Norman Rea’s “Unbound”: An Exploration into the Mystical and Magical as a Metaphor for Femininity

The Norman Rea Gallery’s latest exhibition, “Unbound”, served to embrace the occult, featuring artworks inspired by witchcraft, tarot and dreamwork, to name just a few. While on the surface this tied into the greater cultural movement toward spirituality, it also provided an understated commentary on society’s treatment of women over the years.

From the cycles of the moon being seen as symbolic of femininity, to the victims of witch hunts predominantly being women, historically there are strong ties between women and the occult. The word “occult” comes from the Latin “occultus”, meaning “hidden”, which to me seems a poignant. If incidental, commentary on how society has historically hidden women from view by diminishing their contributions to the world - women, like the occult, are often treated as somewhat taboo. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the rise in feminism and gender equality correlated with a rise in embracing the occult.

Praise, Lucy Kerr

My automatic association of women with the occult seems to have been shared by many

artists whose works are on display. One of the first pieces I encountered was Lucy Kerr’s

Praise, a coloured pencil drawing ‘exploring the female connection to spirituality and bodies

of light’. The drawing depicts a silhouette whose head is embraced by a flash of halolike light - her arms reach up to the sky above her as if trying to embrace the moon, or perhaps in

praise of it. A body of warm fiery orange and yellow tones, she is in juxtaposition with the

coolness of her muted blue surroundings. This spoke to me as a manifestation of women as

harbouring magic that is suppressed; this could either be real magic, tying in with the idea

that women are more spiritually in tune, or perhaps a more metaphorical kind of magic regarding the shared sisterhood of women everywhere. The flash of light at the woman’s head reminded me of the zinc spark that occurs when an egg is fertilised, a further reminder of the magic of femininity. However, the singular figure struck me as quite lonely, perhaps to embody the forced independence of the female experience.

Part of Daydream Series, Yifeng Liao

One of my favourite pieces was Yifeng Liao’s Daydream Series, a set of four coloured pencil depictions of swans situated within dreamy landscapes. To me, this evoked the folkloric “swan maiden” discourse prevalent in fairytales, whereby a metamorphic swan woman becomes trapped in her human form. The pervasiveness of this narrative points to shared feelings of entrapment as women, and a desire for freedom - within these tales, the woman often loses her shape-shifting abilities as the result of a man, a microcosm for the treatment of women within patriarchal structures. The depiction of a swan in the context of the mystical and magical thus points towards the freedom of a woman having escaped a patriarchy - however, the singularity of Yifeng’s swan depictions as animals that famously mate for life suggests a necessary ostracisation from patriarchal society in order to be truly free.

Lying in the Woods, She Wondered if She Could Stay There Forever, Ruby Parsons

A theme of female unity within spirituality was touched on by HARD’s Arts Editor Ruby Parsons, who discussed how it has permeated through three generations of women in her family. Her etching Lying in the Woods, She Wondered if She Could Stay There Forever, drew on a similar theme of the isolation of the female experience leading to comfort that can be found in spirituality, depicting a sole woman sitting at the base of a tree.

Dreaming Rabbit, Ana Varas

There were so many wonderful pieces I would

love to write more on, but a final artwork that struck me was Ana Varas' Dreaming Rabbit. The rabbit looking up at a depiction of the moon summarised the ties between women and magic, with the cyclicality and mystery of the moon cementing the fusion of femininity with thaumaturgy. More than this, the moon is a symbol of our shared humanity: we all look up at it, and it evokes wonder and awe in all of us. This served as a final reminder that the historical distinctions we have made based on gender are arbitrary. The phrase ‘I am a dreamer but not the only one’ embodies the vision of an equal world - how far we have come and how far we are yet to come. Thus Norman Rea Gallery’s depiction of the growing acceptance of the occult was a poignant reminder of both the power and the suppression of women over time.