unpainted to the last
film, contemplation & prayer for whales, Parallax Art Center, Portland OR, USA, 2023
by Salty Xi Jie Ng with sound by Shawn Creeden
"The living whale, in his full majesty and significance, is only to be seen at sea in unfathomable waters; and afloat the vast bulk of him is out of sight, like a launched line-of-battle ship; and out of that element it is a thing eternally impossible for mortal man to hoist him bodily into the air, so as to preserve all his mighty swells and undulations. It is one of the more curious things about this Leviathan, that his skeleton gives very little idea of his general shape. In fact, the mere skeleton of the whale bears the same relation to the fully invested and padded animal as the insect does to the chrysalis that so roundingly envelopes it. For all these reasons, then, any way you may look at it, you must needs conclude that the great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last."
- Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
Contemplate whale lives and interspecies kinship. What can we learn from these ceteceans' serene gravity, ethereal song, and quiet endurance as a species once heavily hunted? This whale contemplation and prayer for whales includes excerpts from Roger Payne’s On Whales & other sources.
This event was part of Making Earth Cool's residency at Parallax Art Center.
by Salty Xi Jie Ng with sound by Shawn Creeden
"The living whale, in his full majesty and significance, is only to be seen at sea in unfathomable waters; and afloat the vast bulk of him is out of sight, like a launched line-of-battle ship; and out of that element it is a thing eternally impossible for mortal man to hoist him bodily into the air, so as to preserve all his mighty swells and undulations. It is one of the more curious things about this Leviathan, that his skeleton gives very little idea of his general shape. In fact, the mere skeleton of the whale bears the same relation to the fully invested and padded animal as the insect does to the chrysalis that so roundingly envelopes it. For all these reasons, then, any way you may look at it, you must needs conclude that the great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last."
- Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
Contemplate whale lives and interspecies kinship. What can we learn from these ceteceans' serene gravity, ethereal song, and quiet endurance as a species once heavily hunted? This whale contemplation and prayer for whales includes excerpts from Roger Payne’s On Whales & other sources.
This event was part of Making Earth Cool's residency at Parallax Art Center.
stills from footage by Grayson Smibert