Body Orthodoxy

Almost exactly a year ago, I participated in a group art event called Body Orthodoxy. It was a collaboration between about a dozen artists all musing on our bodies and how they effect us. I've always meant to share what I contributed for those of you who couldn't make it. Consider this a preview for what's to come at my show in April. That is be a totally different subject matter, but the same sensory elements will be involved.

Heather(Final) from Heather Marie Fink on Vimeo.

EVERYTHING IS, EVERYTHING ISN'T

My plants are always dying. 

Curling into the fetuses
they were at their beginning.
Crisping into flowers of death.
Decaying buds of matter.
Even them, even my plants,
they’re dying.
Processing slowly into death,
Fading into nothing.
They say everything dies.
And they mean it.

My flowers are always dying.
Moving into a new phase
of their beauty.
Blooming to death.
Blooming into death.
We display them in their dwindling.
Sacrilegiously, we hang them upside down,
gazing at their wrinkled skins.
Admiring their beauty.

My animals are always dying.
Growing too old, too old to climb the stairs.
Being eaten by other animals.
Being eaten by humans.
We thank them for their sacrifice.
The ultimate,
so we can live,
and have dinner parties.

My people are always dying.
Hidden away in the ground.
Burned into ash.
I wonder,
innocent as a child,
why my grandmother’s head
is not stuffed,
hanging in the family room?
Why is she not hung upside down,
to be gazed at in all her decay,
in her blooming death?
Surely that is beautiful too.

What are we afraid of?
My fears are never dying.
They’re always alive in my brain,
and yours are alive too.
That’s the answer to
my child’s question.
Our fears are never dying,
but everything else is.