Back in the Saddle

Did you know that when a caterpillar enters its chrysalis to become a butterfly, at one point its entire body is completely liquid? For real! It is still living and metabolizing, but the entire thing liquefies while it is reassigned into a new creature based on its old lifeform.

I've been feeling a bit liquid myself over the past few months. Now that I have the dream job, I've felt very syrupy, actually. It's the old adage: once you get what you want, what the fuck you gonna do with it? I am realizing that so much of my relentless self-promotion and creative energy over the past say, ten years, has been to get a job where I'm adequately compensated for doing my thing and being my damn self. Now that I have it, I've been beating myself up on the regular for not writing, blogging, photographing and making art with the same frequency. After a long day behind two computer, I haven't been able to be bothered getting behind my own to do more.

But then I started listening to Slayer and Fantomas and the Melvins in these massive quantities and it just awakened this need in me to be a part of something wild and weird -- and it came to me in a fever dream last week. I am totally obsessed with antlike office sociology and cubicle culture, and I wanted to make something that shook that up and also encouraged discussion, interactivity and participation. I am also amazed at how nuts normal adults go over a free peanut butter cup...so this all sort of commingled into the following display:

These pictures are less than ideal, but essentially what you are looking at is two pink stuffed animals that have slit a gorilla's chest open to get at his sweet chocolatey guts. I set this up in my cubicle and took a window out so that passersby could reach in and enjoy the gorilla's candied innards...the computer and desk surfaces in the cubicle has been carpeted with Astroturf as well to create a plastic forest feel.





I felt positively electric while assembling this. It felt so awesome to be a part of something wild and fucked-up, something real that flew right out of my head -- like I was remembering a part of myself long-lost that was waking right back up. The butterfly might not be back out of the cocoon yet, but he's definitely got a new spine...

posted by Jeff Simmermon @ 3:11 PM