Detail from Luminescing When Dusk Comes
G
G U L F
L
F
gulf |gəlf|
noun
1. a deep inlet of the sea almost surrounded by land, with a narrow mouth.
2. a deep ravine, chasm, or abyss.
• figurative a large difference or division between two people or groups, or between viewpoints, concepts, or situations : a wide gulf between theory and practice.
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An explosion on 20 April destroyed the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico causing a massive haemorrhage in the ocean floor. “Without doubt at this point we are in the midst of what could be the greatest ecological catastrophe in history. The oil platform explosion took place almost within the current loop where the Gulf Stream originates. This has huge ecological and climatological consequences.” http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19660
The implications - environmental, social, local, global - of this event have preoccupied me since news of the rupture broke. What to do? What not to do? It isn't enough to point fingers at BP, at mining companies and fracking conglomerates. Every one of us is responsible for fueling these industries. We've lost the plot, become way too accustomed to having what we (think we) need. Then, when something like this happens, noise, neglect and aggressive protest become our knee-jerk reactions. Evidence suggests we're being numbed into inaction; relentless negativity does not yield positive outcomes.
If ever there was a time for protest in the form of poetry, it is now. It seems to me we need to come these subjects 'through the gaps', to find new ways of expressing our concerns. . . When we view our world through the lens of gratitude and wonder, a whole new set of potentials comes into being.
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G ULF_Battaglia
Oil on paper
2010
1050 x 760MM (v x h)
SOLD
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BATTAGLIA
oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water
do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix
oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water
do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix
oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water oil and water do not mix do not mix oil and water
Let us not forget the silver-headed
minnows, their presto con brio flash
and exuberant, spear-shaped shimmer.
See them now?
Their fins are barely a-flicker. Instinct
propels them but their once-vivid slice
through water is nothing but the faintest quiver.
See them?
Mouths shut tight and belly up, they might
easily be mistaken for cutlery clattering
in a rimless ocean sink.
See?
There's no music left in them, no sound
stirring in this floating orchestra of cartilage
and bone. This was no accidental storm;
?
the earth recoils in disbelief, her grief
is deep, our indifference to her, unfathomable.
This is a solemn and vicious tide
.
with power to turn salt water sour; a viscous bile
that dulls the shining scales of fish
and rusts the sleeping turtle's shell.
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BATTAGLIA (detail)
Oil on paper 2012
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Breastplate II_Let us not forget the silver-headed minnows (detail)
Breastplate II | Let Us Not Forget The Silver-headed Minnows (detail)
Oil and pencil on paper
2011
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Surely Some Revelation Is At Hand? (detail)
Oil on paper
2010
2010
G_ULF_Luminescing When Dusk Comes
Oil & pencil on paper
2010
760 x 560MM (v x h)
". . .We and many other animals sleep and wake in cycles that repeat every twenty-four hours. Some ocean protists, dinomastigotes, luminesce when dusk comes, ceasing two hours later. So hooked are they into the cosmic rhythm of Earth that even back in the laboratory, away from the sea, they know the sun has set. Many similar examples abound because living matter is not an island but part of the cosmic matter around it, dancing to the beat of the universe.
Life is a material phenomenon so finely tuned and nuanced to its cosmic domicile that the relatively minor shift of angle and temperature change as the tilted Earth moves in its course around the sun is enough to alter life’s mood, to bring on or silence the song of bird, bullfrog, cricket and circada. But the steady background beat of Earth turning and orbiting in its cosmic environment provides more than a metronome for daily and seasonal lives. Larger rhythms, more difficult to discern, can also be heard. . ."
from What is Life? Lynn Margulis & Dorion Sagan (pg. 240 & 241)
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