Article about the series in Spectaculum Magazine
Lament of the scaled - Poem by Justine Arnal
At the beginning : the trap
The bait floating on the surface, ballasted towards the abysses
At the beginning : attract the beast with the lure
Magnetize it by the mouth
For seduction
at the end of the hook
mealworms leeches minnow or doughballs
for the jaw grip
snatched without a cry
torn off without a noise
the troubled water from the intrusion
of rods, nets, trawlers
upcoming destinies : aquarium jar market filling or frying
or
the only pleasure of the catch
of the fisherman
calm and voracious
(The price of voracity : the beast jaw
never spared)
What it takes of patience, of insolence
to go and to find what
spawns
slides
undulates
and escapes us underneath
The water lilies
covered of small round and green islands with pink flowers
are the clothes of the abysses
Discus
Selene vomer
Cobalt Zebra
Shining underneath in the dark
We name them
Balloonfish
Dragonfish
(No guarantee that we love them)
Here, a stressed neon tetra has lost its colors
There, on the body of a discus in danger
suddenly appeared
black stripes
Break their shoals
force them to
join our ranks
What it takes
to survive
no one knows
They know way better than we do
(Is there anyone who wants to know
what our survival depends on ?)
Whose fault is it?
To the white tenderness of their flesh
To the iridescent reflections
The fault of the beauty
(Denying that once acquired
it turns it into pieces)
We agree : fishes are beautiful, fishes are good
We must have them
(During this time
Asteria mop their brow
congratulate themselves
for not being edible)
How avid are our eyes for colors
How avid are our mouths for savors
They like : mosquito larvae, bloodworms artemia and daphnia
They like so many things that we ignore
We offer them : glitter, glitter, glitter
Jar, jar, jar
Here, they flake off
Regardless of the meal time
There is always an ordinary drama on the daily menu
This time who is behind the crime?
No one saw
The tenant? Gone too fast
Or the neighbor? Came too late
Yet she had agreed to –
She was supposed to
take care of
the inhabitants of the aquarium
No, nobody saw
Who, killed them
without making a single move
This happens
more often
than we think