The Nest consists of a life-sized child figure that is lying in a bed with a lighted surface. The centerpiece of the installation is a sculpture, which I have made of eggshells as the main component. As its model, I have used a resuscitation baby doll.

The starting point for the work is a metamorphosis in which a human being, an organism, or a substance transforms from one form to another. Metamorphoses have been a common theme in folk mythologies and literature from ancient times to Franz Kafka. Humans and gods have transformed, for instance, into birds, insects, trees, or stones – and vice versa.

Metamorphosis is also a basic concept of biology. The physiological and anatomical metamorphosis of an egg or a larva into an adult animal is often a dramatic process, regulated by multifold and interwoven internal and external factors.

Metamorphosis thus manifests the breakdown of boundaries, the porosity of different life forms, as well as the multidirectional movement between life and death. Humans are no exception in these processes but a part of the constant transformation of all animate and inanimate. There even we ourselves eventually decompose into nourishment for other life forms as a part of the endless circulation of matter and energy.

© Timo Heino, 2022