Another life, another fish

The dove arrived at the wire every morning before 8am to watch the fish swim. He never sat less than five wires from the bottom— he was too nervous the fish would spot him, and this might interrupt their morning dip. The dove loved the way the fish moved together in circles. He wondered if they had choreographed the moves beforehand, or if it was simply innate. The dove had never swam, well, not since that one dove had dunked his head in the bird bath three summers ago. That dove was such an asshole, but he didn’t have a very good home-life so he didn’t hold it against him.

Occasionally a fish would pop up to the top and take a peak at him (or so he thought). Either way, it felt nice to be seen. Once he ruffled his wings at the fish, but it went back under water. He hoped that the fish didn’t take it the wrong way. The dove smiled and imagined that he was underwater with the fish—laughing, joking, suggesting new formations to swim in… suddenly he heard a camera click go off behind him, which snapped him out of his daydream. The dove was shy, but not really around humans. He wondered what the photographer saw in him. Was it just another bird on the street? Or a dove with aquatic dreams? Perhaps he didn’t even saw him at all.

The dove sighed, and turned back to the river. The fish had already moved on, and as the dove felt a little wetness in his eyes, he thought to himself, next time, I’ll be a fish.

My Neighborhood Is...

Years ago, the Boys & Girls Club branded fence posts, one side with what their neighborhood meant to them, the other side, with journal entries from Bruce Farnsworth. The fence stood in Spenard for some time, and after being taken down, the planks were stored at The Nave. They called on Bruce and I to revive the pieces with a new installation in a back stairwell of The Nave, with pretty much free-reign on the project. On the left wall is a journal entry written by Bruce, which reads “The bigness of Alaska makes us feel lost the way looking up at the stars makes some of us feel like we’re going insane. But it’s the very bigness that seems to account for the constant bumping into ourselves that Alaskans experience. Large surrounding spaces create a kind of psychic miniaturization. When the distances between ourselves and everyone else is great, the compactness of our interior becomes exaggerated—forms a solitude of expanse where we run into our own pettiness and cowardice at every turn.”

The rest of the piece is a collection of the other side of the posts- what the Boys and Girls club saw their neighborhood as. The center is a blackboard where you can add what your neighborhood means to you.

Kerby helped us a ton with the carpentry and installation, and being able to work with Bruce (a legendary artist here in Anchorage) was such a gift.

FROM THE NAVE (referring to the last photograph):

“Last week, The Nave was honored to host the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska for five days of Art & Culture Classes. Written and left on the 'My Neighborhood Is' chalkboard installation within The Nave, this beautiful poem speaks for itself.

Text:

"I feel pain in my body
when I grasp at my culture
my muscles brace at centuries
old blows from boarding
schools ∞ + more
I grasp at the strands +
braid them back together
bringing two things together
that might otherwise
not be joined"
~eternal weave 2023

Chin'an; Gunalchéesh, Háw'aa; Thank you to Tlingit & Haida artists, neighbors, and relatives, for gathering here in Spenard. We love you!

Special thanks to instructor Rae Mills for granting permission to share this poem.”