Viral Surrogate

Description: Pale tendon, striations of muscle, connective fibres, a generous dose of gelatinous ooze- all writhed together in a surreal labyrinth. An invading virus on the lookout for love moved through this complexity, unnoticed by security guards jealously protecting their turf. That bacteriophage may have been a bit shady, but the camouflage gear the virus bought off it (probably fell off the back of a ribosome) seemed to do the job. The virus slipped right under the radar of the guards. Its size helped too. Even in a world of miniatures, the virus was mind-numbingly, brain-bogglingly small. Individual cells loomed like horrible, pulsing behemoths as the virus passed.
It was seeking a mother for its children, and getting ready to do a bit of hijacking in the process as evidenced by the jangle of lockpicks round its middle. Unable to produce offspring under its own steam (who’d want all that fussy cell division anyway?), the virus was reliant on finding another cell and hijacking its replicative machinery in the nucleus. The unwitting host would be worked to death, forced to produce copies of the virus until it burst under the strain and released its cargo.
The virus had no ability to remember its own origins in this strange manner, but was only driven to find that cell! It rounded a bend. Sailed forwards. It ducked past a coil of lymph vessel. There was something ahead. It closed. Ah, this one looked perfect....

Felt pen and coloured pencil on toned paper; 29 x 21 cm.