lviia-1. “You do not expect an insect colony to be transfixed with grief at the destruction of a neighboring anthill, but you do assume a certain degree of empathy in human nature, and to that extent there is indeed something alarmingly absurd and shocking about continuing to drink coffee in the normal way on Hamburg balconies at the end of July 1943, rather like the sight of Grandville’s animals, in human dress and armed with cutlery, consuming a fellow creature. On the other hand, keeping up everyday routines regardless of disaster, from the baking of a cake to put on the coffee table to the observance of more elevated cultural rituals, is a tried and trusted method of preserving what is thought of as healthy human reason.”

—W. G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, 1999, trans. Anthea Bell

xb-1a. During the Second World War, the parachutes of Allied paratroopers were collected and sent home, where possible. The parachutes were made out of precious silk, and many women and widows would use the material to sew clothes, undergarments and, in some cases, new wedding gowns.

xva-1. The humpback anglerfish has a small organ on its head that contains millions of bioluminescent bacteria, so that it can see at ocean depths where there is no light to speak of.

Take a seat.

Exhibition History

• The Time it Takes
  2024
  Musee d'art de Joliette
  Joliette, CA