Aquarium Walk: Gemstone Gallery

It was an aquarium that had once lived. Now, it was just a menagerie of multiple glass cages inhabited by ossified marine creatures. I walked slowly through the aquarium: the walls were black and unyielding, like the color of beneath-water. What was it like to live there? I peered through the looking glass: the water had long evaporated away, leaving behind aquarium-wrecked shells of creatures, unaware of my presence. They sat there, iridescent, glossy, and beautiful, models in a shoot awaiting to be photographed and collaged into magazine narratives. 

 

 A phantom sea-urchin, a pearl waiting to be plucked from an oyster, and a popsicle coral reef: I swam with my feet and my eyes but could not touch them. They were not poisonous, it was just forbidden to do so. Inside, they lay there, being looked at and yet, unable to look back. 

I stood there at junction of the aquaria, watching them being refracted in the mirrors and glass. In the mirror, when I touched the aquariums’ glass, I could feel the warmth suddenly seeping into my fingerprints. And then: the sea started to sing its song and the colors became alive, no longer cosmetic. If I closed my eyes, I could hear submarine whisperings - and the place no longer seemed as melancholy or lonely anymore. 

Black became white: the sum of all colors. 

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This post also appears on my other blog, Photo Kahanis