A folk demon, a hidden inhabitant of our reality, who lives between worlds. Every culture has its demons. Eudaimonia, Japanese demons, Slavic domestic spirits, pagan spirits with a good accent. They can be guardian spirits, nature spirits, but there are other types. The most common interpretation in our culture seems to be that they are spiritus that can take control of our body. They are like psychological powers that tempt us to do bad things. In extreme cases, someone can become possessed by a demon and a ritual, known as exorcism, is needed to expel the demon or demons from someone’s body.
Daimones literally means “guiding spirit”.
In the exhibition “Blue Moth”, Josephine Alanko takes us on a journey into her spiritual world full of inspiring energy. She opens our senses to the invisible, what exists on the border of realization. In Finland, where she comes from, the presence of spirits is a natural phenomenon widely accepted in the culture. This energy is always palpable, for example, the spirit of a bonfire or sauna stands out, and to notice them, one must remain calm and quiet. In Karelia, awareness of the energetic presence of the world is drunk with mother’s milk. Knowledge of the spiritual meaning of life is built from great-grandmothers, and communication with demons is a natural process attributed to women. The artist takes up this challenge and faces it in the field of creativity. It is a transfer of a spiritual ritual passed down between generations of women into the space of art. By acting in this way, she asks the fundamental question of whether it is possible to touch and understand this energy through art.
From the history of art, we know many motifs of demons, interpretations and visions in which their destructive side dominates, as for example in Goya’s “dark” period, which shows the struggle between reason and imagination in macabre scenes. Monsters that appear when sleep falls. Alanko presents us with her perception, in a formal approach between painting and fabric, on the border of two media, there is a subtle energy hidden between day and night, life and death, on the border of worlds. The artist, following her intuition, discovers a truth unknown to her. The energy of the night is not demonized. She is guided by the spirit of “Blue Moth”.
Maria Ciborowska
English 
Polish 