Franz Kafka- The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka- The Metamorphosis

I decided to read Kafka's Metamorphosis as one of my short texts as part of my territories of practice, personalized universes. This piece of writing is not only thought provoking but relates to my TOP and studio practice as it deals with themes of nature/universe, discovery and the irrational.

One of the important themes this novel deals with is Nature/Universe and this is also a prevalent theme through my work and my TOP. The protagonist Gregor not only goes through a physical metamorphosis, by transforming into a insect, but also a physiological/spiritual one. Metamorphosis sees Gregor reevaluate his own significance as a human and as a whole comments on the nature of humans, especially his family who begin to imitate animal behavior, as they leave their humanity behind them. This theme in the book was the most interesting to me because of the universe aspect of it, whereas in my work i portray the universe to be full of patterns that correlate and the macro-microcosm aspect of it, Kafka suggests that the universe operates in a random way that is chaotic, without any pattern.

Reading this has allowed me to rethink my view on the subject of order in the universe and i want to explore the aspect of nature that is random and that has no structural pattern, I think it would be interesting for me to create works that go against the order of the universe and maybe show the randomness of nature. I also am intrigued by the idea of metamorphosis in itself as a concept, as i have always been interested in butterflies and their own change and pattern. I also feel like i should experiment on a large installation or sculpture of some kind to represent this spiritual/physical change. I feel like i would like to create a work that represents the physical changes and metamorphosis nature goes through, especially after reading this novel as i have come to believe that every human in their life at one point also goes through a spiritual metamorphosis like our protagonist Gregor and i think it would be interesting to explore that side of human nature.