Stitching Solitude: Bea Camacho's 'Enclose' and the Art of Isolation Favorite 

Bea Camacho is a visual and performance artist from the Philippines, the provocation of whose work is described as exciting and strikingly into identity, intimacy, and isolation. Her art is known to delve into the human complex of experiences and offer a layered narrative within its visual and performance medium. Her particularly compelling work is "Enclose," which shows how she could merge physical action with metaphorical depth in creating a unique exploration of the self and its relation to the environment. "Enclose" is a performance of over 11 hours, in which Camacho will crochet a cocoon around her body. The slow work of making stitch by stitch will start to represent a visual of isolation, for each stitch contains the artist more inside her artwork. The performance was a very emotional comment on self-preservation and seclusion, metaphorically reflecting how humans can barricade themselves intentionally or unintentionally. The article also highlights the dual aspect of creation: the work of crocheting by Camacho is simultaneously creating and containing, blending creation into artistic expression and personal enclosure.

"Enclose" takes place in a starkly simple open space where the focus is pulled solely to Bea Camacho as she crochets. She sits on the floor as her hands work on the yarn, gently wrapping around her to make this giant cocoon. The sparse setting and even sparser environment highlight the solitary nature of the act, making leitmotifs out of isolation and intimacy. Over 11 hours, Camacho slowly but surely creates a crocheted cocoon around her body. With each stitch she buries deeper inside, she is fully encapsulated, and her performance morphs into a physical image of isolation. That slow process mirrors the slow, sometimes not even noticeable, ways people can set boundaries around themselves. Camacho's knitting is purposeful and meditative, so the audience can watch and think about creating as one of restraint. The performance closes with Camacho completely covering herself with the cocoon, becoming physically detached from the outer world. This last image is an impressive reminder of the fine line between self-preservation and seclusion: how efforts to protect oneself isolate a person. The physical act of crocheting, which first appears as an effort in the material world, becomes ultimately a metaphor for the tangle of identity and the movement we must make around our environment.

"Enclose" is an artistic journey into themes of isolation and identity—the barriers we surround ourselves with and, thus, how we let our sense of self be shaped by them. Bea Camacho made a performance of crocheting a cocoon around herself to show how one can protect oneself from the power of the outer world but, at the same time, be isolated. Both a physical and metaphorical barrier, it is a metaphor about how isolation can protect and separate us, affecting our identity and navigating the world. The performance has also revealed the dual facet of creation and confinement. In this sense, crocheting is an act of creation on the one hand, but it confines her within the cocoon. This duality was a comment on how the processes one engages in can build and confine, thereby losing the distinctive lines of creative expression against self-restriction. The piece invites viewers to reflect on their creative endeavors and how they may contribute to personal or societal barriers. "Enclose" is a metaphor for building our boundaries around us—consciously or unconsciously. Each stitch Camacho puts in further stands for the idea that our acts of creativity and creation could make us strangers. This metaphor broadens to general societal themes, considering individual and joint actions that can mold and confine experience.

Along the same line, the play is a social commentary on modern living, the pressures, and the complexities in people's lives today that can lead them to isolated conditions. In this regard, the slow enclosure of Camacho in the cocoon suggests that people may enclose themselves too tightly in their lives to be self-preserving yet want a sense of connection. In this way, the themes of "Enclose" could speak to many things dealing with human experience, mainly through the physical action of Camacho's crocheting. It pulls the viewers in to question their identity, boundaries, and the point at which isolation and connection meet, making it a fabulous piece of contemporary performance art.