The Art Incubator Gallery in Uzupis presents an exhibition of original works by the painter Mone Kielė entitled "The Fairy Giddiness". The opening of the exhibition will take place on 26 April, 6 pm, and you are cordially invited to visit!
The Fairy Dizzy is a study by painter Mone Kielė on the relevance of creatures typical of Lithuanian folklore today. This exhibition focuses on the archetype of the fairy and its relationship to the modern woman.
The fairy is depicted in Lithuanian folklore as a spontaneous entity whose supernatural nature is incomprehensible to the average person, and which is surrounded by mysticism and legends. According to the tales, fairies lived among people, sparing them goodies and lucky spells. However, fairies were feared because of their unpredictable gifts, which sometimes meant curses, bad luck or even destruction, and their seductive appearance was condemned and shamed.
Folklore is not only based on moral norms that are inculcated through generations, but also on the symbols that they have constructed, which become a filter for perceiving the reality of the world. In this case, the myth of the fairy has become the archetype of the woman who does not fit into the societal framework of behaviour and beauty. Today, this image is particularly pervasive, as the ever-changing image of women dictates countless avenues of self-expression and lifestyle, which, like fairies, can sometimes be suffocating in their unbridled inner freedom and unrestrained existence.
The artist deconstructs this latter idea by using the expression - to be dizzy. Dizziness is a human characteristic that in today's context is defined as looking at the world in a light-hearted, chaotic and somewhat surrealistic way, so to be dizzy is to dream, to create illusions, to understand reality in a different way. mone Kiel asks to what extent is a woman who is giddy, or how far away from the stereotypical image of a woman, desirable and how far is she not tolerated in society? In the exhibition, this narrow line - between acceptance and condemnation - is revealed through the artist's recent paintings, which use expressive brushstrokes to create different scenes of female silhouettes, inspired by the artist herself, her friends and other women.
mone Kielė's characters are no longer fantastical creatures, but rather are women and fairies that we meet today, who have taken on a masculine origin, and who are therefore close to every viewer. In some works, they are depicted in the nude, transgressing the imposed boundaries of morality, reminiscent of the obscene fairies whose provocative appearance in folklore signified impending disasters. Elsewhere, the female form takes on a wild strength by identifying with nature and, like a fairy, draws energy from the rain, swamps and lakes. Finally, the motif of virgins dancing and singing in the storm returns to the modern fairy the freedom to be desirable. In this way, by using the female image as an aesthetic form, mone Kiel explores aspects of identity, behaviour, morality and standards of beauty, while at the same time creating parallels with the mythology of the fairy.
