Re-metamorphosis

Luthfi Setiawan

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“What happens when a butterfly’s wings shed? When they are made into caterpillars, and wrapped in cocoons? Will they reemerge the same? Would it be better for them to fly with charred wings?”

 

Re- metamorphosis explores beginnings that follows loss, such as the loss of something important to you as the result of trauma. In that case, even thinking about new beginnings can be something worrying or even frightening. But beginnings are always a chance to turn over a new chapter; a chance to reinvent yourself. That is something that I needed to tell myself time and time again growing up.

 

This idea is explored through butterflies. Butterflies mature through metamorphosis, as they transform from their caterpillar selves in cocoons. That change from a small un-noteworthy caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly is one process many of us learn at a very young age. With this artwork, I attempt to subvert the idea of the butterfly growing beautiful wings. The wings depicted here are charred; broken. It’s a sabotage. Where would you go from here, then?

 

After a significant change in your life, you might not necessarily come to like who you’ve become. But for humans, metamorphosis is a constant state. Metamorphosis doesn’t end when you exit that cocoon. New beginnings can come to you or they can be created. So even if change isn’t always comforting, it will always be a stepping stone that continues on to other beginnings in life.

 

You don’t always begin with glistening wings. However, it is still you, even after everything – and you will have more opportunities ahead to make meanings out of it. Continuing to learn, to heal, to love at every step of the process made me complete.