[images’ source]

I first came across these extraordinary images when I was given a book of the exhibition Ashes and Snow which at the time of writing is in Tokyo. It has previously visited Venice, Italy in 2002, New York in 2005 and Santa Monica in 2006. The plan is for the exhibition to travel the globe with no final destination. I have not seen the exhibition myself, but the book and a viewing of the DVD of the Ashes and Snow film made me want to include a section on the exhibition here.

What interested me about the exhibition was the seeming mythical way that it explored the interactions between humans and animals, something that is given little attention, if any, in our modern society. The exhibition captures these interactions with over 45 totemic species. Wikipedia describes a totem as, “any entity which watches over or assists a group of people, such as a family, clan or tribe.”

Video

Below I have placed a video recorded at the Ted Talks in 2006, featuring photographer and creator of Ashes and Snow, Gregory Colbert. In the talk, Colbert speaks of his wish to create a Universal Bestiary. Wikipedia describes a Bestiary as, “a compendium of beasts. Bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. This reflected the belief that the world itself was literally the Word of God, and that every living thing had its own special meaning.”

I believe that a mythical view of the world has a place along side our modern day, natural history view of the world; indeed a necessary place. To rely solely on the view and understanding that our scientific world has discovered is to only rely on one aspect of our character. It is to break the world up into constituent parts, but the world is more than the sum of its parts. Science has enabled a greater and deep understanding of the world that has helped us in many ways, but I don’t believe that it will ever take away that element of mystery and wonder that we can experience - indeed there is no need for it to try. This is about finding the sacred in our universe. About, as the cultural historian and Catholic priest Thomas Berry says, seeing the world not as a collection of objects but as a communion of subjects, and from that discovering deeper truths inside of ourselves.

The challenge for each of us is to bring the sacred together with the scientific. To see and hold both views together, and to hold them for the benefit of ourselves and the world.

Mythical Origin

The introduction to Book #3 of the Ashes and Snow series speaks of a mythical origin to the universe involving the elephants. I include the introduction here:

“In the beginning of time, the skies were filled with flying elephants. Too heavy for their wings, they sometimes crashed through the trees and frightened other animals.

All the flying grey elephants migrated to the source of the Ganges. They agreed to renounce their wings and settle on the earth. When they molted millions of wings fell to the earth, the snow covered them, and the Himalayas were born.

The blue elephants landed in the sea and their wings became fins. They are whales, the trunkless elephants of the oceans. Their cousins are the manatees, the trunkless elephants of the rivers.

The chameleon elephants kept their wings but agreed never again to land on the earth. When they go to sleep, the elephants always lie down in the same place in the sky and dream with one eye open. The stars you see at night are the unblinking eyes of sleeping elephants, who sleep with one eye open to best keep watch over us.”