For my exploration, I decided to do some writing on pearls. Below is a poem I wrote, followed by a less structured free association that I'm sharing in case some of the images are inspiring.
salt and lustre
you started as an irritant
not a grain of sand
but an early trauma
bruising the fleshy lips of your inner mantle
or a parasite
that would sicken and rot your soft innards
I enclose you
in calcium carbonate and nacre
a defense against harm
an immune system response
the princess and the pea
humans pry us open with sharp knives
throw us away on great piles
flesh rotting in heat and sun
protective shells forced open
searching for that rare pearl
evidence of trauma made luminous
they pluck out our sheen
place us in crowns and scepters
sort our hurts by size and color and lustre
women string us around their necks
with their matching sweater sets
men slurp out our innards
tasting the sea
Maud Allan adorned herself
in flesh and pearl
white flesh and white pearl
asking to be opened up
tasted
the salt and lustre of hurt
(free association on pearls)
the pearly gates nacre iridescent lustre layers calcium carbonate what a pearl pearl milk tea tits n ass boba anal beads sexy excretions feminine stolen from mollusk inserting a plastic bead into your fleshy mantle loving admiring exotifying your hurts your defense mechanisms your way of healing
Beautiful poem, potent imagery.
ReplyDeleteIT brings us back to the water in which shells live and grow.....
So great to think of it chemically in terms of their composition.
I can think of another installation station almost like a chemical/water lab.
I love that you draw attention to the violence of opening up shells to get out the pearls. Its so true and we forget when we think of pearls as jewelry, particularly in a bourgeois aesthetic.... I wonder about the colonial history of pearl necklaces....
I am also reminded of the imagery of shells being related to the vagina....
I think of Oysters as well.
FEEDBACK FROM MEENA:
ReplyDeletewow these descriptions are powerful! beautiful and violent. very visceral. something unsettling about trauma as beautiful. not sure what to do with this. Shy's poem also brings together a violent encounter and someone's perception of beauty.
i think it could be interesting to add one more stanza in between
men slurp out our innards
tasting the sea
and
Maud Allan adorned herself
in flesh and pearl
this feels like a big jump for me to make.
i love this being told from the perspective of the pearl! a day in the life of a pearl :-)
i will have to get some oysters now for the video!