The Big Pink Caterpillar was a large-scale, immersive tunnel installation—stretching close to a hundred metres—that invited visitors to walk through the body of a caterpillar as it crawled across the landscape. Constructed from arched willow poles and lined with fluorescent pink ripstop fabric, the structure formed a vivid, sinuous passage that was both playful and slightly surreal.

At its heart, the piece posed a simple question: do you notice something different when you emerge on the other side? The work was primarily an experiment with colour and perception. Prolonged exposure to the intense pink interior subtly fatigued the cones in the eye responsible for registering that hue. When visitors stepped back out into the landscape, the effect was striking—greens appeared hyper-saturated, grass and trees seemed unnaturally vibrant, as if the world had been digitally enhanced. The transition was bodily and perceptual, producing a moment of quiet wonder that many described as almost trippy.

Despite its monumental presence in the landscape, The Big Pink Caterpillar was realised on a modest budget and within tight time constraints, embracing simplicity of materials to create maximum impact. Its scale and colour made it an unmistakable landmark, a temporary creature inhabiting the hill.

The piece was created for Forest of Imagination at Entry Hill, a site with ambitions to become a permanent arts and nature park. Within that longer-term vision sits the idea of a large, biophilically designed butterfly house—housing exhibition spaces, studios, offices and a café. The caterpillar tunnel was conceived as a kind of precursor to this future building: a symbolic organism crawling up the hill, with the promise that one day it might metamorphose into something lasting.