Yesterday at breakfast I got tired of reading my book (have to read during breakfast) and picked up a VV to read Jerry Saltz. He reviewed Drawing Restraint 9 and this, of course, called for cursory remarks on whaling and ambergris. Ambergris he outlined as a "composite of undigested squid beaks and shrimp casings regurgitated by whales that floats on the ocean's surface, where it is cured by the motion of the waves and the light of the sun, eventually to be harvested for use in perfume."
If I think hard, I can trace the subject of memory back to Cape Cod, which is where I spent every summer. The Cape is full of whaling stories. Once a week there was a singalong at the community center where we all sang songs about whaling expeditions and barrels of blubber. Sometimes I saw whales spouting from the beach but I never found any ambergris.
I want some! Just a little chunk.
I thought about ambergris again today when I was putting butter on my bread. Joseph Beuys was a big lipid fiend; thats obvious. He was a radio operator in WW II and made up a story about his plane crashing in a snowstorm in the Crimea (this part true) and a band of Tartars wrapping him in fat and snuggling him in felt to insulate his body (false). Later for an art piece, he piled some fat in a corner and let it rot, which was a great idea.
If anyone wants to go see Drawing Restraint 9, email me.