Metamorphosis (Bald Men)

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The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb.[1]

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« Dios con nosotros »
Porque ese cielo tan azul que todos vemos
Ni es cielo ni es azul
Lástima grande / Que no sea verdad tanta belleza.[2]

“God with Us”
For that sky so blue we all see
Is neither sky nor blue
Big pity / That so much beauty wouldn’t be the truth.[3]

Gott mit Uns (Delusion of Grandeur)

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WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.[4]

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.[5]

Four legs good, two legs bad.[6]

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Ay,
Qué esfuerzo el de la mosca por ser caballo.[7]
Esfuerzo es el del puerco por ser humano.

Ah,
What an effort for the fly to become a horse.[8]
It’s an effort for the hog to become a stallion. [9]

Tamaño esfuerzo el de las moscas por ser caballos.
Such an effort for the flies to become horses.

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Pure {Delikatessenhandlung} and Superior {Stink}

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Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.[10]

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Reality is always problematic
and not unquestionable.[11]

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References [1] Jorge Luis Borges, Time, 14 February 1983. [2] Versos de Lupercio Leonardo Argensola (poeta español, 1559-1613). El título “Dios con nosotros” de hecho no pertenece al poema de Argensola. [3] Lines by Argensola (see above); my translation. The title “God with Us” doesn’t belong to Argensola’s poem. [4] George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949, pt. 1, ch. 1. [5] Orwell, Animal Farm, 1940, ch. 10. [6] Ibid., ch. 3. [7] Paráfrasis: “qué esfuerzo [el] de la abeja por ser caballo” (Federico García Lorca, Poeta en Nueva York, 1929-30: “Muerte,” l. 6). [8] Mine is a paraphrase of Lorca’s “what an effort for the bee to become a horse.” Christopher Maurer translates it as “How hard the bee tries to become a horse” (Federico García Lorca: Selected Verse, revised ed., New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2004, p. 266). It should be noted that Lorca does not accentuate the mode in which the bee tries to become a horse, but the very effort it takes that insect to become a quadruped. [9] Puerco and hog aren’t synonyms, neither are humano and stallion. [10] Orwell, Shooting an Elephant, 1950. [11] José Ortega y Gasset, “Ideas y Creencias,” 1934-40. Visual sources: “10,” unidentified bodybuilder; Michel Kerbow, Pigs à la Warhol, New York, 1991.

Metamorphosis (Bald Men) is a digital configuration by akermariano (Mariano Akerman); it includes six digital images, Supermann (Proximity), Pigs I-IV, and Supermann Plastified. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.