I was waiting to release these fish, waiting to see what would happen with A Humument contest that was running on the venus febriculosa blog. The blog provided page four from A Human Document, the source material that Tom Phillips has been working with for forty years. The challenge was to include the page and "create an original visual and/or poetic work using any media or methods." Phillips himself would judge them.
As I combed the text I found a gender-bending narrative and decided to create a print of an animal that switched genders. The hilarious clownfish turned out to be that animal. They are all born male, but the dominant and largest male becomes a female, the second largest becomes her mate. When she dies, the second largest becomes the female and chooses a mate herself, usually the next largest again. One female lays 600-1500 eggs. More about them here.
In addition to the erasure text piece for the contest, (you can see my entry posted here, just scroll down), I made an edition of playful prints just of the fish and their anemone.
As I combed the text I found a gender-bending narrative and decided to create a print of an animal that switched genders. The hilarious clownfish turned out to be that animal. They are all born male, but the dominant and largest male becomes a female, the second largest becomes her mate. When she dies, the second largest becomes the female and chooses a mate herself, usually the next largest again. One female lays 600-1500 eggs. More about them here.
In addition to the erasure text piece for the contest, (you can see my entry posted here, just scroll down), I made an edition of playful prints just of the fish and their anemone.
So, send in the clownfish, created in April 2015. And now available on Etsy.
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