We Are Breaking Spells
Karin Young, 2024
Watercolour, gouache, ink on paper, 2:07 minutes
“Amazing Grace” performed and sung by Ruth Davis
“We Are Breaking Spells”, brings into existence a woman’s dissolving presence. Erased from institutional history and from her own memory, her body is witnessed through the sound of her trembling hands playing an oddly familiar song, her voice rising in an invitation to sing. Initially, the watercolour paintings depict women as simple shapes. This anonymity is gradually disrupted by an internal force, revealed through changes in detail, gaze, and physically defiant posture. “We” invites the viewer to recognise their role in bringing the unseen women into presence, breaking the spell of invisibility.