Jemima Lucas : Statement
Oyster - Unthinkable, abject, unlivable bodies
Shells formed from calciums and carbonates, drifting on the ebb and flow Seized in the fine slick of their gills
Compounds hardening,
formed to protect vulnerable fleshThey rely on nothing but waste and their own sex Fucking themselves into existence
Over and over
Primitive prolificacyDo they act in servitude to the ocean? Or in symbiosis
What purpose if not filtering specs of shitCaught in their mucus
To then be swilled and slurped by foreign mucus where they’re digested and expelled. Faeces then pumped back into the ocean
The calcium of which is then to be feasted onWhat comes of gills when petrified in aluminium? Another entity serving as support to a greater structure
It’s heart may have stopped beating when evaporated
Clad in scoria
But did it feel anything?
Do violent actions inflicted on one without a nervous system begin to be non-violent?For surely bodies live and die; eat and sleep; feel pain, pleasure; endure illness and violence16 Will the memory of the shucking The evaporation, The petrification - Begin to register on your nervous system? Unthinkable, abject, unlivable bodies .
Jacquie Meng, Neil Beedie, Claire Welch, Jemima Lucas & Brigitte Podrasky
Loss of Horizon
November 16-December 10, 2022