The species known as flying fish jump above the sea’s surface to glide on air currents, only to fall back again into their native element. These fish were part of the diet of the famous seafarer Thor Heyerdahl and his fellows when they sailed across the Pacific Ocean on a raft.

In this painting the fish transforms into a symbol, achieving absolute freedom - freedom even greater than a bird!

Flying fish connect two elements - water and air. If water is a source of life, fertility, and purification, then air personifies spiritual freedom. On the M.C. Escher engraving Air and Water, there occurs a spectacular transformation, a metamorphosis of fish into birds and back again into fish. According to Hindu mythologies, the fish possesses absolute freedom, and the Flood poses no threat to it. With the abundant roe shed by fish, its fertility becomes a symbol of sexuality.

Music of triumphant trumpets seems to sound - this is Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries, the music setting the scene of an American helicopter attack in Vietnam in Francis Ford Coppola’s famous film, Apocalypse Now.