Cat Spooner

2026

BabaYagaLand refers both to a performance/installation project by Cat Spooner, and to a way of thinking about ‘self’ that accounts for the microorganisms we share our bodies with.  
 
Cat wants to ask a question about subjectivity, and the extent to which we can call ourselves individuals. As Lynn Margulis observes, humans are multiply pregnant with myriad nonhuman entities who simultaneously 'gestate' us by providing developmental functions on our behalf. Cat meditates on the idea of more-than-human pregnancy by developing a more-than-human midwifery practice (BabaYagaLand), in which she performs a collaborative weaving ritual with her patient as a mode of gestation.  
 
Using the symbols and practices associated with Slavic folklore, this medical practice feels distinct from contemporary phallocentric medicine. When your skin mites swell to the size of a newborn, expect to be probed by a distaff, adorned with prophetic girdles and attended to by a rhombus-headed physician.