Through motifs linked to the fairy story of Rapunzel/Persinette, I will present a video presentation that navigates ideas of entrapment, loss, and transformation through hair, walking, foraging, plant cultivation and anthotype making as a consequence of my lived-experience of still being in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fairy tale of Rapunzel, who was imprisoned in a tower separated from the world, has become a familiar metaphor for the lockdowns and stay at home orders. For me, confinement and restriction have continued. Since public health policies and mandated protections have been scaled back, narratives surrounding the virus’ threat have been minimised, and society has been encouraged to return to ‘normal’, I have found the situation difficult to operate within. As we approached the third anniversary of the onset of the pandemic early in 2023, I felt deeply a sense of despair and grief as my own behaviours attempting to protect myself and my family were swimming against the tide of the mainstream. These feelings, I found increasingly difficult to bear, and so I began to recognise the need to take action, to become-with the situation.
Seeking to accept this reality I turned to writers and actions, reading Kate Forsyth’s The Rebirth of Rapunzel, Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, and Anna Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World. I employed walking and reflective writing, as well as material exploration with images of hair and plaiting, alongside noticing, foraging for, and preparation of wild foods. More than a year on, I will share my reflections, dialogues with writers which helped make sense of the place I found myself, as well as documentation of the material and action-based exploration that I am continuing to engage with in the continuing pandemic.
