///
Clay Stealing Clay; Pots Separated From Their Shadow
(with Jason de Haan)
2016

collage & red, green, and blue coloured pencil on paper
72" x 46" each

{Lazarus resurrected, never laughed again,
except once when he saw a man stealing a pot,
he exclaimed: “Ha! clay stealing clay!”}

God bid The Devil to plumb the boundless waters,
and return with a fistful of clay
by uttering God’s name it grew into earth
the Devil tried to push God off,
but the earth kept abounding beneath them

in the primordial oceans
the first biochemical reactions were sparked
by energy from lightning
they developed into more complex forms of cellular life
by taking refuge in the clay held in the devil’s palm

pots tell stories of humans made from clay
dematerialized, teleported,
recorporealized on the other side
but rearranged
male and female reconfigured
fragmented body parts reattached to form new organs

she drew a faint image of the shadow cast by this new body
and when she stood back from it
it began to hover in luminous silver
until it became itself a shadow

--- Marianne Shaneen, from Everywhere Possible Therefore True
\\\