Framed poster
A framed anglerfish print, ready to hang, with the portrait of Naoko Mochizuki that I created for Animal Kinhood, the series where the animals wear clothes and get on with their lives like people. The anglerfish is the fish of the abyss with a small light over its head; Naoko works as a marine claims surveyor.
Foto: Emőke Dénes / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)Melanocetus johnsonii
The light a place already has is never any good. I always bring my own.
Meso and bathypelagic zone of tropical and temperate seas worldwide, usually between 200 and 1,500 meters deep, with occasional records a good deal deeper. Permanent darkness, cold and high pressure.
At twelve she went to buy her school uniform with her mother. She tried on the jacket from the girls' section, took it off, left it folded on the counter and stood looking at the other hanger. She gave no explanations, not then and not later. Her mother took the sleeves up at home and said nothing about the shoulders, which were two sizes too wide. Hers is the most formal register in the Animal Kinhood cast, and it starts there.
At fifteen she walked into a men's tailor in Numazu on her own, with her New Year money, and asked to be measured. The tailor did not ask who the suit was for. He took the same measurements he still takes: not one of them has changed in twenty years, and he writes them down the same way every time in the same oilcloth-covered notebook. She goes for fittings mid-morning on a weekday, when there is nobody in the shop.
