国際芸術センター青森・ACACで開催中の展覧会「currents / undercurrentsーいま、めくるめく流れは出会って」にて発表した「双子鯨の夢を見たら」は、これまで私がめぐり合ったマッコウクジラたちそれぞれの異なる生と死に思いを馳せながら制作しました。

作品の中に、対となる詩を書きました。目の前にある現実と無意識のイメージ、夢と現実世界、あったはずの生と失われたもの。刺繍の表裏のような、二つの世界を語る言葉です。

​1.      
私の両手のひらにおさまるほどのからだ
断ち切られた臍の緒は所在なく
開くことなく成長を止めた眼は
うすい皮膚にかくれたまま

波もない風もないガラス瓶の中
ホルマリンに沈んでいる
白い双子のマッコウクジラの胎児

海を知ることのなかった仔らを
南から北へめぐる同族たちのもとへ
還すための祈りを思い出す

布を　解き　裂き　織り　重ね　繕い
切れた緒を縒りなおし
つぎはぎすればたちあがる
生きながらえたかれらのすがた

深海に潜りイカを喰み
浅瀬にのりあげ糧となる
沖でめぐりあえたらいい
同じ年頃のいとこたち

海を知ることのなかった仔らを
あったはずの生へと
還すための祈りを思い出す


2.      
あごの骨は樹木のようにそびえて
私の背丈をとうに超え
割れた頭骨は小舟ほど
背骨のひとかけらさえ桶のよう

ある春の嵐の前の夜
浜辺に打ち上がったのは
小山ほどのマッコウクジラ

生まれた時からその体には
銀河のような模様があった
夜空の色の皮膚に渦を巻く

やがて長年陽の光を浴びた藍の衣のように
年をとった大鯨の銀河は広がり　はじけて
黒い体を白くした
老いた人が白髪を得るように

深海に潜りイカを喰み
北の海から南の海へ
小魚鳥たち仲間の鯨
みな一緒にめぐりつづけた

海に生まれて海に死んだ
大きな鯨の最期は
新たなめぐりのはじまり

My work "If twin whales appear in my dreams" was exhibited in “currents / undercurrents : Bringing together the endless flow” at Aomori Contemporary Art Centre.
This work was conceived from my several encounters with sperm whales at different times and places.
In the installation of "If twin whales appear in my dreams," I wrote a set of poems about whales. The poems contrast reality and unconscious images, the real world and a dream, a life that should have been and what was lost. The poems speak of two different worlds as if the front and back of an embroidered image.

1.      
The bodies fit in my hand
Severed umbilical cords have no place to go
Eyes stopped growing before they ever opened
And they are hidden under thin skin

No wave heaves and no wind blows in a glass jar
Submerged in formalin, they are
Twin fetuses of white sperm whales

The calves never knew the sea
I try to recall the prayer for them
To return to their kin migrating from south to north

Torn cloth is rewoven, frays are mended stitch by stitch, and
Severed cords are retwined
Patchworking may make them live again
In another world where they will survive long

They will dive into the deep ocean and eat squid
They will beach themselves and be eaten
Offshore, they will meet
Cousins of the same age

The calves never knew the sea
I try to recall the prayer for them
To return to the lives that should have been


2.      
The jawbone stands like a tree
Well past my height
A piece of the skull is as large as a boat
Even a piece of the spine is the size of a bucket

One night before a spring storm
Beached on the shore was
A sperm whale as big as a hill

The whale was born with
A birthmark like a galaxy
Swirling on skin the color of the night sky

Like indigo clothing bathed in sunlight for years
Eventually, the galaxy of the great whale grew and burst
Turning the blackish body into white
Like an old man whose hair turns grey

He dove into the deep ocean and ate squid
Migrating from northern seas to southern seas
Schools of fish, flocks of birds, and fellow whales
All the creatures circulated together in the same current

Born in the sea and dying in the sea
The end of the great whale is
The beginning of a new current