About A Girl Gone Into The Woods

About a girl gone into the woods is a collaboration with children’s book author Sinem Sas, a fairy tale exploring identity, anxieties, and coming of age. The partially autobiographical text tells the story of a young girl who breaks the ban by her parents and enters the forest, which is full of dangers and challenges.

The forest in the fairy tale functions as an abstract space in which the self can be experienced. It is not purely fixed in the inner world, like the dream or fantasy, but a shared experience, either in the act of narration or in listening. It is also neither completely part of the outer world, since as an element of a fictional story it can not be encountered in reality, but will only be experienced in the mind. It functions as a transitional space according to American psychologist Donald Winnicott. An inner reality is projected into the outer world to become tangible and experienceable.

The dangers that the girl encounters are therefore of psychological nature. However, she is not the typical damsel in distress, but overcomes the challenges in her own ways, thus creating new solutions and narratives for the female role in fairy tales. Without denying her own anxieties and vulnerability she presents a relatable character with the capability to defeat her monster and gaining authorship of her own story.

Installation shots

Book