Fairytales: Petra Collins and Alexa Demie

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Upholding the undertones of classic fantasy literature, “ Fairy Tales” carries darker, erotic messages baked into its nine chapters, both subconciously and obviously. “Banshee,” a story following two sisters avoiding an encounter with a banshee, plays out like a glamorous urban legend told over a campfire. A unique approach to this kind of fiction, we see the aftermath of the subsequent encounter, resulting in the two sisters becoming physically one with this “long-tressed woman.” In the eighth chapter, “Water Sprite,” the “weird girl” in a college dormitory creates a safe haven in her room, while the exterior campus believes her self-imposed isolation to be something much more sinister. Each of the nine tales are set in unique spaces, ranging from suburban homes and parking lots to fantastical sets. Petra and Alexa’s chapters of elves, mermaids, sirens, water sprites, fallen angels, fairies, witches, and banshees blend their own stories with retold fairy tales. The photos combine elements of camp, prosthetics, and shibari in a surreal update to the imagery of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault, and others. 2020 Miért vagy te, ha lehetsz én is?

Fairytales - Issuu

Each of the nine tales are set in unique spaces, ranging from suburban homes and parking lots to fantastical sets. Petra and Alexa’s chapters of elves, mermaids, sirens, water sprites, fallen angels, fairies, witches, and banshees blend their own stories with retold fairy tales. The photos combine elements of camp, prosthetics, and shibari in a surreal update to the imagery of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault, and others. About The Author I don’t think either of us has ever been comfortable in her immediate reality. Most of our childhoods were spent escaping in our minds,” Collins and Demie write in the prologue. As children, fairy tales played an important part for both of the women, allowing them escape from the dread of their own realities. The nine, nonlinear stories in “Fairy Tales” stem as much from their imaginations, as their traumas and the tales they told themselves.With the book’s Hungarian title Miért vagy te, ha lehetsz én is? Collins asks us: Why be you, when you can be me? Collins uses the camera as the third person. It captures historical truths (such as a time and place) and an emotional reality with a complicated relationship to intention and perception. Working with the sculptor Sarah Sitkin, Collins creates moulds of her body as well as her sisters to gain ownership, in a world where our bodies live in multiple realities. This new body of work features Collins first experiments with self-portraiture. 2019 OMG, I’m Being Killed

Fairy Tales: Collins, Petra, Demie, Alexa: 9780847871025

Petra Collins is a multi-talented artist and director whose photography set the stylistic tone for much of the 2010s. Shooting since the age of 15, her work is fueled by self-discovery and a contemporary femininity which explore the complex intersection of life as a young woman online and off. Collins weaves through the worlds of art, fashion, film, and music. She is working on her first feature film, set to shoot in 2021. Once upon a time, we snuggled under the covers just before drifting to sleep, listening to heroic tales of triumph over adversity. Mystical figures with magical powers filled our imaginations with fantasy, spectacle, and myth, while simultaneously imparting an array of morality tales on our developing minds. We may have dreamed of becoming Cinderella or rooted for the Frog Prince’s freedom from a witch’s curse, coming to believe that despite all obstacles, good will always win. Fairy Tales is an erotic folklore of short stories shot by Petra Collins starring Alexa Demie. The pair created the concept and text collaboratively. Alexa portrays nine characters that embody new stories they would have liked to see. As children, Petra and Alexa were both enamored with fairy tales, which provided an escape from their own painful realities.Demie reached out to Collins to express her desire to play such a character, and they decided to do a photoshoot. In their shared love and connection, something much deeper took root. Together they began crafting their own stories of elves, mermaids, sirens, water sprites, fallen angels, witches, banshees, and fairies – each with a modern twist on the age-old archetypes. Collected in the new book, Fairy Tales (Rizzoli), Collins and Demie proffer a series of fabulous fables that are equal parts sensual, playful, and poignant. Since the early 2010s, Petra Collins has redefined the scene of photography and film with her ethereal, pastel-saturated visuals. Directing campaigns for high fashion brands such as Gucci and Bulgari, music videos for pop artists Olivia Rodrigo and Carly Rae Jepsen, and developing her first feature film (“ Spiral” starring Selena Gomez), Collins’ work has been publicly recognized in nearly every corner of the entertainment industry. If any person drew close and heard the singing and saw the dancing, they would never return to their home again,” the story continues. “She had never wished for this fate. Why did being alive and being a sexual creature make her a monster? Why was her body a torture tool? She was told that sirens never ceased their efforts to attract an audience. But, she thought, what if the audience was seeking me? ‘It’s your fault. You’re asking for it.’”

Petra Collins Artwork - Petra Collins

Petra Collins is a multi-talented artist and director whose photography set the stylistic tone for much of the 2010s. Shooting since the age of 15, her work is fueled by self-discovery and a contemporary femininity which explore the complex intersection of life as a young woman online and off. Collins weaves through the worlds of art, fashion, film, and music. She is currently working on her narrative feature debut set to shoot in 2021. Books 2021 Fairytales Each of the nine tales are set in unique spaces, ranging from suburban homes and parking lots to fantastical sets. Petra and Alexa’s chapters of elves, mermaids, sirens, water sprites, fallen angels, fairies, witches, and banshees blend their own stories with retold fairy tales. The photos combine elements of camp, prosthetics, and shibari in a surreal update to the imagery of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault, and others. They were so psychedelic, violent, but also beautiful,” Collins tells AnOther. “I was looking at work made from a collective trauma during the Soviet regime and digesting that as a child, but also experiencing my own trauma at the same time. As a child, I struggled with reading and writing in school, and the way I related to the world was by making work or dancing, creating any type of art. I lived in different realities as I think most artists do. Half of it was disassociating and half was a way of properly experiencing the world.” In this dark and wondrous world, they spin their own realities and fantasies into their reimagining of darker folklore, drawing out the sexualized undercurrent lurking beneath the surface of these childhood tales. Playing with agency and desire while blending beauty with the ugly and freaky, Collins and Demie build nine imaginary realms that upend beauty standards, gender norms, and our very understanding of fairy tales. In a world where filters give us solace, OMG! I’m being killed, is the baby that was birthed in response to 2019. This book is Petra’s ultimate fashion magazine – one that she feels is a good representation of the truth about the age we live in. Filled with unpublished editorials and new works this book offers horrendously satisfying images. 2018 SIX BY XXCurated by Petra Collins, featuring artists Arvida Bystrom, Harley Weir, Sandy Kim, Jeanette Hayes, Kristie Muller, and more. Forward by Tavi Gevinson. Discharge Alexa Demie is an actor, musician and multi-hyphenate talent who currently stars as ‘Maddy’ in HBO’s EUPHORIA. She has starred in acclaimed A24 films and had successin creative direction and design projects. Alexa is currently working on her first EP, developing and producing film and TV, and engaged in social impact work focused on equality and representation, especially for the Latinx community and the next generation of youth. Fairy Tales is an erotic folklore of short stories shot by Petra Collins starring Alexa Demie. The pair created the concept and text collaboratively. Alexa portrays nine characters that embody new stories they would have liked to see. As children, Petra and Alexa were both enamored with fairy tales, which provided an escape from their own painful realities.