Man Alive
“Man alive!” is the rescuer’s cry when a shipwreck survivor is found, floating in open sea.
A naked man lies suspended in blackness. He seems to be focused inward, unaware of being seen. The skin formed with a soft brush underlines his animal frailty. The dark water all around him is an extension of his opacity: he is an Other, unknowable.
Like any survivor, he is detached from his context. There are no belongings, his nakedness is not explained. He exists in this single, everlasting moment of regard, uncomfortably close, larger than life. Perhaps we are all drifting in a dream of self- reflection. Perhaps we are all survivors, clinging to our self-hood and waiting for rescue.