Once I was a Fish

Once I was a fish, or

maybe it was a dolphin

I swam over land, until

they cut my stomach open

Old and forgotten

I sing the songs

of a muted, drowning siren

For you,

this silence is my love

Stasja Voluti, 2009

Everybody Dies and More Poems from the Land of Plenty

On Susan Sontag - and 'The Comfort of Ghosts' or 'I am not Here to Make you feel Comfortable'

“Susan Sontag was a monster”

“ She took things too seriously. She was difficult and unyielding. That’s why Susan Sontag’s work matters so much even now “

Read it here: https://aeon.co/essays/susan-sontag-was-a-monster-of-the-very-best-kind

*The Comfort of Ghosts or I am not Here to Make you Feel Comfortable - Stasja Voluti*

The Flemish Still Life in Me

I took this polaroid about 7 years ago with an old, but beautiful SX-70 camera, when for a very brief time the Impossible Project Company produced stunning film. The film was expensive, and difficult to handle, but some of my best polaroids were taken with that film. Nothing you see in this image was created through post editing. No photoshop, no after effects, nothing. Of course, I have my tricks, and I manipulated the film with light and exposure settings to achieve the result that I hoped for. Everything was done and carefully set up though BEFORE I released the shutter.

I do remember the day I took this. How the light came into the room, a scent that was in the air, a brief sense of understanding who I was at that very moment, and the joy of being for a few precious hours completely removed from everything else. The excitement of seeing the film develop. Knowing that I had this power and ability to create — for me, it was and still is one of the most intoxicating experiences. It’s about that very moment. The rest really doesn’t matter much.

*The Flemish Still Life in Me - Stasja Voluti, 2012*

On Melancholy in Art and Life

For me there is no art without melancholy. Or perhaps more importantly, there is no life without melancholy. I don’t fear my own melancholy. I seek it. I seek it in myself. I seek it in my surroundings.

See “Melancholy as an Aesthetic Emotion” here