Learning from Salmon
1988
This early installation was prompted by the writings of Japanese macrobioticist Herman Aihara, who cites the single minded purpose of the Pacific salmon, undertaking their biggest challenge at the end of life: to follow a mysterious molecular memory, to swim upstream to spawn. Humans, in contrast, generally retire from active life as they age; Aihara questions why this is the case, asking us to reconsider this impulse toward safety, this habit. This work intends to present a metaphoric journey of salmon through sculptural events: the maze of screen and wood suspended in the centre of the gallery, whose interior passage forms the letter “S”; the sloping ramp with descending stairs at the end, the net, the fragments of rubber-bound sculptures, and the cantilevered diving-board of wood and vellum: Kirkegaard’s “leap of faith”.