THE TOOTH FAIRY
MEDIUM: OIL ON CANVAS, 18x24cm
‘As most of us, I was raised surrounded by religious iconography depicting a surrealist divine, artists having created meaning through the impulse of symbols and a rejection of reality. Because I understood these images, their strangeness felt ordinary. I had gotten used to them, I took the tales they told as a given.
I wanted to explore the dissonance in the recounting of miracles having been made usual by routine, and interrogate myself on what would make a viewer stop and search for relevance.
In ancient Mesoamerica, vultures were associated with both life and death, healing and sickness. Believed in some cultures to be emissaries of the Moon and bringing illness, they were in other societies part of healing rituals, their feathers and blood sometimes being used as a cure.
They were believed to be a link to the underworld and played an integral part in sacrificial offerings. By eating the carrion, they transformed the flesh and thus continued the cycle of renewal. In consuming the dead, they released the soul and carried it on their wings into the afterlife.
Reciprocity in relationships with higher beings interests me.
What do I have to give? What can I get in return?
Is the agreement balanced? If not, who benefits from it?’
Olga, 20, Belgium ✯ IG: @moonsartclub
“Currently studying painting restoration in Paris, I create mostly out of envy of the artists I learn about.”