Process as Alchemy
Some of my work has been concerned with the processes of alchemy as routes towards personal change.
Carl Jung recognised that alchemical processes can be understood as material and psychological. A visual blackening might be read symbolically as depression or collapse. But alchemists go further than symbolism: they propose that these processes are not merely representations of inner states, but are the same processes, unfolding across both matter and psyche.
This is what is meant when alchemy is said to “seek spirit in matter.” They actions performed are not just metaphors, but parallel expressions of transformation within the individual.
In this way, Jung saw alchemical theory as he saw myth: not as primitive science or outdated narrative, but as a kind of schematic for psychological experience. Alchemy interlaces tangible, physical processes with the more elusive movements of the unconscious.
This connected to my interest in using non-representational strategies to convey meaning. My work is not about what it symbolises, it is about what is actually there.
(above: bamboo masks going through Nigredo and Albedo alchemical processes)
Nigredo Process
Nigredo (or the “blackening”) is the first stage of alchemy, where structures break down and certainty dissolves. It involves confronting darkness and chaos, often felt as confusion or loss. Yet this undoing is necessary, clearing the ground for transformation and renewal.
Albedo Process
Albedo (the “whitening”) follows nigredo and marks a phase of clarification and purification. In Jung’s reading, it reflects a quiet ordering after chaos, where insight begins to emerge and things are seen more clearly. It is not yet completion, but a state of lucidity in which the ground is prepared for further transformation.
