Tessa Farmer : Nymphidia (detail), 2005
Artist's Statement, 2006
Corners and edges, cracks and crevices; ends of gardens, and fungal rings all crawling with life that seethes and pulses with a microscopic industry. We know about the ants, the wasps and the bees, complex communities, group intelligences unstoppable armies that farm and nurture and wage war around us. But what do we know about the fairy legions of homunculi working mischief among the cobwebs? Do we even know theyre there?
In the folly at the foot of Firstsites garden a swarm is gathering. Tiny figurines, each near perfect blackened skeletons barely the size of a thumbnail, bustle and harangue the insects mid-air, lifted by tiny wings. The scene is frozen within the gables of the folly, a cloud as still and silent as a painting, yet equally as buzzing with magical life as any of Fusellis psychedelic imaginaries. Bursting out of the wasps nest, individual fairies struggle into their half-life, parasitic, feeding and breeding from the insects, perhaps. But on closer inspection there it appears they have a greater aim, massing for war these barely there bodies have equipped themselves with an undead artillery of stings and spears made from apiarian thoraxes and other captive creatures.
(Extract from Ruins of Nature in the sculpture of Tessa Farmer by Kit Hammonds, curator of South London Gallery. Commissioned by Firstsite, Colchester 2006).
I explore the realm of illusion and reality through sculptural manipulation of nature, weaving a fantasy drawn from literature, legends and my own imagination. I consider myself as a tool to realise imaginative possibilities that might otherwise linger unseen, just beneath the surface of the mundane. I intend the work to question the limits of the viewer's imagination and instill a sense of wonder, magic and possibility. This bid to reignite childlike curiosity has witnessed the emergence of a species of miniature skeletal creatures resembling the human form, collectively named 'hell's angels and fairies. The first fairy emerged foetal like, from deep inside a vibrant red tulip. The first swarm of fairies invaded Oxford during June 2000. At the end of 2001 they invaded Kings Wood in East Kent. After a period of dormancy they emerged two years later, having evolved and shrunk to the size of small insects.
These winged creatures occupy a transitory state somewhere between existence and imagination, between life and death. Visually provocative they are macabre, yet strangely beautiful, combining elements of attraction and repulsion. Beautiful as they may seem to some, these are far removed from the benign gossamer beings of the Victorian era.
As they evolve, shrinking and undergoing disconcerting chimerical mutation, their behaviour becomes increasingly sinister. In 'Swarm', 2004, they engage in intense combat with real, found insects. 'Swarm' is a Boschian representation of hellish violence. The fairies seem to be wildly flying around, half using, half eating the animals they ride. On peering closely into the swarm, sinister scenes of abuse and bewildering chimeras emerge as we become absorbed in this almost apocalyptic vision. The use of organic materials, part real 'found', part manipulated, suggest to the viewer that these beings are entirely believable, blurring the boundaries between the fantastical and the natural. The viewer's gaze accepts this continuity, and whilst interpreting the action that has been apparently frozen, the creatures become animate beings.
In 2005 I first observed parasitic behaviour among the fairies, which had shrunk to some 7mm tall. 'Nymphidia' (named after a sixteenth century fairy poem by Michael Drayton) is another swarm, again revealing scenes of torture and consumption. The focus of the attack is a wasps' nest, surrounded by fairies battling with wasps and other insects. On closer inspection they can be seen hatching out of wasps in the cells of the nest, by pushing off their heads and climbing out of the hollow shell of the consumed wasp.
Parasitism is a characteristic of many species of wasp. These small insects lay their eggs on or in the body of the host insect. Upon hatching the larval stage feeds on the host until it is ready to pupate, when the host is killed.
As the fairies evolve they appear to be acquiring increasingly sophisticated behavioural traits from the species around them. Each new piece represents a stage in an ongoing investigation into the fictional world of these sinister creatures. Most recently, as observed in The Terror they have begun to use bird and animal bones to create flying vessels that will facilitate their reign of terror.
I have at times escaped from the clutches of the evil fairies to make larger, site specific sculpture. 'The Barnacle Tree', 2003, set in Oxford University Parks, was a recreation of a sixteenth century mythical tree (described in 'Bizarre Plants' by William Emboden) that was believed to hatch geese from barnacle like growths on the trunk. Once hatched, they hung from their beaks until fully mature, when they dropped down into the river or sea below. Oxford University Parks was also the setting for a short super 8 animation I made in 2003. The film began with fairy skeletons growing from the roots of a fallen tree. The viewer then encounters a molehill wandering along the paths, and dandelion clocks regrowing their seeds when blown (like magic candles) and turning into carnivorous plants.
Tessa Farmer 2006
