The manufacturing of fear of the witch is centuries in the making. The witch is one of the very few images of independent female power that we have; magic was revered in Egypt and never seen as separate from religion, it was later condemned in most civilizations that centered around organized religion. In witchcraft one has control over their fate, and is in conversation with that which is beyond, in organized religion one is subject to the will of god(s). The image of the witch was propagandized to be feared, or just completely written out, of history through the ages; witch-hunting arose in conjunction with the rise of capitalism, and in turn, with mining the earth for its resources. Witch is respect for nature, love of life, and freedom of will.

“Witch-hunting in all its different forms is also a powerful means to destroy communal relations, injecting the suspicion that underneath the neighbor, the friend, the lover hides another person, lusting for power, sex, wealth, or simply wanting to commit evil deeds.” – Sylvia Federici

The exhibition also highlights the beauty and majesty of sand. In each grain we can find the history of a place. In it we find the history of the earth. “Sand is a substance that is beautiful, mysterious, and infinitely variable; each grain on a beach is the result of processes that go back into the shadowy beginnings of life, or of the earth itself.” – Rachel Carson. In myth, sand is the creator of dreams.

“There is a life behind the personality that uses personalities as masks. There are times when life puts off the mask and deep answers unto deep.”
– Dion Fortune, The Goat-Foot God

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Patty Spyrakos is a mixed media sculptor and painter living in Reykjavik. She was born in Chicago to Greek immigrants. She had several transcendental experiences in her late teens. Studied sensory systems and perception at university, as well as ceremonial magick and TCM. She was a major user of irc and the world wide web at its inception. Taught herself HTML and photoshop and found her way into working in ux design in San Francisco for a decade. She had children, took ceramics classes, and is now experimenting with material and creates work based on exhibition location, or themes tied to the evolution of the psyche and an evaluation of the formation of all manner of bonds between self and society. She is into astrology, trying to remember her dreams, and finally purchased a record player here in Iceland, so she’s quite excited about that.