Ring My bell

Alexa Turnbull

Interview by L. Valena

Let's start from the top. Can you describe to me what you responded to?

It was a collage and it was sort of like, this mystical-seeming, female-bodied being that had wings and there were a lot of light colors, some pastels from what I remember.

What was first reaction to that?

It made me think of fairies. But then also- I just watched the movie The Nun, which is a scary movie. There are bell ringers in that movie, and there's a scene in the graveyard where all the bells are going off. The bells that are attached to people's hands and feet in the casket. So if they bury someone alive by accident from the plague or something, they would know.

Okay, wait- back up. That's a real thing?

That's a real thing. They called them dead ringers- they started ringing in the graveyard because it was like someone was buried alive and they wanted to get out. I've been thinking about that a lot because it's a really good scene in the movie. And, I don't know. I was just kinda thinking... when I was younger, my auntie who raised me, she's from England. We just always were talking about fairies. I built fairy houses my whole life. And she would always say that when you heard a tiny bell and you didn't know where it was coming from, it was a fairy. So I was just thinking about the dead ringer fairies like and what they would look like. And it would probably look like a weird Grim Reaper thing, like invisibly ringing the bell to say, ‘Hey- this person's not dead’. I just kind of made my own dead ringer visualization of what that fairy would look like, and how the person waking up in the coffin would try to move.

So that is a dead ringer fairy, a thing in mythology or is that something that you made up?

No, no. That's something that my brain just linked together- the dead ringers and that my auntie used to tell me that if you heard a little bell (which most likely was a wind chime or something), she would just say that it was a fairy nearby and that they were excited because they just found the fairy house that someone made them.

Wow. Okay. So you're saying that in this case, this is a fairy that has actually found a dead person that's not dead and is ringing these bells to alert somebody about that fact.

Right. Whenever people think of fairies, they always seem to think of this really feminine, sweet thing. Like the collage that I was sent. And I was thinking that there can also be good things that do not look like that.

You said that you've been building fairy houses your whole life. Is that something that you still maintain?

It is. So, I was a nanny for a long time before I started grad school and I constantly would build fairy houses with the young girl that I was a nanny for. And just anyone that I would babysit. It's something that's a really easy thing to get kids excited to go outside and do. And then talk about what fairies are. It's like good, harmless, fun.

Can you tell me more about fairies? If I was six years old and I asked you what is a fairy, what would you say?

I would probably start by explaining that they are very, very small, and you can hardly see them, but they kind of look like almost microscopic butterflies, because they fly around. When you're trying to describe something to a younger person, they don't really need that much for their imagination to get going. They'll kind of like draw their own picture, but giving them some sort of reference- it has a body and it has wings. Like a dragon fly, or a moth, or any of those things.

And as far as myths go, fairies do a lot. But when I'm telling young people what fairies do, I just tell them that they look out for certain people. And it's usually the people who believe in them, and they are a lot like real people. They want little houses and shelters, which is why we make them houses. They drink sugar water like butterflies. So if you find like a shell or something concave and put sugar water in it, they'll come and be friends with you and look after you. If you take care of them, they'll take care of you.

Are there any other go-to pieces that you tend to put in fairy houses?

Like little things that I make to put in fairy houses in the wild?

Yeah.

Well, they always had to have a bed. And so it's usually a sturdy leaf, and then like a soft leaf and some flower pedals for the pillow.

That sounds very nice!

Yeah. And we tend to always put little walkways with stones so that the fairy knows that it's not a trap. One of the last fairy houses I made with the girl that I was a nanny for her, she wanted to put up a flag so that they knew that it wasn't a trick. So she found a long, skinny stick, like the size of my pinky finger and just put a flower pedal on it so that it looked like a little flag so that the fairy would know.

It's really fun. That little girl is getting older now. She's seven. I don't know if she fully believes in it or not- I know I still did when I was seven. I still do- but it's different to me now. It's just great to see that they're still using their imagination. They have a lot of technology. Even kid’s shows these days are not what they used to be. They're about real people, and they're really dramatic and they all have cell phones and make inside jokes about the internet. They don't go outside and imagine stuff enough.

They don't get to get into moss and leaves and sticks and stuff.

Yeah. And I'm from Florida- there's not too much moss in Southwest Florida. But, yeah. Moss makes for great carpet for fairy houses.

Yeah. I babysat a lot and nannied a bit, mostly in high school. I remember building lots of fairy houses with moss. That was definitely a big thing in New Hampshire. How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

It sort of fits directly into it. Video and performance is the main part of my work, and I've always been a print maker, so involving prints in my videos is just something that happened naturally. It's also useful, because I deal with trying to put a vision to things that don't exist in pure sight. Creating an environment for certain relationships that we feel but we can't see. Like your relationship to death or certain risks. A relationship to an environment that might not be a real environment, whether it be dreams or in the natural world. Trees don't actually talk back to you, but what if they did? So printmaking and the building of these environments is something that I always do in my work, which is really helpful because I can use a green screen to like just plop myself into these sort of environments I build.

I deal a lot with topics that might not be so easy to approach. Certain risks in life that might not be the happiest or easiest thing to talk about or even acknowledge. Kind of bringing them to light in a way that has this sort of childlike imagination and humor involved that makes it easy to take in and digest.

Tell me more about what this process was like.

It was a lot of fun for me. I love deadlines. I love not being able to think about things too much. That's something I've always been really attached to- not overthinking my first initial thoughts. When I decide I want to do something, then it's like, okay, just do it. Just try it out. See what happens. So having a quick turn around on this was something I really enjoyed. I just took my first three thoughts when I looked at the photo that I was sent. I wrote down the first three things and asked, what am I going to make out of this? It all happened super organically. And it was just a lot of fun. Now I'm like a part of this bigger thing, and connecting all of these people and things that wouldn't normally be connected. I love the internet for that reason.

There is a real positive side to the internet. This little community that we're building internationally is really interesting.

It is super interesting and I'm so glad that y'all are doing it!

Yeah, me too! Do you have any advice for someone else who's going to do this?

Don't overthink it. Go with your gut instincts and just have fun because it's all about like creating this community, and deadlines don't have to be scary.

Call Number: Y21VA | Y25FI.tuRi

Alexa Turnbull: I am exploring how the body communicates, navigates and deconstructs built barriers and structures in our environments. I understand that everything exists on its own shadow. The shadow may seem intangible, just out of reach, but it is truly there.

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