LA VAQUITA
“La Vaquita” is a video poem dedicated to a small porpoise on the brink of extinction. Inhabiting the shallow, turbid waters off the Gulf of California, it is likely that only 19 living Vaquitas remain alive today. They are critically endangered by illegal gill-nets and pollution. With only a small handful of sightings in the wild, the Vaquita shimmers between observation and imagination, existence and nonexistence. It is possible that they are already extinct as you read this.
This video loop imagines the possibility of mutual consideration between the human world and the lonely existence of this little-known porpoise. The hydrophonic recorded voice-over describes a humble encounter with the Vaquitas, remarking on their bifurcated brains - “one side for wakefulness” and “one for dreams.” In between these textural scenes we offer an EMDR psychotherapy session for the audience. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) treatments use a light machine to provoke side-to-side eye movement, simulating the biological mechanisms involved in REM sleep. Once in this dream-like stage, patients are able to make internal associations and identify ecological anxieties.
Voice Over Text (by Matthew Goulish)
Vaquita, small porpoise, little cow – you join us with your absence –
in murky waters off the Baja Peninsula desert
I only just met you, and already you swim on the brink of extinction.
Gray and black and skittish like the ocean’s catbird
you have dark rings around your eyes.
Your lips have dark patches,
and a thin black line runs your length
from mouth to dorsal fins.
Vaquita floating about in the night sea
Vaquita crying alone, laughing alone, drifting far
inside to a darker place
Vaquita floating about inside the black pupil of my eye
Vaquita dragging me
to the inside far away from myself
Do you sleep, like most marine mammals, one hemisphere at a time –
half of your brain quiet, the other half alert –
in alternation, so you may swim continuously.
You divide your mind in two:
one side for wakefulness, work, and activation,
the building of the world, the gathering of cares;
one for dreams, the hour of the soul, the free flight into the wordless,
away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done.
Teach us to outgrow our madness
to be come equal to this act of living.
Looping Video: Yoni Goldstein & Hadley Austin
Text: Matthew Goulish
Sound: by Corey Smith
Exhibition: An [Interrupted] Bestiary
Uncle Art Gallery Sept. 11-14, 2022
