Fairy speaks of truths lived within every female, reconciling with the harshness and delicacy of leaving oneself behind in order to ignite another’s growth and incepting
The image of a fairy has been used in this context to bring about the idea of losing one’s independence for another but feeling fulfilled through the act of emptying oneself. This loss is emphasized here as a magical gesture, magical just like the fairies. Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of ‘the other’ being synonymous to a jailed state of female difference in defense to a male-dominated society, Fairy is constructed around the idea of liberating the original conception of Beauvoir’s definition and providing a new meaning of femininity. The element of the spiral is present in the video representing a phase of metamorphosis, where the continuous circular motion acts as creator and destroyer, moving back and forth between parallel realities of the microcosm and the macrocosm. Trapped within the circle of time in an endless generational vortex of societal patterns, the fairy needs to find the courageous strength to set herself free. She travels within the shadows of herself, within the impositions and expectations that dominate her identity, and it is inside that shadow that she often loses herself. The further she travels from who she is, the larger the shadow becomes. Taken from Jungian canons and terminologies, where the archetype of the shadow is an unconscious presence not entirely recognized by the person, Fairy transforms this ethereal being into a tangible figure. By recognizing the fairy inside of us, it is there, in the tide of disruption that we encounter the epitome of ourselves. This shadow play is emphasized through the use of no color in the work, representative of the yin yang; confronting the masculine and feminine, the light and dark, the day and night . The shadow is synonymous of life as much as of death, recalling the idea of reincarnation. A woman’s current presence as female may have previously been another, as she may have been ‘the other’ or the one dominating her as such. The essential difference in Fairy compared to many previous feminist theories is that the act of marginalisation is used as a weapon as well as a shield. It is precisely through this lack of recognition that she can roam in the most unnoticeable of ways, fostering the inherent magic within herself, to ignite a larger good.
Credits:
Concept and performance Sofia Mattioli
Foreword Greta Voeller and Sofia Mattioli
Filming Rebecca Salvadori and Francesca Pionati
Editing Sofia Mattioli, Francesca Pionati and Rebecca Salvadori
Music production Lucy Railton archive
Musical arrangement Sofia Mattioli and Lucy Railton
Animations Sirai Bucarelli