The Valkyries

Joana Vasconcelos’s Valkyries are creatures made of fabrics, lace, embroidery, wool, sequins, beads, feathers, and LEDs. Hovering confidently, they extend their tentacles in all directions, occupying the spaces with gentle power. Compared to their ruthless namesakes from Scandinavian mythology ‒ the demonic women spirits in Odin’s entourage, whose apparition, on horseback in shining armour, portends death and is said to conjure up Northern Lights in the sky ‒ Vasconcelos’s luminous Valkyries appear peaceful and protective. 

They, and the strong women to whom they are dedicated, including the philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir, the dressmaker Marina Rinaldi, the resistance fighter and rose grower Catherine Dior, the superheroine and social worker Mary Poppins, and Elizabeth ‘Mumbet’ Freeman, a major figure in the abolitionist movement, show that history is made and often takes a different course than what myth promises. Vasconcelos’s Valkyries reflect female self-empowerment and symbolise the ability to take fate into one’s own hands and change conditions.