Daydreams of the Mad Hatter Caterpillar
2024
Mixed media.

Wearing their previous heads, their past selves, like a crown, the Mad Hatter Caterpillar evokes a sense of protection, honor, and empowerment, remembering and carrying the weight of who they once were. Shadowed within the leaves and forms of illuminated moths cut out of the velour walls, this work explores the caterpillar’s daydream and a longing for growth and progression towards their final form, while building on the lessons and the selves of the past. The colorful projected reflections and lights draw upon both past and current versions of self that are shadowed with visions and dreams of becoming a moth in its fullest, truest form, while honoring all stages of the journey that it took to get there. Like the eccentric and misunderstood Mad Hatter character from Alice in Wonderland, the stacking of their heads may appear nonsensical to humans and baffle scientists. But maybe there is more to this display than humanity’s ability to conceive, perhaps the Mad Hatter Caterpillar’s “reality is just different from yours”(quote from The Cheshire Cat).

In a surrealist fashion, the iridescent shards of broken CDs distort the light and reflect a rainbow of hues as a celebration of the present moment, even amidst life’s moments of confusion and illusions.  Shedding light on the caterpillar, glowing in a moment of brief pause mid-feast, light radiates through its hairs, dancing playfully amidst the shapes and exoskeletons of the eucalyptus leaves- casting shadows representing the cyclical nature of life and decay the vegetation experiences as the caterpillar grows from consuming it.