The Lioness
The Lioness proposes a vital confluence of courage and healing. Oscillating between archetype, whimsy, and politics, The Lioness meditates on the past year, which saw Russia wage war on Ukraine, women lead a fight for change in Iran, and the reversal of the Roe v Wade decision, making abortion in the United States no longer universally legal -- all this while exploring themes of discovery, sacrifice, and release.
In traditional tarot, the Strength card shows a woman stroking the head of a lion, a metaphor for dangerous activity. In Angela Izzo’s Mystical Creatures tarot, Britney Penouilh is cast as the Strength card and poses as both the woman and the lion.
Adorned in lace and entangled in botanic growth, Strength claws her way to a clearing in the forest, where she removes her mask and performs a pagan ritual for taming animal instincts and raw emotions so that we can deal with the world with grace and inner strength.
The video’s dreamlike shots and layered imagery are central to Izzo’s blended camera techniques. The costume, altar, and performance evoke Penouilh’s upbringing in New Orleans, LA.
Britney Penouilh is an interdisciplinary artist whose paintings, sculptures, and installations depict landscapes layered with imagery and resonating with sacred practices through geological time. Penouilh thus connects the spiritual realm with the geologic.
The Mystical Creatures tarot deck is an experimental photo series by photographer Angela Izzo bringing together analog film techniques with non-standard cameras and film stocks. Meditations on a gender-fluid world of mystery and illusion, Mystical Creatures is an intimate fantasy engaging major Arcana.
