Beginning with the first sentence of George Orwell’s novel 1984—“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”—a text of literary density unfolds, gradually shifting into the future perfect tense. A stream of consciousness is set in motion. It moves from precise scientific definitions of natural phenomena to the distortions born of conspiracy narratives, presented as alternative truths, weaving strange grid-like patterns across the sky. One of the greatest enemies of clear language is insincerity. Narcissistic hubris and a collective spirit of slogans cloud comprehension and insight, pushing the world into vagueness. In the mire of emotions, a mythical past is re-enacted, burden with unfreedom and unreal promises about the future.
In contrast to all this, nature exists. The vegetation of the lotus plant, in the history of culture, stands as a symbol for purity and clarity of consciousness. Born of mud, the flower develops a white blossom which, in its symbolism, embodies the pure mind.
In the scenic story-telling of text in pictures, video, sound and nature, a round glass aquarium prepared with a water mist machine is filled with mud and water. A white lotus floats within it, its roots bathed in disinfecting quinine, glowing under UV light. The entire scene suggests a kind of sanatorium, an oasis for purification from darkness—a poetic, occult laboratory for the restoration of truth—through nature, from the mud. Nature is established as reality in the truest sense of the word.
A video projection interacts fluidly with the lotus. This projection serves both as image and as the narrative voice of the stream of consciousness. The narration begins as a treatise on natural phenomena; gradually, it becomes distorted, stripped of context, and the truth begins to shift. The artistry lies in specifying the problem of doublethink—the corruption of language and thought in our time. The ending is already foreshadowed: it culminates in the swamp of emotion. The clocks strike thirteen. The situation tips into its opposite—into the vegetative state of nature.
In the age of authoritarianism, there is a battle of narratives. It is necessary to say clearly what is, but not more simply than necessary. As the political right creates a front, the resistance of the many different and unseen oppressed is formed. Slow, subtle, unpredictable, complex, like the invisible processes of nature, life resists destruction. Analogous to “Orwell’s Roses” by Rebecca Solnit, a concluding essay in a collection of nine essays on the resistance against fascism and authoritarianism is created based on the scenic story-telling “Clarification [Black Lotus XIII]”.
story-telling by /g/o/d/
videoart by Simone Boria.