SKIN, 2017

Our skin is a barrier, a shell, it is what protects us from the world around us while it allows us to breathe and take in what we need to live.

Moths appear to be all skin – folded wings that merge with a wall or a flat surface to rest and take off in flight with the blink of an eye.

The skin of a carved surface starts talking about the beauty of slight imperfections and the way a fold comes into being from a flat surface. In the scale of the palm of our hand a thin stone surface, richly veined, shows the subtle disguise of blood flowing and tears rolling and sunshine kissing. Have you every had a moth sit very still on your hand? A fragile wonder of camouflage, folding up to merge with your skin before it flutters away, looking for the brightest spot in a dark and starry night…

Vanessa Paschakarnis

... as published in the book "Out of the Bush Garden", curated by Francesca Valente for Imago Mundi.