A cocoon is a vehicle of change and is created at a time when incubation and transformation become necessary. Though the cocoon itself is woven from an essentially porous and gossamer element, as in the case of this performance, out of crocheted yarn, it provides protection against external elements, a safe haven for the metamorphosis within to take place. Our cultural and social climates are in storm, raging a global political tectonic shift that began as a murmur but is escalating into a palpable conscious quake. Whether because of inefficiencies, inequalities, or blatant neglect, the dream of abundance is becoming unbelievable for many.
The cocoon is systematically and carefully woven. It will nurture budding ideas of radical progress and growth and a reformed Being can immerge from within its cradle, able to accept new challenges as we take on the scope of our full capacity. What seemed unattainable to the Being before is now well within the space of how we experience the world.
I have crocheted myself into a cocoon not just once, but twice in my life. These photos document the second time. It takes me about six and a half hours from start to finish to become fully encompassed. The first time I did it, I stood in the gallery the whole time and completed the cocoon in one long performance piece. I used to do quite a number of endurance-type pieces. There’s something in them that I find incredibly mundane and simultaneously transformative.
For this piece pictured here, I began the cosmos part of it at home as well as about half the cocoon and installed it in the gallery. At the opening, I climbed in before people started arriving and began crocheting. For the first several hours of the opening, I busily crocheted myself into the cocoon. About halfway through, I completed my cocoon and hung out encapsulated for about an hour.
Towards the end, I emerged out of the cocoon -
- and left the aftermath as the installation for the remainder of the exhibition as a relic of what had transpired.
As we are in the midst of a Venus retrograde in Leo, perhaps now is a good time to ask ourselves what thing of beauty are we incubating? What is in the primordial goo phase of development that is too raw and too tender to be revealed? What lessons can we integrate in this time of scandalous revealing that we can avoid when the time comes for our own Alchemical Work to see the light of day?
Here is this week’s YouTube video where I paint the colour of the Eaglet head of my Cherubim. I keep trying to make shorter videos but somehow they’ve gotten longer. Personally, I find it soothing to watch someone paint, so even if you aren’t a painter, this is somewhat interesting.
Here is the Eventbrite for my upcoming in-person workshop.
