Monday, February 23, 2009

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is the transformation, or transmutation of the bizarre caterpillar into an elegant butterfly, truly one of the regularly performed miracles of Nature. To grow into an adult they go through 4 stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult.
The term relates to every animal, as a process of transformation from one physical/mental phase into another. Mainly, birth, isolation, death, and rebirth/reintegration. Human beings experience these during the course of their lives. They play a significant role in the psychological, and physiological alteration of the mind, body and soul. As women, we undergo this Metamorphosis at every stage in our lives, at a cellular, and hormonal level. These changes occur due to three inevitable stages, as well phases; before menopause, during menopause, and after menopause.
This phenomenon of change is all around us, and is taking place within us every moment. The way our perception and views of life change at every stage is the result of what goes on within.
The colours that I relate to metamorphosis graduate from dull to bright. The way a chapter ends, and becomes the past, into one that begins, fresh, and nascent to become the future. The forms that I relate to are more abstract. However, they go through a process of organization, with changes that occur, and by acknowledging them at every stage.
I was inspired by Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, a book I read ten years ago, based on the context of the author's own experience of alienation from his overbearing father, and social pressures it is about an individual’s reactions against bourgeois society and its demands, that converts him into a vermin, circumscribed by authority and routine.
This recognition of the process is necessary in order to deal with “metamorphosis”. To achieve a positive outcome and prevent stagnation, rather than one that Kafka describes, where the person regresses into a vermin, rather than progress into becoming a butterfly.
This work reflects the butterfly that has emerged from the caterpillar. However, in a larger picture, it also reflects every minute change that takes place within and without us. The bright colours of the butterfly are portrayed with an abstract flow of forms. Dull greens and blues depict the caterpillar that gave up its existence to succumb to a newer life form it would evolve into, that is aesthetically beautiful.
Salvador Dali painted “The Metamorphosis of Narcissus” in 1937, based on the Greek Mythological character Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. In the work, He is metamorphosed, on learning the fact that it was just a reflection, as a result, the death of something that was once beautiful, or the death of vanity. This death is related to the transformation of one belief into another, with is life altering.
All these references, and many more that have been made, reinforce the fact that the phenomenon of “metamorphosis” has been, and will always ironically be a constant in our lives.