Elizabeth Dearnley
Fairy Light
Dearnley, Elizabeth
Authors
Abstract
'And then I said, "Those fairies we see - let's take a picture!"'
In the summer of 1917, cousins Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright claimed to have seen fairies by Cottingley Beck. The photographs they took would later be described by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as having the potential to 'mark an epoch in human thought.'
In the hundred years since the creator of Sherlock Holmes endorsed the pictures in his 1922 book The Coming of the Fairies, the story of the Cottingley Fairies has continued to fascinate, sparking discussions about truth, photographic trickery, fake news, grief, spiritualism, and belief versus scientific rationalism, hinging on a single question: do you believe in fairies?
First staged in Leeds in 2022 to celebrate The Coming of the Fairies' centenary, Fairy Light returned to West Yorkshire in July 2023, beckoning you into Todmorden's Centre for Folklore, Myth & Magic to answer the question for yourself.
In this immersive installation, step back in time into the childhood world of Frances and Elsie, listen to their story, and watch it transform into an eerily magical space as the light changes. Combining elements of interactive recorded sound, projected film and deceptively glimmering lights, Fairy Light invites you to take another look at an apparently familiar tale - things aren't always what they seem.
Citation
Dearnley, E. Fairy Light. [Immersive theatre installation]. 21 May 2022 - 22 September 2023
Exhibition Performance Type | Other |
---|---|
Start Date | May 21, 2022 |
End Date | Sep 22, 2023 |
Deposit Date | Nov 16, 2023 |
Public URL | http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/3387275 |
Related Public URLs | https://redhoodproductions.co.uk/fairy_light.html |
You might also like
Fearsome Fairies: Haunting Tales of the Fae
(2021)
Book
The Sandman
(2019)
Exhibition / Performance
Big Teeth
(2017)
Exhibition / Performance
Downloadable Citations
About Edinburgh Napier Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@napier.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search