Kikyo's Mantra

 

Kikyo's Mantra
benjamin harubin 2007-2023
17" x 12" x 5"
acrylics, magazine collage, plaster, found items on wood

rationalists & scientists have not found that definitive thing that magical spark the weight of the human soul⁰ that separates the living from the nonliving, rather there is set of descriptions a laundry list of a matter of philosophy Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from matter that does not, and is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction. Many philosophical definitions of living systems have been proposed, such as self-organizing systems. Viruses in particular make definition difficult...¹  not to mention prions not to mention hair, fingernails, "dead" skin cells, mollusc shells, termite mounds, not to mention the internet, not to mention gravity, magnetic fields, streams of electrons and ions which connect everything everywhere infinitely (another philosophically ridiculous concept).

for many years this piece hung in the bathroom at Tito's but then one day came back to me and found new life.

"life is death, death is life"