These white ceramic braids were part of Elisa Giardina Papa’s exploration of Sicilian mythologies with the figure of the “donne di fora”, a witch-like being that transcended binary distinctions between the feminine/masculine, human/animal and the benevolent/vengeful. These characters were persecuted during the Spanish inquisitions but were also thought to possess magical healing powers in Sicilian tradition. The long braids are symbolic of the various characteristics or “powers” that these mythological beings conveyed, and their contested position in society as women and as healers. The braids are a reference to those who were healed, which were said to awaken with a hairy animalistic tale. Many of these pieces play with the idea of gendered anxieties in traditional cultures, which are attributed to women with societal positions, and simultaneously pay tribute to the strangeness endowed within these social categories that are in danger of disappearing due to the stigma of Subalternity.