Floating, glowing, sprinkling magic dust in each step, a fairy represents all that is magic in life in a world where evil will eventually succumb to good.

But jaded and engulfed by an everyday life where there’s no black and white, it’s hard for adults to hang on to the beliefs we held during our childhood.

Now, eight visual artists are inviting us to take a moment to rekindle that magic.

“Although we may not be consciously aware of it, magic is around us every moment of our lives,” curator Kadek Krishna Adidharma wrote in the introduction to the exhibition.

“It is indefinable, gives flavour to our lives, and perhaps also lends meaning.”

Exhibited to coincide with the first anniversary of viviyipartroom, more than a dozen works ranging from digital prints to art installations try to revive our appreciation of the intangible and incomprehensible things in life.

“As a child, we used to be optimistic that eventually things will be better if we believe it to be so,” said Vivi Yip, who initiated the theme of the Faeries exhibition in her gallery. “Call it a miracle, call it magic, but there’s that spark of hope even in bad situations.”

Wanting to bring that spirit back, Vivi invited eight young contemporary artists using various mediums to interpret the meaning of “faery” from their own perspectives.

“Each artist’s visual exploration of the friction between this magical force of hope and his or her personal concerns became sculptures, paintings on mirrors, photographs printed on canvas, manual and digital illustrations, installations and a video documentary,” Kadek said.

Erika Ernawan, experimenting with painting on mirrors, shows that each of us has a fairy-like quality inside. If we only care to look, that is.

Her two artworks both portray a feminine silhouette on a mirror — a mirror in which we can still see reflections of ourselves in our search for the magic within.

Furniture and fashion designer Syagini Ratnawulan’s fairy is a witty one who can get mean when she’s upset. With her magic touch, she caused spikes to grow on chairs and spoons.

Indra Leonardi came up with Good Morning and Good Night, where his fairy is a little girl in a gloomy boxed world, while Tromarama wants people to recall the memories of their imaginary childhood friends — their own personal fairies.

As for cinema poster maker Mayumi Haryoto, her fairy in Dreaming of Chopin is a dreamy little elf napping under a mushroom. Rudi Mantofani plays with the idea that tiny creatures simply don’t fit in the big bad world, to the extent that one needs a magnifying glass to see them.

Conventionally, the medieval Western idea of fairy would in the modern day be best represented by Peter Pan’s Tinkerbell: A vigorous little feminine creature whose magical power comes in handy in times of trouble.

“Faeries represent a subtle, eternal striving to move towards light,” Kadek added.

“It is exactly that quality of a fairy that we want to bring back to our lives,” Vivi explained. “That if we believe, we have the magical power to go through anything.”

Often associated with supernatural powers, fairies are believed to live in their own hidden world and reveal themselves only to those with a good heart.

Lovis Ostenrik’s digital print artworks are perhaps the most literal take on the theme, where his portrayal of fairies are of little girls playing in a surreal natural landscape.

“Unintentionally, a leitmotif emerged among these works: the magic of children. Despite having increasing difficulty in appreciating the magic of nature, the men and women of today continue to harbour seeds of light in the dreams of our children’s future,” Kadek said.

In the end, perhaps as Erika stated through her works and justified by the curator, the magic is within us.

“You have the key, in your imagination.”

Faeries

Exhibition by eight visual artists
Until Sept. 22
viviyipartroom
Lot 2–3, The Promenade,
Jl. Warung Buncit Raya No. 98

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