COLLECTION: sculptural works: TRANSFORMATION
The installation consisted of several oversized, textured cocoon-like structures, suspended on wires around a tree, under its spreading branches. Some of the forms were intact, others with splits as though the cocoon was ripe for opening to reveal it’s secrets.
The cocoons were created using stainless steel metal cloths, textured by twisting, folding, pleating and stitching.
The outer structure showed both the remnants of the larval form and suggestions of the adult which may emerge imprinted in the outer form. The textures and markings for camouflage create a beautiful object in itself, but extend our minds a little beyond the reality of the cocoon.
What else do cocoons bring to mind?
The form of a cocoon is understood as a place where transformation occurs, a seeming miracle, an alchemic change within a quiet, contained form. The form shows occasional involuntary quivers as the suspended form is rocked by both it’s internal changes and the forces of the world around it.
The sculpture elicited thoughts about transformation, in nature and in life. Do we imagine the inside as writhing and broiling, or is it a quiet contemplative, protected space?
The question has to be ‘what is on the inside?’. The tension of the moment of splitting open, the anticipation. The mystery of the hidden, what will emerge when the skin splits open? Will it be fabulous or frightening, camouflaged or brilliantly coloured?
What if you could go through a transformation, what changes would you like to happen? Imagine yourself hidden, protected by the cocoon, unseen by the world.