Snails are the original archivists, archons, munging, storing sacred knowledge in their shells. In the letterbox they munge Derrida. What happened to that famous Snail-man who disappeared? His self-effacing newspaper archive stopped. I munged it all up. An interview in the mouth. Ten questions for Snail-man. Ten questions for snails. We compile a new archive from the reconstituted pieces, the snails and I. Those flighty archons chatting on Messenger, discussing all things round but never him. A lettuce container will be our omphalos. We’ll wind ourselves around its roundness. House-mouth-sounds play overhead. I wake each morning to my doona and pillows covered with slimetrails. What went on in that house?
This project explores obsession, isolation and the snail’s role as archivist, through a reconstituted archive of documents chronicling the disappearance of a famous snail trainer, a man who lived alone with thousands of snails.
