't exhaustive by any means - it is merely meant to potentially be one of the first of many steps to understanding and accepting who and how we are.

You cannot touch the sea,
Irrevocable as death
it brings all back to itself
withdrawing;

they say each year
our filthy air makes the tides higher
but though it is all around us
it withdraws into itself.

No fish can breathe air;
no man can breathe water.
Atlantis is the distant womb
we hanker for

but the silver glances of scales
flash and flash away
hook line and sinker
their mystery is ours

you would not think
the dull gasping corpse
with greying eye and matt flanks
whispered against your cheek like that.

Fish the oceans dry,
drag in your nets
yet someday you will fall overboard,
withdraw into the sea.

Susan Lanigan (©2000)