Metamorphosis I: Nature Changes
One of the themes in my work – Metamorphosis – is inspired by the metamorphosis of insects, as well as personal and spiritual transformation. It follows from the research and visual work that I did for my SAND(SPOOR] performance at the Arts Lounge during the 2012 National Arts Festival, which focused on tracks and marks left on the landscape by human, animal, insect alike.
While exploring ‘metamorphosis’, I realized it fits within a wider theme:
ORGANISM
There is currently 10-14 million species of life on Earth. An organism is seen as a biotic, living part of the environment. An organism is seen to:
- be able to respond to stimuli
- reproduce, grow and develop
- be self-regulating, achieving a state of homeostasis
I am inspired by the scientific-biological nature, but also the spiritual symbolism, of organisms, landscapes and biotic systems. I believe that
- there should be no division between science, culture and spirituality – the separation that we perceive between science, spirituality, us, nature, other people, animals and everything ‘different’ to us, is just an illusion.
- each human being is an organism, among other organisms, that form an equal and intricate part of the web of life – a system much more complicated, mysterious and magical that we could ever fully understand.
Sub-themes
In exploring and expressing this belief and focus, I am looking at the following elements, sub-themes and organisms in my work:
- spiderwebs
- fungi, lichen and moss
- Gaia, or Mother Earth, as organism and living system
- GMO – genomes engineered or altered in a lab
- Soil organisms
- Water organisms
- Springtails, which speeds up the recycling of dad plants into usable nutrients
- Beetles
- Unicellular and multi-cellular organisms
- Membranes, layers, skin and silk (from cocoons and webs)
- Atoms, proteins and life’s building blocks
- Human within the landscape
- Plants, angiosperms and biomass
- Bacterium microorganisms, Mycoplasma gallicepticum.
The largest organism, as well as the smallest organism on the planet is used as inspiration and relates to the concept of macrocosm vs. microcosm – all life deriving from the big bang and each of us made from particles part of the Universe as a whole.
View artworks from the ORGANISM exhibition, inspired by this theme >>