"Phagocyte rosettes"

Another place I visited on Monday was the City Hall where there's a gallery that features the latest work of local artists, in this case, Cynthia O'Brien. This exhibition, on the theme of Loss, consisted of what she calls "phagocyte rosettes" lying on a bed of black sand: "a collection of grey egg-like forms..." (I thought they looked more like exploded puffballs) with collapsed, decayed, grey shells, "... made of clay," some of them containing "found objects" such as pieces of coral, hair cuttings, a black and white photograph, and others containing coloured glazes, some of which could be interpreted as blood. The artist is personally frightened of loss—aren't we all?—but claims that it's such an essential part of life we have to confront this. In doing so, we may even find something beautiful.

By the way, since publishing my blog post about Voltaire yesterday, I have edited and expanded it (see below). Too tired to do that last night!