Physical_Metamorphosis is a multidisciplinary project that investigates the body as both a material subject and a spatial metaphor. Developed through a combination of drawing, photography, and image manipulation, the project begins with the observation and reinterpretation of the artist’s own body and its shadows, gradually expanding into a deeper inquiry into how form, identity, and internal structure can be visually and conceptually transformed.
At the core of the research lies a dual approach: Inside Metamorphosis, which is characterized by progressive, layered construction—both materially and symbolically—and Outside Metamorphosis, which instead embraces a more fluid, chance-driven methodology. The latter emerges from the mechanization of movement and chiaroscuro, building upon previous visual studies, yet resisting fixed form. While Inside Metamorphosis reveals the depth of the body through structure and continuity, Outside Metamorphosis generates unpredictable, shifting configurations that reflect the body’s mutable relationship with space, surface, and perception.
The technical process mirrors this conceptual duality. Charcoal and soft black pastel are applied in multiple layers and fixed using spray, creating a tonal architecture reminiscent of intaglio printmaking, where each application of fixative functions like an acid bite—irreversible and essential to the final image. The interplay of addition and erasure, of saturation and subtraction, shapes an expressive visual language based on accumulation, fragmentation, and reconstruction.
The project takes a decisive turn with the incorporation of medical imagery—specifically gastroscopies and colonoscopies from the artist’s mother—which revealed striking visual parallels with the cave interiors already central to the research. Both types of imagery explore deep, enclosed, hidden spaces, requiring technological mediation to be seen. Their formal similarities—moist textures, organic tunnels, rhythmic shadows—bridge the geological and the anatomical, the external and the internal.
This convergence is further emphasized through tonal inversion, used to generate both positive and negative versions of each image. This reversal allows for the simultaneous presentation of entry and exit, reframing the body as a dynamic environment with multiple thresholds. Shadows and lights exchange roles, depth becomes surface, and perception is continually disrupted and renewed.
Drawing from a range of visual and theoretical references—from Alexander Cozens and Gustave Doré to Andreas Vesalius and Francis Bacon—Outside Metamorphosis interrogates how the body can be dismantled and reimagined not just as form, but as terrain, as space, and as narrative. It is a study of transformation as a perceptual act, where the interior becomes exterior, and the hidden is made visible through processes that combine control, accident, and material resonance.
