We drift towards what we cannot have
Metaphors used in this animation are an eye, a fish, a mouth, a pair of feet and a spiral.
The feet suggest a human walking naked in Antarctica. Stripped bare of all pretensions, he could be seen from the point of view of the ice sheet (looking up).
Coiling and uncoiling from a fish’s mouth, a spiral extends, suggesting something is being explored, and possibly consumed.
An eye opening and closing in rhythm with a fish’s motion suggests humans and fish are connected.
Snow circling and spiraling all around evokes the force of Antarctic wind.
A human mouth is speaking but we cannot hear a word. This suggests there is no word to describe Antarctica.
What other meanings can you read into this animation?
What other metaphors can you find there?
I read this today and it reminded me of our discussion a couple of weeks ago. We talked about the antarctic stripping bare and exposing feelings, maybe related to a lack of cultural context as well as the climate.
Sky Burial by Xinran Pub: Chatto and Windus 2004 London ISBN: 0 7011 76849
Xinran went to Tibet in 1995 researching for the book about the life of Shu Wen who went to Tibet to prove her husband was not dead.
‘I and my four cameramen were rendered speechless by the emptiness of the landscape, the invisible wind that swept across the barren land, the high, boundless sky, and the utter silence. My mind and soul felt clean and empty. I lost any sense of where I was, or of the need to talk. The simple words that Shu Wen had used – ‘cold’, ‘colour’, season’, ‘loss’ – had a new resonance.’
Cycles in the arts?
Romantic
Classical
Post-modern
Elemental