On a walk with my children I found a trampled salamander. People taught to look for reasons of doom among signs still kill these creatures convinced that they herald fires. We had just worked with the children on a school project – ‘Our own natural history museum’. Amazed by the beauty of the amphibian, we decide to put its body on display. The only thing left to do was to clean it of the rest of its innards. The children surrounded the creature and looked at it carefully. Suddenly, one of them called out:
- Wait, there are little ones in there! In its belly.
- What is impossible. – I replied.
- They are! Let’s leave her, maybe they won’t notice that mum’s dead.
- They won’t notice?
- Or let’s just save them. – They asked.
- What, they can’t be saved. – I replied.
But the children had already decided. They ran to get a box, lined it with plastic sheeting. They filled the tank with water and various things from a nearby ditch. Salamanders are egg-bearing. The children managed to put the larvae still encased in eggs into their incubator. I saw them transform and leave the tank after a few weeks.
Who can save them?
polyptych fi 8 cm
handmade paper:hay, linocut
biota: body of a killed salamander found on a walk with children
2021
More about the work in a series of talks with Tomasz Biłka OP about the exhibition RAÐLJÓST in Gallery Zielona 13, episode 12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK_H9ZzJolw
photo: Marcin Jończyk