‘Ootheca’ is the name given to the egg sac of certain insects.

The word comes from oo- ‘of an egg’ + Greek thēkē ‘receptacle’. The name, therefore, infers a repository; a place of protection and nourishment; one’s primordial home. It is within the safety of these spaces that the journey of life begins to unfold, evolve and eventually emerge.

This work speaks to the miraculous process of metamorphosis, transformation and becoming. All of life emerges from energetic potential and is in a state of constant flux between birth, death and regeneration.

In the midst of the climate crisis in which we find ourselves, it often gives me hope to bear witness to the persistence and continuation of life on Earth. The egg sac (womb) represents this place of pure potentiality; of hope in the dark. The future may be inscrutable and mysterious, but what if this darkness is not ominous but rather, auspicious?

In the words of Rebecca Solnit, “Inside the word emergency is emerge; from an emergency new things come forth.”