THE YEAR IS 1977 AND SUZY BANNION HAS DECIDED TO PERFECT HER BALLET STUDIES AT THE MOST FAMOUS SCHOOL OF DANCE IN EUROPE. UPON ARRIVAL SHE ENCOUNTERS TWO WITCHES: SARAH AND HELENA, MUTILATING THEIR UNIVERSE’S CREATOR (Director, Dario Argento). JOINING THEM, THE TRIAD GO FORTH AND HUNT THOSE WHO HAVE USED THEIR CREATIVE WORKS TO PERPETUATE NARRATIVES THAT JUSTIFY THE DEMONISATION AND DEGRADATION OF MISBEHAVING WOMEN.

The Puritanical mentality of the real life witch hunts is permeated throughout the horror genre. Female characters who do not partake in premarital sex are rewarded with survival, whilst her promiscuous counterpart will be killed, graphically and onscreen. The subtext being that she deserved it, because only BAD ladies do those things.

The work attempts to satirise horror tropes and motifs, as well as reflect the evolving trajectory of the archetypal witch figure and how she is perceived in the cultural consciousness. Once regarded as a uniquely feminine monster, intended to illustrate the ways in which women should not behave, she has been reclaimed as a symbol of unconventional womanhood and female liberation.

The recurring trio of witches embody this new identity, acting as a kind of “bogeyman” for bad men who have inserted their own beliefs regarding female purity into their works, through punishing the characters who do not comply to these sets of behaviours.

The historical context intertwined with the intentionally lewd and grotesque imagery hopefully culminates in a series of prints that are darkly comedic, cartoonishly violent, subversive and uncanny.