Give & take 0020, Limited Edition number 1 of 10 Print

As soon as I came back to my studio, I noticed tens of mosquitos flying all around. It was unusual, as I would typically see one or two mosquitos a week or every other week during the summer, and it was already the beginning of the autumn. But I soon found out why they were there. When it rains, there is a small leak in my studio's ceiling. I usually place a bucket below the leak to catch the water, and it never spills over since the amount of water leaking down is usually quite small and dries up quickly. But this time, three typhoons had passed by and it rained a lot. So the bucket was half-full of water, and mosquitos seemed to have laid eggs on the surface. I tried to kill as many of them as I could. If I sensed something moving in my peripheral vision, my head turned towards it instinctively, like a cat. And very often, I would shake my body and brush it down with my hands, worrying that the mosquitos were biting me. It was really annoying to have so many mosquitos buzzing around in an enclosed space. I became more and more irritable. And I even felt it was rewarding to crush the fat little mosquitos fed with my blood. Some time passed, and I suddenly remembered a dream that I had when I was a high school student. In the dream, giant aliens were squeezing people to death with their fingers … peacefully, without much emotion. It was really terrifying. I realized then that I was the one now killing living things, taking their lives. Actually, I had never before thought of killing someone or something just because it was being annoying. But I killed lots of the mosquitos. It made me think that perhaps I was being too harsh. I felt that death was too cruel a punishment just for sucking my blood. But their bites made me itch … and the mosquitos could be carrying a disease, although the possibility is extremely low. I thought I shouldn't kill them without a good justification. But I thought that if I couldn't justify killing them, I would be bitten constantly, horribly. I had to find a way to justify it. I started to think about the mosquitos seriously but not scientifically … not based on proper science or biology. They suck our blood, I told myself. They intercept the nutrients carried by our blood. We eat, chew, and digest food … and send it to all parts of our bodies through our blood. The mosquitos take these nutrients from us in the middle of the process. It's very clever. And sucking is very handy as well. It's much easier than chewing at least. We can suck too, but it's not as neat and we usually have to wash-up afterwards. The mosquitos have evolved quite well, just as we humans have, but they can still evolve. If they suck our blood but their bites don't itch, maybe I can accept being bitten. If they didn't carry diseases, maybe it would be ok. If they injected something 'good' into us when they bit us, it would be even better. But in order to make them evolve to that point, the annoying ones must go. I should kill them now to enable a better relationship between human beings and mosquitos for posterity. There, that justifies it. But since I'm a photographer, I will also photograph them.

Print:Giclee on Fine Art Paper

Size:10 W x 10 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:15.25 W x 15.25 H x 1.2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.