Exhibition: ‘Love at the Poly’, Falmouth, Cornwall.  February 2013, curated by Emma Harnett and Olivia Gray.

These three pieces are representations of the love-entangled characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The first being Oberon, King of the Fairies, the second his wife, Titania, and sandwiched between them is Bottom, as a symbol of their folly. ‘Love-in-Idleness’ is the flower from which the love potion is made, to confuse and bemuse them in equal measure.

I have moved away from the classic ‘fairy’ look, but kept some of the components of what we expect; wings and human features, and combined these with creatures that inhabit the woodlands, to help to ground the fairy-ness in something more natural and real. These component characters are also to balance the absurdity of the magical transition of Bottom’s head into that of an ass. But of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, especially one with Love-In-Idleness dropped into their vision.