POSTMODERN MERMAID
How would the story of The Little Mermaid be told today?
This Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale was one of my favourites when I was a girl. More because I was fascinated by the underwater world, as a person born in a country without access to the sea could be, than because of the story of one-sided love and devotion. In fact, it was quite disturbing for me - why give up your whole life out of love for a person who never even considered you as a prospect for their love? Such a waste.
In the first chapter, the collection explores the beauty of various shells from second-hand and old collections of strangers, sometimes imperfect and broken, like a landscape with traces of the past lives of its original inhabitants. An empty shell as a metaphor for what is left of us when we are gone, what is left when the sea life dies. A box full of seashells from the summer holidays, forgotten forever somewhere in the back of the closet.
Working also with vintage beads and deadstock glass beads, the second part of the collection is inspired by happy memories of the sea, the children's joy in collecting all those strange and exciting shapes of shells and rocks on the beaches. And also the hope that all is not lost and that the future can be colourful again.
So now, with rising sea levels, endangered marine ecosystems and pollution, I would like to see the Postmodern Mermaid and the prince as allies, fighting together to save underwater life.
The Shell
I see it
as a landscape.
I observe it
as a landscape.
I explore it
as a landscape.
What do you see
When you see
a damaged shell?
I often wonder
what life it had.
