The Akasha Mechanicum

Now open at LEA13, site of The {Lost} Garden Of Sundarya Lahari by Xineohp Guisse, is the second phase of the installation: The Akasha Mechanicum. Picking up from where the first phase left off (read my blog post from February 8 here for more), The Akasha Mechanicum tells the story of a great creature that rose up from the depths of the sea, and which was promptly killed by "the Ancients" whose garden of tranquility stands above the waters. Too late, they realized that she was in fact the mother of the creatures they so lovingly nourished. They found a way to keep her alive, headless and frozen in position (top image), so that her species could live on.

The entrance to The Akasha Mechanicum is actually through the insect-like body. "Just outside, you'll see 'Mother,'" said Xineohp. "Can't miss it. Fly up and enter through her decapitated head," he cheerfully instructed me. After traveling down the innards, we're quite literally dumped onto the sea floor, greeted by a water forest (lowest two images) where lie the eggs, guarded by the Pentapuss. "The Ancients built plant-like structures which they named the Mechanicum, and placed them within the Pentapuss lair. The Mechanicum provided the Pentapuss larvaes with nutritional spores as well as a place to hide when threatened," the accompanying installation book tells us.

If the larvae strikingly resemble sperm, rapidly flagellating and darting about, the beautiful texture in the lowest interior chamber of Mother is suggestive of aroused labia (second image). (These images don't do The Akasha Mechanicum justice, given the amount of movement you'll see.) Be sure, as you arrive, to pick up the exhibition books and notecards at the landing point. The {Lost} Garden Of Sundarya Lahari will continue in April with a third chapter.