His single arm holds up a lit lantern: the same light that will bring the rest of his crew ashore?

Captain Roy Hope is a rather peculiar guy, with a rough but cheerful character, strong and brave. He could symbolize the archetype of the universal sailor, the one who would make his own the phrase of Pompey the Great, which according to Cirlot, contains the deepest meaning of navigation, when he says: “Living is not necessary; sailing is” (understanding by “living” a living for oneself or in oneself; by sailing, a living to transcend).

This first part will be shown in one of the author’s most powerful and complex installations, which could already be seen both in the project “Peregrinatio” (curated by Fernando Castro and Tomas Ruíz and produced by the Consortium of Museums of the Valencian Community), and later in another exhibition held in the MCO gallery in Porto.

In the second part of this same story, Blinky confronts his fears and decides to go deep into that dark, truculent ocean that threatens to sink the ship he represents. This is how he will find a terrible and unknown monster, which, as St. Michael’s archangel, he will have to kill as if it were the devil himself. Serzo will make here his particular revision of those mythological initiation stories of the antiquity, where the hero is devoured by the monster, to later leave victorious and reborn after blowing up his belly.

This exciting story symbolizes a metaphorical rebirth with epic overtones, where the author could be reflecting, in this way, the current universal crisis, starting from the tireless search for “liberation”, by any individual in a stormy or painful trance.

Serzo affirms that in this series he is narrating in a very personal way “the desired encounter with the profound meaning of our existence”.

(…) Your waves are too rough today, some of them will be up to 10 meters high; they hit my body so hard that Lewis and Romulo just got lost in the dark a few minutes ago…

The other sailors fight ceaselessly against this huge monster report that seems to be willing to leave my body scattered by its waves…

(…) And I don’t know how the hell we got here! I always defended the option of flying over the ocean, I never liked the idea of sailing!

The storm is upon us and now it seems that we will have to pass the test, if Captain Roy manages to keep the bizarre sailors on course and hope.

(…) Hours go by, time does not improve, desperation and tiredness have left more than half of the crew.(…)

The days go by, there’s no land in sight, the supplies run out…

The sun and hunger put our last forces to the test; I notice the weight of the sailors collapsing on my bruised body… it seems that their bones are made of lead…

(…) A shark ate Captain Roy’s right arm while trying to pull a barrel out of the water… no one could do anything… (…)

Merce and Tristan have killed each other over some nonsense that I couldn’t understand (…)

A dark but calm night gives us a break… they’ve decided to eat Merce. Some have gone crazy and had to faint almost voluntarily.

Roy inexplicably keeps the light of the lamp and a big smile on his face…in his eyes you can see the same peace, is he about to die?

(…) I think we’ve lost our way, the few sailors left are starting to pour hope through the boards of my torso.

Captain Roy bursts in, replicating the dense shadow of death, which seems to be celebrating the tragedy, screaming: – Open those eyes, cowards! Stop thinking you are carrion! Realize what this journey means… wake up from your misery! -I wonder where he gets so much strength… Roy goes on with a powerful voice from another world: -Sailing, even before living…!, we have survived the monster of the subconscious, feeling the joy of being able to tell it! Mother earth is waiting for us on the other side…!, the seagulls have already appeared on your burnt bald spots…, stop crawling, you wretches, raise your smile and your body to the uterine embrace you were waiting for!

Blinky Rotred, the comet man

J.L.S. Madrid, June 2010