fluttering into 2026
Heipsan!
I got to begin the year with my first ever artistic residency, how exciting! During the residency I’ve been working on ‘Us who glow in the dark’, a contemporary dance piece in which Sointu Saraste (choreography & performing), Aju Jurvanen (light and spatial design), Sarah Kivi (sound design) and I (costume design) research and channel cuteness, monstrosity and (girl)aggression, through ~*fairies*~!
Fairies have a rich history in folklores around the world, often being described as dangerous tricksters who are to be respected and feared. More modern depictions have fairies imagined as dainty, effortlessy beautiful beings who dance between the thin veil of sexy and innocent. Sound familiar? The same description could be used for countless pop culture refenrences of female characters, as the traits listed are often also linked to femininity. The road from folklore depictions of the fairy to the popculture variety can be described as commodifying pagan beliefs into vessels of gender ideals.
This commodifying of fairies can even be seen how the adventures of Disney’s Tinker Bell in her solo movies (2008-2015) have little to do with the at times mean and murderous sprite she was in Disney’s ‘Peter Pan’ (1953). Her personality was retconned to make her more commercially viable for young audiences.
“I tried to kill a child, teehee”
There is so much interesting overlap with fairies and perceived femininity. As a kid, I did not care for all the sparkles and cuteness. Some of this was unfortunately internalised misogyny, but also how young me rejected what I though I was expected to be. Dainty, cute, pretty, frail. The culture around me taught me that these passive traits are girly, and the active traits such as strong and capable, were for boys. Fairies were the personification of femininity that haunted me, laughing how they were what was expected of me, knewing I could never reach it.
‘Us who glow in the dark’ will premiere at the Contemporary Art Space Kutomo, on friday the 13th of March. Come and see what we have been brewing! Get your tickets from the links below:
