Linnéa Ryshke

enflesh
verb
1. to grow flesh or give a flesh-like form to
2. to clothe with or as if with flesh
3. to ingrain

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

I have made these acrylic paint skins--
plastic metaphors--
to try to understand
how the language used
to talk about an “other”
lives in and on the body.
This language,
reflective of the unconscious
ideologies of the dominant
Western culture,
and re-occurring and casual in its use,
as enfleshed consequences.

Words, toothed and sharpened, scarred onto bodies,
a cultural mutilation.

Words projected by some onto “others”
as if the “other” was just
a blank canvas
of skin.

The abstraction of a black man
    Predator, Criminal, Ape, Primitive, Subhuman


The abstraction of an immigrant
    Rapist, Alien, Uncivilized, Laborer, Subhuman


The abstraction of a pig
    Beast, Greedy, Property, Stock, Subhuman

The abstraction of a chicken
    Alien, Coward,
    Automaton, Bird Brained, Subhuman


The closer to an animal,
              or rather farther from “human,”
the less inherent value


Individuals reduced to
a singular amorphous body
ghostly, veiled.

I don’t mean to equate or simplify,
as each being and group of beings
has their own
intricate history,
their own experiences, their own fights.

But I hope to probe at and excavate
for why the language we use
emphatically denies
the personhood, agency,
profound beingness
of those
(humans and non-humans)
who are systemically
kept out
of the realm
of respect.

Can a presence,
of subjectivity, value, worth
be brought into
this language and the conceptions
that form it?

Can the skin
be reclaimed as an organ of touch, of contact?
Warmed from the soul
underneath
Porous and sensitive to those around us.

The potential
for empathic connection
with other life-worlds
lies behind, underneath
The surface layer
where the anima lives.

Anima:
the root of the word “animal,”
meaning

a current of air;

earthly breath;

the soul.