Wols and spermatozoon

A voyage. Here yet, but soon away. In transit, in movement, in transformation: here that transformation is yet to occur, here already complete. A spermatozoon carrying in its dark nucleus one half of the chromosomes of a man who may become a father. A spermatozoon gone to find an ovum. An ovum containing one half of the chromosomes of a woman who may become a mother. If the meeting takes place, there may be the sudden emergence of a new being. Transformation of two into one. Birth.

Another form of birth here in “Butterfly wing”, a work of the painter Wols. After metamorphosis, the butterfly has emerged from a chrysalis. “We live oblivious of our metamorphosis” lamented Paul Eluard. Metamorphosis that brings us into being, ceaselessly transforming us and that one day will efface us.

A voyage strange and marvelous, improbable and fleeting, into the unknown, across space and time.