STATEMENT
Walking fish unsettle me. I’ve always been able to look at chimpanzees
and recognize our common ancestry. But fish...I’d been collecting
anatomy images since my hand surgery two years ago. But what prodded
me into making something with them was watching carp. Eating breakfast
by a fish pond in the atrium of a hotel I watched brilliantly colored carp
jostling for food pellets thrown into their domain. After the easily
accessible food was devoured, the fish swarmed around a raised ledge holding
a lone morsel. They churned the water in their frustrated frenzy. finally
one managed to heave himself up onto the rock to claim his prize before wiggling
back into the water. A magnificent and inspiring achievement.
We carry within us remnants of our ancestors–in our
bodies as well as our dreams. Scientists conjecture that all living creatures
on planet Earth derive from one initial spark of life. the Human Genome Project
has shown how closely related we all are. It appears more and more likely
that language alone distinguishes us from other species. Language, according
to Chomsky, is a biological property of the human mind. Language, like
the body, evolves.
I have dreams of places I’ve never seen, of interactions with people
I’ve never met, of learning and speaking language I’ve never heard. I
have atoms in my body from dead organic material thousands of years old. My
DNA contains a record of the past. Each word I’ve stored in my
brain has changed its physical structure. The truth about ourselves is
right inside us.
Carol Stetser
November 2004 |