"Your generous loan to me your crippling interest"
Part of the exhibition "Please do not feed the fairies"
In the summer of 2005, when I was 10 years old, I used to visit my mom at her workplace after my English lessons that took place during the week; waiting for her to finish her shift. During that period, she was reading a novel called “Τhe three commandments”. On the cover was a forest with four wooden signs in the front. The first one was the name of a village. The rest of them wrote:
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not commit adultery.
Do not step into the fairyland.
This was not a fantasy novel. In that story, fairies were people in disguise, committing crimes, and taking advantage of an urban legend. There is something that stuck with me about that plot twist. In my head, up to that point, fairies were something magical. Creatures are associated with kindness and innocence. In that story, they were the exact opposite. It felt like a little bitter pre-taste of the adult world.
In the winter of 2017, a dear person gave me an envelope with a dreamcatcher covered in glitter and a little handwritten note saying, “I’m giving you some fairies to take care of you when I’m not there”. I still don’t know what they meant exactly, but at the same time, it made sense to me.
Words and objects can have completely different interpretations and meanings for each individual. I see fairies as a symbol of a symbol.
A fairy can be something terrifying. It can be a sign of love; a story, a memory, a dream, a cup of coffee; an unexpected text message at 11:23 p.m.; or the car that took away a loved one or a mythical creature.
Many of the exhibition's stories and iconography are about duality and contrast.
Fantasy and reality, darkness and light, pain and comfort, injury and healing. It is questioning in a way polarity of these notions. Are these the two sides of a coin or one side from a different perspective? Would dreams still be special if we were never awake?